On the throne of Denmark sits Claudius married to his
brother’s widow, Queen Gertrude, and new father to his grieving nephew Prince
Hamlet. But one night the ghost of the former king appears before Hamlet and
reveals that it was Claudius who murdered him, by poison. To get his revenge,
Hamlet pretends to be mad with grief to bring Claudius’ guilt to the surface,
but the pressure is really on what with Claudius’ personal spies keeping all
eyes on him.
The longest of Shakespeare’s plays and quite probably one of the
most avidly and universally beloved and adapted, Hamlet really is a timeless tale of murder, betrayal, tragedy, and
the fragility of the human mind. At every avenue there are things to be
questioned and critiqued and it’s for this reason that it continues to adapted
and revamped again and again in different mediums and forms. Even Disney has
done a version: The Lion King (for
those who didn’t make the connection, don’t worry I only realised it this year
too). This particular version, I had to watch for Literature and the Screen at
uni and to be honest, I was none too fussed because I just wanted to perve on
David Tennant (who was BRILLIANT by the way). This is a great modern version:
modern in appearance and interpretation, but Shakespearean in language with the
original dialogue of the play being completely adhered to.
On the throne of
Denmark sits Claudius married to his brother’s widow, Queen Gertrude, and new
father to his grieving nephew Prince Hamlet. But one night the ghost of the
former king appears before Hamlet and reveals that it was Claudius who murdered
him, by poison. To get his revenge, Hamlet pretends to be mad with grief to
bring Claudius’ guilt to the surface, but the pressure is really on what with
Claudius’ personal spies keeping all eyes on him.
A real standout for me in
this version is the use of CCTV cameras, indicating the power that Claudius has
over everyone, the constant surveillance. I liked they way that this also too
strengthened that element of the supernatural (the ghost doesn’t show up on the
CCTV). Quite a few of Hamlet’s aside monologues employ the handheld video
camera and he does what can only be described as awesome video selfies.
I
really liked too, how Patrick Stewart was cast both as Claudius and the Ghost;
on one side depicting the perfect image of diplomacy and courteous tact and on
the other, warrior and warmongering. A specific line that now comes into my
head is “when it comes to brains I have the lion’s share, but when it comes to
brute strength I’m afraid I’m at the shallow end of the gene pool” (Scar, The Lion King).
David Tennant as Hamlet
is just brilliant, bringing both tragic drama and distress to the movie as well
as ecstatic and memorable bouts of comedy.
Patrick Stewart as both Claudius and
the Ghost is fantastic… it’s Patrick Stewart, of course he’s going to be great.
Starring Penny Downie, Oliver
Ford Davies, Mariah Gale, Edward Bennett, Peter De Jersey, Sam Alexander, and
Tom Davey, Hamlet is a modern classic
of the Shakespeare canon filled with action, comedy, romance, drama, the
supernatural, and inevitable tragedy. Despite its great length, I quite enjoyed
it.
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