Hamlet - Shakespearian Review

Hamlet

Written by: William Shakespeare

Movie directed by Kenneth Branagh

Year: 1996 Film

Hamlet was written in the early 1600's by William Shakespeare. Kenneth Branagh had made a movie of his famous play "Hamlet" in 1996 in a more modern time setting. He has done a great job at re-inventing the play into a movie in a more modern time. While he was directing the movie he had tried to capture the film in its time but there were many elements that were different from the 1600's. For example; he had used white contacts for the ghosts' eye's to capture the eeriness effect. The guards and people had used more modern riffles and guns in the movie which were not around in the 1600's. Also when Opheilia had gone crazy it shows her in a padded room in the movie and those weren't around back then.

The story is based on the character Hamlet who is to avenge his father's death but has trouble being able to follow through. When Hamlet sees his father's ghost he tells Hamlet what had happened to him and who did it. The ghost asks Hamlet to avenge his death and seek revenge for his murderer. Hamlet comes up with a plan to get Claudius, his now step-father and King of Denmark, to admit to his doing. He runs around the palace acting crazy and his mother, Gertrude, thinks it is because she had remarried to soon after his father's death and because of his father's death. Claudius starts to become nervous and wonders if Hamlet knows something about him killing his father. In a rage Hamlet ends up killing Polonius who was hiding behind a curtain. Laertes is upset with the death of Polonius and goes to Claudius and the end up plotting Hamlet's murder to make it look like an accident. In the end Laertes and Hamlet have a sword fight. Laertes tip of the sword is poisoned and he strikes Hamlet with it. Claudius had also poisoned Hamlets water in case Laertes couldn't strike him but then Gertrude ends up drinking the poison and dying. Hamlet is angry and strikes Laertes and Claudius with the poisoned sword before he dies himself.

I felt that Kenneth Branagh had captured William Shakespeare's play very well. He had done an excellent job at using the same script that William Shakespeare had written. I like how he had made the movie in a more modern, 19th Century, setting. He did a really good job at capturing the audience's attention.

Even though the play is set in a more modern time the original script had stayed the same. Since the 1996 version of Hamlet is set in a more modern time, some parts of the script should have been translated to more current English. As much as the play is good, i did find the wording a little hard to understand. One would have to re-read the script or re-watch parts