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Hamlet
DVD Review by Tammy Manor |
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" To be or not to be, that is the question." Hamlet is a play that transcends time. In this Shakespeare buff's opinion, Hamlet is the best play that William Shakespeare ever wrote. There is something for everyone - murder, betrayal, lust, greed, love, madness, and revenge. Over the years there have been numerous movie versions of Hamlet. Laurence Olivier (1948) directed his movie version of Hamlet and cast himself in the leading role. One flaw in Olivier's version of Hamlet is that he cast an actress to play his mother that is younger than he is. Perhaps one of the more accurate screen adaptations of Hamlet is Franco Zeffirelli's version that starred Mel Gibson as Hamlet. In 1996 Baz Lukcmam created a modernization of Romeo and Juliet. This version of the play was very successful due to the young, hip actors and actresses that were cast and the way that the story was told. Since then other Shakespearean plays have been modernized. Kenneth Branagh made a modernization of Hamlet a few years ago, where he placed the fair Ophelia (Kate Winslet) in a straight jacket when she goes mad. Michael Almereyda is the latest director to attempt making a film version of Hamlet. Almereyda sets Hamlet in New York City in the year 2000. A depressed Hamlet (Ethan Hawke) dresses in grunge, and walks around mourning the death of his father. Hamlet's father is but one month dead, when his mother marries his uncle. Hamlet gives his soliloquy mourning the death of his father while watching his mother and uncle kissing from a security camera. The movie is filled with modern technology including video cameras, speeches left on answering machines, and people receiving faxes. In the film, businessmen replace the king and aristocrats and Hamlet and his friends dress in baggy jeans and go out to bars and coffeehouses. Hamlet's father, also named Hamlet appears to him as a ghost in a business suit and a leather trench coat. King Hamlet (King of a corporation named Denmark) tells Hamlet that he is doomed to walk the Earth at night. It is believed that people who are murdered are sent to Purgatory until their murder is avenged. Hamlet has to kill his uncle (Claudius) so that his father can rightfully go to Heaven. Hamlet is very upset and confused and the ghost of his father disappears into a soda machine. Ophelia (Julia Stiles) is depicted as a naïve young woman who lets her father Polonius (Bill Murray) tie her shoes for her. Ophelia is supposed to be the epitome of innocence and virtue and that is one thing that is done right in the movie. Hamlet writes his love letters to Ophelia while sipping coffee in a coffeehouse. There is a lot of water imagery surrounding the character Ophelia, such as water fountains and a swimming pool. This constant water imagery is a foreshadowing to Ophelia's inevitable end. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two characters forgotten in most movie versions of the play, confront Hamlet while drinking in a bar. Hawke delivers the famous "To be or not to be" soliloquy while pointing a gun at himself. While there are certain parts of the movie that are clever, this movie will be very hard to understand unless you have read the play recently. This is a major flaw. The movie should be able to stand on its own. While the acting was good, the storyline fell short. The movie seemed to drag on, even with some of the most important scenes of the play left out. What happened to the gravedigger scene? Fortinbras is mentioned throughout the movie, but who is he? When did Horatio get a girlfriend and why didn't Horatio kill himself at the end? [Editor's Notes] The quality of this DVD is somewhat less then we have grown to expect on DVD, with the widescreen video only garnering a three and a half star rating, the 5.1 audio gets four stars, and the complete lack of extras coming up with a big zero. There are many unanswered questions during the course of this movie, including "why was this movie made?" This movie butchers a phenomenal play and makes it seem more like a bad version of The Sopranos, than Shakespeare's play.
This DVD was reviewed on Yanman.com's Reference Theater #1, using a Toshiba SD-5109 DVD player, Toshiba TW56X81, and M&K 750 THX Speakers. Panamax protects all systems at Yanman.com. |
Hamlet "more like a bad version of The Sopranos, than Shakespeare's play" Staring: Ethan Hawke Directed By: Michael Almereyda Running time: 111 Mins. |
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