The MST3K Hamlet is the only one I could ever stand. I hated reading Hamlet in high school, I hated trying to watch a couple of versions of it in the interim and I hate it now, except for the MST3K riffing, which should’ve been even more evil.
Indeed, I’m quite befuddled. But I’m going to post my answer for *Hamlet *anyway, 'cause I just found out some fantastic news to share with the other 4 *Hamlet *fans on the Dope:
First answer:
You should sob into your beard that the Branagh *Hamlet *isn’t yet available on DVD, order it on VHS and buy a VCR to watch it. It’s the best one.
Upon Googling for a link, second answer:
AAAAAH!!! They released it , they released it! O, frabjous day! Calloo, callay, and where’s my credit card?
I’d recommend staying far far away from the Ethan Hawke Hamlet. I wasn’t able to make it ten minutes in before turning it off.
Simply being able to recite the lines, nor even being a professional and skilled actor is enough to make one able to do Shakespeare. You have to be able to speak the wonky English like it’s day-to-day English. Failing that and it just sounds tortured.
That’s too bad. I saw Hawke in Henry IV Pt I on stage, and he was pretty good. Based on that, I would have given his Hamlet a try. Maybe I’ll pass now.
I thought the Branaugh Hamlet was really good, although he got a little carried away with the part where the ghost of old Hamlet was speaking to the younger Hamlet, and the ground was quaking and fissures were opening up and so on. That was overdone. Otherwise a terrific version.
The OP, I think, is going by the old adage not to mention the name of “the Scottish play.” I like Welles’ version of the Scottish play and the Polanski version as well.
It’s just…good. That thing Sage Rat speaks of, where an actor can recite blank verse and make it sound like modern speech, where you know the words are fancy, but the meaning is clear as day? Branagh’s really, really good at that, and what’s more, he’s really, really good at pulling that out of other actors. Shit, even Keanu Reeves didn’t totally suck doing Shakespeare under Branagh’s direction in Much Ado About Nothing.
Hamlet was made before Branagh got too gimmicky (Love’s Labor’s Lost), so although it’s technically modernized (set far after the Renaissance, with guns and all) it’s not obnoxiously so. The sets are gorgeous but not hopelessly opulent - the floor plan makes sense and it’s not one of those unlikely movie castles that goes on forever. The performances (with, I’m sad to say, the awkward exception of Jack Lemmon as Marcellus, but it’s a brief role, so I can forgive him) are spot-on; Derek Jacobi as Claudius is not to be missed. He brings a power and, dare I say it, sexy masculinity to Claudius which is usually missing. I understand why Gertrude is drawn to him, where in most productions I’m left wondering if he has compromising pictures of her with a mule hidden somewhere.
And Kate…ah, Kate! Kate Winslet *owns *the role of Ophelia. Everyone I’ve seen before or since was a Kate wanna-be. She plays her as strong and sexy and competent, making her ultimate psychotic break both believable and tragic, not melodramatic and smarmy.
This was also the only production I’ve ever seen which made the political stuff make sense. I think that’s the bit that’s cut out of most productions in the interest of time.
Problems? The aforementioned ground-breaking (literally, not as in, “it was good and innovative”) scene with the Ghost and the oddly terrible blue screened static speech of Hamlet’s rallying the troops - literally and obviously standing on a plaster of Paris “rock” in a studio. Very strange. It seemed like they ran out of budget all of the sudden.
I thought that calumny only occurred when the name of “the Scottish Play” was uttered inside a theatre? Unless you and Paul are both posting from the wings, of course.
I like the Polanski version as well. It’s set in the correct period, is very bloody, and has a naked Francesca Annis . That’s the one our English teacher showed us aged 13 to general approval.
Actually, it is only something I’m vaguely aware of, having just “heard it mentioned here and there.” I just assumed Paul In Saudi was being circumspect and playing on the old superstition for fun.
Francesca Annis nude–is a good thing. Isn’t there a Lady “Scottish Play” line that goes something like: “To bed, to bed, to bed, come, come, come,” or something like that?
Sir Rhosis
^^^Okay, I had to go google that. The only episode of that show I’ve ever seen was about a guy writing the definitive dictionary, only to have new words thrown at him left and right, to his consternation. Think it was that show.
I may very well be run off the boards for saying this, but I thought Mel Gibson’s Hamlet was quite good. He took a few liberties in the editing room, to make the movie more cinematic than theatric, which I think paid off very well.
Mel Gibson played Hamlet, but it was directed by Franco Zeffirelli. I’ve seen parts of that version and it’s not bad. They really play up the oedipal stuff between Hamet and Gertrude though, especially in the scene where he confronts her. :eek:
It was a cool idea. It was sort of neat to see the way it translated, but the idea was more fun than the actual execution, as you say. Nothing about it truly wowed me.
