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Hamlet
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Movie Review Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a drama which derives from a legendary story of 12th century. Hamlet is a Danish prince who seeks revenge for his father’s death. Hamlet is a play of questions reflecting the issues of love, revenge, friendship and trust. Hamlet delivers unpredictable story which is fairly common in many of Shakespeare’s plays. After reading and viewing different adaptations of Hamlet we can deduce the different interpretations of the play. Every adaptation is different and unique from the other adaptations. After reading Hamlet, edited by A.R. Braunmuller and viewing two adoptions directed by Richardson (1969) and Almereyda (2000), the most challenging character to analyze seems to be Hamlet himself. It is always interesting to watch a film adaptation of something that you previously read and you just visualized in your head. As every writer pictures his character differently while writing, every actor performs differently according this his qualities. The same it appears to be with Hamlet. As Shakespeare did not leave any directions how Hamlet should be dressed or acted, it gives a free hand to directors and actors to perform and interpret the play at their will. Upon seeing the two adaptations you can notice the gradual decrease of dramatization in Almereyda’s Hamlet, particularly looking at characters. Richardson Hamlet (Nicol Williamson) is more mature and corresponds better with Braunmuller’s Hamlet who is 30 years old 16th century upper-class man who is more melancholic. On the other hand Almereyda’s Hamlet (Ethan Hawke) is young around 23-25 years old uptown college student living in New York who seemed to lose all the nobility of Braunmuller’s or Richardson’s Hamlet. The age difference plays a major role in credibility of the character as well as the quality of acting which is in example of Almereyda’s Hamlet quite disappointing comparing to Richardson’s Hamlet. In the Act 1, Scene 2 we can see that Almereyda’s Hamlet is more loner than melancholic. The first good contact with Hamlet gets audience at the beginning of the movie where Hamlet returns home from college and goes to his father’s funeral and his mother’s wedding. Hamlet is portraying an image of young cool, modern independent man equipped with numerous modern gadgets which accompany him throughout the whole movie. You can find this image disturbing rather than supporting the Hamlet’s character. Hamlet in this case lost the nobility with which he was predisposed from Shakespeare’s original version. In Richardson’s Hamlet we get quite different feeling where the character of Hamlet seems to be more settled and solid which leaves us with very united feelings about Hamlet. The film set in this case is darker and does not employ establishing shots. The video technique is simpler, using primarily close-ups and medium shots which allow us to concentrate better on the text than on the visuals. Also the acting is persuasive and helps us to feel the graduate dramatization of the story. Almereyda’s Hamlet left out his first two lines where Hamlet talks to king: “Little more than kin, and less than kind!” Hamlet’s sarcasm establishes the attitude towards the King Claudius, his uncle. In contrast when Hamlet at the end of the Act 2 is left alone on the stage and contemplates his father’s death and his mother’s wedding in Almereyda’s version he is watching his recordings on the TV which helps the current scene to develop visually and makes it more melancholic. In Richardson version Hamlet is left alone on the stage walking around and quoting the lines: “O that this too too sullied flesh would melt …” Even though Richardson’s Hamlet seems to be more “simple”, his facial expressions help the viewer imagine what he feels at that particular moment. One of the interesting modernizations of Hamlet in Almereyda’s movie is repositioning of the Scene 1 Act 1 where Horatio, Marcelus and Bernardo see the ghost.
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