Unfortunately, Glenn Close and Helena Bonham-Carter are not as good as they could be. The depth of his acting came as quite a pleasant surprise. The realistic photography in the grave-digging scene where Hamlet addresses the skull of Yorick, the Court Jester, also proves memorable.īest of all, Mel Gibson is believable and superb as Hamlet.
Zeffirelli, for instance, frequently captures the sea in the background to frame his scenes. The photography, overall, is splendid, too. The costumes, while authentically reflecting medieval court dress, are simple and even plain. The court setting has been imaginatively constructed so that the actors’ exits and entrances appear natural, not contrived. HAMLET is an extremely well-produced movie. The viewer does need to listen carefully in order to enjoy the music and depth of Shakespeare’s lines, however. Also, the actors in this film give their lines convincingly with clarity and skill thereby overcoming most language barriers. The language, after all, is still English, but used more expansively and memorably. Shakespeare’s Elizabethan English in HAMLET poses no real stumbling block for a modern viewer. He also deals adroitly with the spies, Rosencrantz and Guilderstern, cleverly plans “a play within a play” with the travelling actors to “catch the conscience of the king,” and, finally, out-fences the treacherous Laertes, only to die by a poisoned sword. He resolutely feigns madness, gives up his love for Ophelia and kills the obnoxious Polonius.
The film is also full of treachery, intrigue and violence as Hamlet seeks revenge.
Today, our struggles come under the heading of stress, and we are often as indecisive as Hamlet in resolving our problems. Hamlet’s indecisiveness and ambivalence following the disclosure by his father’s ghost are reflected in his much-quoted soliloquy: “To be, or not to be, that is the question.” Of significance, modern audiences can relate to Hamlet’s agonizing problems. Zeffirelli’s HAMLET admirably captures Hamlet’s struggles to avenge his father’s murder. In Hamlet’s discourse with Guilderstern and Rosencrantz, for example, Hamlet echoes Psalm eight: “What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving, how express and admirable in action, how like an angel in apprehension, how like a god! The beauty of the world the paragon of animals.” One of Shakespeare’s most outstanding tragedies, HAMLET is overflowing with marvelous, memorable lines–each pregnant with meanings that capture the heart, mind and soul of the viewer. Also established in this scene is Hamlet’s agonizing relationship with his mother who has become “my father’s brother’s wife” when Hamlet’s father has been dead only two months. Thus, the new king’s line, “Think of us as a father,” is pregnant with meaning. Zeffirelli’s HAMLET touches the story’s heart in its opening scene of the old king’s funeral. In this case, Franco Zeffirelli directs Mel Gibson as the melancholy Dane, Alan Bates as the scheming Claudius, Glenn Close as his gullible, deceived mother, and thus gives us a masterpiece! Those interested could also look up the journal 'screen', for 2002 i think, i remember seeing an article on this hamlet.Horatio’s parting words to the Prince of Denmark, “Good night, sweet Prince, And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest,” bring to a close yet another version of HAMLET. I strongly recommend this to anyone interested in versions of Hamlet, or how the play is dealt with in non-English cinema. This Hamlet is much more ambitious, waiting and wanting to be King. Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern are conspicuously absent, several scenes are transposed. The lines often rhyme (and might have been the equivalent of rap!).Īlso what is interesting is 'mad Ophelia' (played by Mala Sinha) sings a song which actually is a ghazal by Bahadurshah Zafar, the last Mughl Emperor of India. What interested and impressed me was the attempt to keep to the original lines in translation-however, the lines given to characters are within what is recognizably a Parsi theatre tradition, dominant on the Bomaby theatre scene (a residue of this style is seen also in Yehudi, in which the actor Sohrab Modi delivers a Shylock style speech). There are several films on Hamlet, this is a b/w version.
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