Olivier and Oscar
The year is 1948, and the Academy Awards have gathered the best of the best from around the world to celebrate the greatest achievements of the film industry. The five nominees for Best Picture included Johnny Belinda, The Res Shoes, The Snake Pit, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and a foreign adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet. The two forerunners of the night, Jonny Belinda and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, both got their fair share of awards from the Golden Globes, but the night would see the first foreign film winner of Best Picture. Hamlet deserved to win the Oscar that night, because it encompassed the five qualifications of a great movie; acting excellence, cinematic experience, believable mise-en-scen, interesting
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The role of Hamlet is one of a depressed 18-year old who is charged to get revenge for the death of his father. While the character is 18, the challenge of playing Hamlet is too great for any 18-year old, so the role is mostly taken up by older men who can play all the diverse characteristics. Laurence Olivier does a splendid job not only portraying the melancholy and overdramatic teenage side of Hamlet while also bringing out the complex and calculated side of the character. Olivier brought out the perfect mix of the inner turmoil while also crafting Hamlet into a strong and purpose driven character. This performance was only backed up by the excellence of the other characters under the direction of Olivier who was able to create a unified production.
Hamlet won Olivier the Oscar for Best Actor, but the other acting awards were split between three other films (TAADB). Supporting Actor went to Walter Huston in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Best Actress went to Jane Wyman in Johnny Belinda and Supporting Actress went to a film not nominated for Best Picture, Key Largo (TAADB). No other performances of that year could match Olivier's. The naturalism that Olivier brought to the speech of Shakespeare paired with the realism he demanded of his characters matched the level of acting expected of any Best Motion Picture
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While many productions hold to the traditional speech only death of Ophelia, Olivier gave her a beautiful send off into the water; Olivier's was the first version to show her death. The overgrown riverbank that seems to swallow Ophelia and her flowy wispy gown, water-like in construction and movement, creates the somber and hollow feeling Shakespeare intended, but in the only way film can, through image. The image is not only beautiful, but also full of subtext, because instead of watching Ophelia's complete death the camera focuses on the crushed and broken flowers and petals as they flow downstream. There is no confusion as to what happens, but the visual allusion to the flowers creates a far more complex and thought-provoking
The question of who is the best actor is quite the difficult choice, as there are many criteria to account for, such as their range, talent,
Hamlet by William Shakespeare is one of the world’s most revered literature. The main character, Hamlet, is arguably one of the most intriguing characters the playwright ever developed. Hamlet is daring, philosophical, mentally unstable at times, and clever. Throughout the play though, these characteristics change and/or diminish as Hamlet is put through a plethora of unfortunate events. His father is murdered by Claudius, his mother soon after marries Claudius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern betray him, and his girlfriend most likely commits suicide. While Hamlet is incredibly philosophical, indecisive, and full of resentment in the beginning of the play, he becomes violent, instinctive, caring and sympathetic towards the end of the play.
Instead of a grand tragedy of a royal house, the modern Hamlet is a detective story about a dead rich guy and his son the beginner detective. Yet, the acting of the actors and the special effects more or less manage to make up for the flaw. Bill Murray who plays Polonious is harsh and tight. Ethan Hawke is illustrated as a weak and normal prince. Julia Stiles does not do Ophelia any justice. Ther...
Hamlet is a character that we love to read about and analyze. His character is so realistic, and he is so romantic and idealistic that it is hard not to like him. He is the typical young scholar facing the harsh reality of the real world. In this play, Hamlet has come to a time in his life where he has to see things as they really are. Hamlet is an initiation story. Mordecai Marcus states "some initiations take their protagonists across a threshold of maturity and understanding but leave them enmeshed in a struggle for certainty"(234). And this is what happens to Hamlet.
The visual image most popularly associated with William Shakespeare's play Hamlet is that of young Ophelia's body floating in the river after her suicidal drowning as described in Act 4, Scene 7, lines 167-184. Shakespeare's captivating illustration of an unstable young woman finally at rest has been portrayed by several artists because of its beautiful, whimsical narrative. Ophelia's depiction throughout the play personifies not only youthful love, loss, innocence and naïveté, but also the dependent role of women in the time of Shakespeare.
Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark, is an immature child who craves attention. Throughout the play “Hamlet” by William Shakespeare, Hamlet creates difficulty for himself because of his inability to handle the situations life throws at him. There are many aspects of life that become easier with maturity. Hamlet’s lack of maturity makes his entire life that much more difficult and, in the end, his immaturity kills him.
Hamlet, one of the most intricate and influential plays by Shakespeare, debatably of all time. It has inspired not only appreciative readers and writing critiques but continuous generations of people. The inspiration led to the fabrication of many great movies, which wasn’t achievable until the 20th century. Before cinema was the prevalent method of sharing appreciation and spilling emotion for a specific subject, art portrayed what would fly through our minds such as the many interpretations of Ophelia’s death. With the imagery put into motion we can try and pick apart how certain people might view the play being portrayed and choose what best suits our expectation of this tragedy. Other things that only film has been able to present to us is the various camera angles, a setting that isn’t restricted to a stage and an audience that can be reached anywhere in the world. Also who is casted and how they will be dressed is crucial to the success of the movie although sometimes overlooked during the production process. Some movies represent these elements of mise-en-scene in an excellent matter such as the Kenneth Branagh version of Hamlet, while others would seem to disappoint my expectations for a great re-visualization of our suicidal hero like Micheal Almereyda’s Hamlet staring Ethan Hawke. Admirably though every Hamlet film to date has its own unique style, something that will please all audiences, with its unique pros and cons.
