I’ll start off this blog right off the bat by saying that “Hamlet” is not a family-friendly story, no matter which version you are watching. Shakespeare was fond of blood and gore, and his stories all have plenty of it. However, it is a fact that our teenagers are being asked to study Shakespeare in high school, and I always find it helpful to watch a well-done movie of the play to help me identify with the characters and to better understand what is happening in the plot. So, it is for that purpose that I am reviewing “Hamlet” today.
The version I chose is the one starring Mel Gibson and Glenn Close. I picked it because I like Mel Gibson and because it was rated PG. Both pretty good reasons, in my opinion.
Hamlet is the prince of Denmark. His father has just passed away, and his mother, Gertrude, is grieving. However, her grief doesn’t last long, for not even two months later, she has married her husband’s brother Claudius. This does not sit well with Hamlet. He feels that his mother should have worn mourning longer, and that she should not have married someone who was a brother to her. Hamlet’s bitterness toward the newly wedded couple is evident in everything he does.
His good friend Horatio comes to see him, with an incredible tale. It seems that Hamlet’s father’s ghost has been seen walking the parapets late at night, and Hamlet decides to see for himself. He waits, wondering if the specter will appear again, and it does, beckoning Hamlet to follow. When they are alone, the ghost of Hamlet’s father tells Hamlet that the death was no accident. The king was murdered, and by his own brother. The ghost gives Hamlet the charge to avenge his death and bring Claudius to justice. Hamlet decides the best way to go about this plan is to pretend to be crazy, something he does very well.
As his “malady” progresses, his friends and family are concerned about him, as is Ophelia, a young lady of the court who has been wooed by Hamlet quite a bit in the past. But he can’t let on to her that he’s pretending, and so he keeps up the charade, which drives her away from him.
Twists and turns crop up in the tale, with a lot of sword fighting and everyone dies in the end – ah, true Shakespeare.
I liked this version for many reasons. First, it followed Shakespeare’s original pretty closely. It was staged well enough that I could tell what was going on even when I struggled to understand the actual dialogue. The acting was superb and very believable. And my final reason for liking it, which actually morphs into my first reason for not liking it, was that they didn’t try to make a romantic relationship between Hamlet and his mother, as so many “all-knowing” Hollywood directors try to do, but he does shake her around quite a bit and gets very intense with her.
My reason for not liking it: he shakes his mother around quite a bit. (See the morph there?) Yes, he’s trying to convince her that marrying his uncle was wrong, but the scenes as they play out are so intense, my two-year-old picked up on it and started to cry. Yep, definitely not a family film. I must also mention that in Hamlet’s time, it was common for a mother to kiss her son on the lips, so when you see that in the film, don’t worry about it too much. Worry a little, but not too much. You might also keep an eye on Ophelia’s behavior during her mad scene. I thought she went a little overboard with one of the guards, but then, she was crazy. We have to cut her a little slack.
Overall, I think this is an excellent adaptation of the play and would be a great resource for anyone who is studying Shakespeare. Just don’t sit your five-year-olds down in front of it; this is a film for teenagers and adults.
Side note: Mel Gibson’s middle name is Columcille. Whatever one of those is.
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