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Hamlet, a tragic play by William Shakespeare, has been appealing to mass audiences for more than 400 years. Why is it that a story about murder, revenge, internal strife, and death lasts so long? Hamlet has even remained the most frequently performed play of Shakespeare’s tragedies ever since it was first staged (“Hamlet: A Modern Perspective” by Michael Neill). With modern technology, there are also at least 43 different movie versions of Hamlet. Even though these versions follow the same plot line and stay close to Shakespeare’s written speech, they vary from one another. Three of the many versions of Hamlet are those directed by Franco Zeffirelli (1991) starring Mel Gibson, Kenneth Branaugh (1996) starring himself, and Michael Almereyda (2000) starring Ethan Hawke. The settings of these versions are quite different: a Medieval Denmark, similar to the play itself in Zeffirelli’s; a more recent Denmark of the early 1990’s in Branaugh’s, and a modern twist set in New York City in the year 2000 in Almereyda’s. Hence, because of the difference in setting, the versions themselves are different, especially Almereyda’s modern Hamlet. However, the main difference is the portrayal of Hamlet’s character. Since Hamlet is a very complex character – feigning madness while having great internal turmoil of committing suicide or murdering his uncle –, directors have different interpretations of Hamlet and how they choose to portray him. Similarities and differences of Hamlet’s character are found in these three versions through the scene with his father’s ghost, Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” soliloquy, and the ending of the play. As Hamlet encounters the ghost of his father, he has a mix of reactions and emotions. In Zeffirelli’s version, Hamlet is very terrified by the sight of the ghost, yet he is lured to follow it. He follows the ghost cautiously with his sword drawn, worried of the danger there might be. Hamlet is brought to a high tower where he drops his sword and sits right up against the stone wall. Though it is chilly, Hamlet is sweaty out of fear and breathes heavily.
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