Gibson and Branagh in the Movie Versions of Shakespeare’s Hamlet

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Recommended: Hamlet;Themes,setting and characters

Hamlet is one of Shakespeare’s most well-known and most frequently performed plays. Many people have enjoyed reading and watching hamlet, both on stage and theatrically, Tragedy of Prince Hamlet revolves around the idea of tragedy, incest and revenge. However, Hamlet uses puns to lighten the mood.

Franco Zeffirelli’s version of Hamlet was released in 1990, with Mel Gibson playing as hamlet, Glenn Close as Gertrude, Alan Bates as Claudius, and lastly Helena Bonham Carter as Ophelia. The setting took place in Scotland, but in the movie was supposed to be filmed in Denmark around the 1300th century with the main theme being a tragedy, and they did a great job at trying to make the castle, and the landscape seem as uninhabited as possible, so there weren’t any modern day equipment.

From the beginning of the movie, until the end Hamlet is furious by the hasty marriage of Gertrude (Hamlets mother) to Claudius (hamlets uncle), especially since his father died only two months ago. Hamlet is quite literally mad, he even thinks about committing suicide and this is known because of the famous soliloquy “to be or not to be, that is the question”. However, hamlet is visited by ghost and is told that he was murdered by his Uncle by having poison poured into his ear and the king’s ghost asks hamlet to avenge the king’s death. Hamlet demonstrates his cleverness when he sets up a play which is very similar to what take place on the day that the king was murdered. Hamlet tells Horatio to observe Claudius’ reaction to the play, and if Claudius seems to be troubled by the play, that will confirm the ghosts accusation. Within all of this chaos, hamlet mistakenly kills Polonius and leaves for France. This causes Ophelia to ...

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...looked more modern, and the soldiers carried rifles that weren’t made at the time. Franco Zeffirelli brought out the classical hamlet, with castles, swords and the proper attire for that period. Nevertheless Kenneth Branagh brought the modern Hamlet, with modern weapons, trains and using a mansion instead of a castle.

The differences between the movie and were not big enough to distract from the power and meaning of the story. Even though there are a few differences, the movie and the play are telling the same story. All in all, the movie was an excellent depiction of Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Works Cited
McCarthy, Todd. "Hamlet." Variety. 6 Dec. 1996. Web. 15 Jan. 2010.

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"Zeffirelli's Hamlet for Today." 123HelpMe.com. 15 Jan 2010

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