Films Inspired by The Tempest
Susan Kingston

Shakespeare’s forth and final romance play The Tempest is a story rich with magical characters. The main character Prospero and his daughter Miranda have been living on a primitive island for some time. The play is infused with illusion and magic. Prospero has become a King on the island and is in control of Ariel, an airy spirit and Caliban a monster. When a ship wreaks on the island, caused by the tempest, who was raised by Ariel by Prospero’s order, the action begins. This is only a short description of the play which has many other nuances that can only be experienced by reading it or seeing it performed on stage. Because of the action, romance and magical characters Shakespeare wrote in this play, it is no surprise that some movie versions have been completely based on, or loosely based on it. The two films that are going to be discussed in this paper are the 1956 Science fiction film Forbidden Planet that has become a cult classic, and the 1991 film Prospero’s Books.

The first film, Forbidden Planet is set in the 23rd century. The film is set on a planet where the only two inhabitants are Dr. Morbius and his daughter Altaira. He created a robot named Robby to be their servant and to replicate food and drink for them. The movie starts when a spaceship led by commander Adams is sent to the planet to check, and see if there are any survivors from a ship that was sent to the planet 20 years earlier. Morbius warns the captain not to land on the planet that there was danger that he could not protect them from. The captain has his orders and lands anyway, but the ship is damaged when they land. They land and are greeted by the Robot Robby, who takes them to Morbius. After meeting Morbius and his daughter Altaira the captain informs them they can’t leave until the ship is finished. That night the ship is broken into and a part is damaged, the next night a member of the ship is killed. Morbius tells them it is happening again and they have to leave.
He then takes the captain and an officer and shows them all the things he has discovered about the former inhabitants of the planet. He has been using some of their technology that was left behind and instruments that supposedly make your IQ higher. Morbius says they must not use the IQ boosters that he is the only one strong enough to use it. That night the crewmen set a trap and realize when the monster tries to attack that it is invisible. When the monster hits the trap it is seen as a red electromagnetic being that can’t be destroyed, many men are killed. Altaira goes running to her father and describes to him a dream she is had that describes the attack. The captain figures that there is some connection to Morbius and he goes to try and discover it. His crewman manages to get into the lab and hook up to the IQ booster, he lives long enough to tell the captain that the monster is Morbius’s id his other self that is the monster and that it can’t be controlled. When Altaira confesses her love for the captain and says she is going to leave with him, the monster comes after them and Morbius realizes finally that the monster is him and sets the self destruct and tells them to go. When the ship is far enough away, the planet blows up.

Even though the movie is really a totally different version of the play the main characters are represented. Morbius is Prospero, Altaira is Miranda, Robby is Ariel, the monster of the id is Caliban and the captain is Ferdinand. This movie although a different concept stays true to the original play. Father and daughter on the planet alone, young man comes in and the daughter falls in love, the robot and the monster do the bidding of their master, and finally the father makes a great sacrifice for his daughter. I enjoyed this movie even though I am not a big classic science fiction movie buff. Some of the special effects were ridiculous but it was filmed in 1956. I did like the spin on the classic play. I also think that people who are not interested in Shakespeare would not even realize they were watching a movie that was based on one of his plays.

The second film Prospero’s Books took a different approach. The play is a product of Prospero’s mind. He is the author and the main character of the play which is performed before our eyes. His powers over all the inhabitants of the island are ruled by his books and the mirror images that are produced through Prospero. He sees everything as a mirror image, and it takes a lot of strength to conjure these images. Some of the mirror images or thoughts are not all his. Ariel and Caliban have images of their own but you finally realize that are all created by Prospero’s imagination or are a part of his self. The movie does follow the play but by taking us in and out of Prospero’s thoughts and mirror images, imagination and reality. The movie visuals were very strange to me but gave the quality that is needed for mirror images or alternate realities. In one part of the movie when Prospero throws his books in the water, Caliban saves two, the audience sees that they are volumes of Shakespeare’s plays. I thought that was a cool way to incorporate Shakespeare.

This movie although entertaining was a little confusing. The mirror images and alternate realities were a bit over the top but affective in the film, but to get the effect the director wanted that it needed to be done that way. The other characters were lost a little more in this version, because it was so based on Prospero, but that is the way it is written.

Through viewing these two movies and researching this topic, I have found that Shakespeare can be interpreted and performed many different ways. The concepts and characters of his plays can be filmed to exactly portray them the way he did, or different versions can be loosely based, but still get the same points across. A lot of the topics that Shakespeare wrote about many years ago carry out through society today and because of that people will continue to use his plays to create movies and other stories. The Tempest dealt with magic, but in both interpretations of these movies the magic or monsters were in the mind of the main character. In Forbidden Planet it was the id or other self, and in Prospero’s Books it was the mirror images and his imagination that created them. After watching these was Shakespeare tying to say that this magic is just in the minds? Do we create alternate realities and other selves that carry out things that we would not normally do? These two films did affect the interpretation of the play for me. The characters of Ariel and Caliban became more about Prospero and his selfishness and control over everything. The other things he would not do in front of his daughter or others were much easier when someone else or something was doing it for him. In the end he does redeem himself but it takes a long time to get to that point. His daughter is happy in the end but he was selfish keeping her locked up in another world all that time.

These two films would be good for anyone who wanted to get another perspective of Shakespeare but keep to the main points of his play. Forbidden Planet is more fun and campy, but for people who have read the play they will understand and compare it to the play. Prospero’s Books is a little harder to watch but if you like movies about other realities you would probably prefer it.

There are a few more film versions of The Tempest, and after watching these two I plan to watch them all, if they can be found. It was very rewarding watching a movie and comparing it to the original version of the play and knowing what to compare. These two movies although completely different gave me a different look at Shakespeare’s world.


Works Cited

Bevington, D. The Necessary Shakespeare. Pearson. 2009.

Vaughan, Virginia Mason, and Alden T. Vaughan. Critical Essays on Shakespeare’s “The
Tempest.” New York: Hall, 1998.

Forbidden Planet. Dir. Fred M. Wilcox. Perf. Leslie Nielson, Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis. MGM, 1956. DVD

Prospero’s Books. Dir. Peter Greenaway. Perf. Sir John Gielgud. UK. 1991. DVD