In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Shakespeare utilizes his ability to use words to paint emotion, the story, and characters into the readers mind. Shakespeare creates the memorable character of Hamlet Junior in his poem, Hamlet, through the characteristics of insanity and madness and suicidal tendencies or thoughts of suicide. His capability of doing so enlarges the ability of the reader to understand the story, but also to construct the storyline.
In conclusion, The Kenneth Branagh version of Hamlet was the most successful because it was very similar to the original play of Hamlet written by Shakespeare. The film version of Hamlet featuring Kenneth Branagh is a more successful production of Shakespeare’s play of Act IV according to its setting, editing choices and character portrayal. The two film versions of Act IV of Hamlet have many differences and similarities. Therefore the adaptation of Kenneth Branagh version of Hamlet brings the audience closer to the play.
Different adaptations of William Shakespeare’s works have taken various forms. Through the creative license that artists, directors, and actors take, diverse incarnations of his classic works continue to arise. Gregory Doran’s Hamlet and Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet bring William Shakespeare’s work by the same title to the screen. These two film adaptations take different approaches in presenting the turmoil of Hamlet. From the diverging takes on atmosphere to the characterization of the characters themselves, the many possible readings of Hamlet create the ability for the modification of the presentation and the meaning of the play itself. Doran presents David Tenant as Hamlet in a dark, eerie, and minimal setting; his direction highlighting the
Ethan Hawke and Kenneth Branagh recreated Shakespeare’s Hamlet with an alluring ambiance, however Ethan Hawke’s version was more appealing to an audience due to the stimulation of intelligent reflection. The setting and the mood in each of these versions played with the audience’s emotions, but Ethan Hawke’s version brought on stronger ones. Secondly, Ethan Hawke and Kenneth Branagh used different choices of music and visuals that were equally effective in creating the ambiance the directors wished to obtain. As well, both movie versions created characters that tried to influence an audience; but, Ethan Hawke’s version introduced its main character so effectively that an audience was captivated by him. These two movie versions had some similarities, but Ethan Hawke’s different style produced a more appealing film. In the end, it was interesting to view the ways in which a director can try to make an old story more appealing to a modern day audience.
William Shakespeare is seen to many as one of the great writers in history. More specifically, the characters in his plays are reviewed and criticized and have been so for nearly four centuries. The character that many have revered Shakespeare for is perhaps the greatest such character ever in literature, Hamlet from Shakespeare's Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. The commentary and response to this legend of literature is of wide array and opinion, though most, such as Pennington, believe him to be a truly magnificent character: "Hamlet is perhaps the cleverest hero ever written, the subject of the first European tragedy, a form of genius. A type Shakespeare despaired of writing thereafter, having perceived that the heroes of tragedies must be sublime idiots" (185). However, despite his clear gifts and aura, Hamlet was a doomed character from the beginning: Hamlet is dominated by an emotion that is inexpressible. It is thus a feeling he cannot understand, he cannot objectify it, and it therefore remains open to poison life and to obstruct action" (Eliot 25). Thus, Hamlet, while possessing the traits of no other men of his time, a true Renaissance man, was doomed from the beginning of the play partly by forces he could not control, and also partly by his own character. It leads to a slow but definite ending to one of literature's great characters, one that he could not control. In the end, Hamlet was out of place in his environment, he was simply not meant to be.
Hamlet, of the play, Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, is a young man with many distinctive characteristics. He is the loving and beloved son of Hamlet, the deceased King of Denmark. He is talented in many ways, as actor, athlete, and scholar. Prince Hamlet draws upon many of his talents as he goes through a remarkable metamorphosis, changing from an average, responsible, young Prince to an apparently mad, raging son intent upon avenging his father’s untimely death.
It is widely believed that “Living life without honor is a tragedy bigger than death itself” and this holds true for Hamlet’s Ophelia. Ophelia’s death symbolizes a life spent passively tolerating Hamlet’s manipulations and the restrictions imposed by those around her, while struggling to maintain the last shred of her dignity. Ophelia’s apathetic reaction to her drowning suggests that she never had control of her own life, as she was expected to comply with the expectations of others. Allowing the water to consume her without a fight alludes to Hamlet’s treatment of Ophelia as merely a device in his personal agenda. Her apparent suicide denotes a desire to take control of her life for once. Ophelia’s death is, arguably, an honorable one, characterized by her willingness to let go of her submissive, earth-bound self and leave the world no longer a victim.
The perfection of Hamlet’s character has been called in question - perhaps by those who do not understand it. The character of Hamlet stands by itself. It is not a character marked by strength of will or even of passion, but by refinement of thought and sentiment. Hamlet is as little of the hero as a man can be. He is a young and princely novice, full of high enthusiasm and quick sensibility - the sport of circumstances, questioning with fortune and refining on his own feelings, and forced from his natural disposition by the strangeness of his situation.