Hamlet on screen Essays

  • A Comparison of Hamlet and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

    2485 Words  | 5 Pages

    A Comparison of Hamlet and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest A Comparison of the Character Hamlet, of Shakespeare's Hamlet, and McMurphy of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest It is suggested that in modern literature, the true element of tragedy is not captured because the protagonist is often of the same social status as the audience, and therefor, his downfall is not tragic.  This opinion, I find, takes little consideration of the times in which we live.  Indeed, most modern plays and literature

  • Comparing Bennett's Hamlet with Branagh's Hamlet

    2348 Words  | 5 Pages

    Comparing Bennett's Hamlet with Branagh's Hamlet Many of Shakespeare's works have been transposed from stage to screen, none so more than Hamlet. Two of the most unique film appropriations of the play are to be found in Rodney Bennett's 1980 film and Kenneth Branagh's 1996 blockbuster. The two films share many parallels between them in both interpretation and method, however they also have marked differences in their respective approaches to the text. Perhaps the most obvious difference

  • A Comparison of Two Film Adaptations of Hamlet

    749 Words  | 2 Pages

    gestures, facial expressions, etc. can be more impacting than words. Shakespeare's Hamlet has been adopted to the screen many times, each with its own interpretation of the dialogue. The directors Kenneth Branagh and Michael Almereyda both bring the words of Shakespeare to life with vivid and original settings, costumes, and personalities. Of course they both attempt to convey different moods and tones. Branagh's on-screen version is very traditional as it is set in the 1800's and every word of Shakespeare's

  • Exploring the Depths of Hamlet's Character

    1194 Words  | 3 Pages

    Shakespeare creates his representation of Hamlet through the use of a mix of Elizabethan cultural and religious attitudes, values and beliefs. This allowed the Bard to deliver a strong understanding and appeal to his Elizabethan audience. / On the other hand, Almereyda takes a different approach in which he portrays Hamlet’s madness as genuine. Almereyda cunningly massages modern day attitudes, values and beliefs into the precise construction of Hamlet in order to maximise his appeal to a modern

  • Modern Hamlet: Branagh And Almeregar's Hamlet

    1474 Words  | 3 Pages

    Hamlet is a classic play that has been performed, filmed, and read millions of times since its birth four hundred and fifteen years ago. These portrayals vary from the basic performances of Shakespeare’s time to high-tech revivals that remodel Claudius’ seizure of the throne as a sly boardroom takeover of a prospering tech-company. Each of these adaptations takes artistic liberties, a collaboration or conspiracy among director, screenwriter, and cinematographer, which changes not only the details

  • Hamlet: Zeffirelli vs. Branagh

    935 Words  | 2 Pages

    To play one of Shakespeare’s most complex roles successfully on stage or on screen has been the aspiration of many actors. William Shakespeare’s Hamlet has been the focus on various accounts throughout the 20th Century, each actor attempting to bring something unique and unmarked to the focal character. Franco Zeffirelli and Kenneth Branagh, both film directors, introduce varying levels of success on the screen through downright differences in ways of translation and original ideas. Zeffirelli’s

  • Insanity in Hamlet

    1572 Words  | 4 Pages

    Hamlet: A look Inside the Insanity Many people have seen Hamlet as a play about uncertainty and about Hamlet's failure to act appropriately. It is very interesting to consider that the play shows many uncertainties that lives are built upon, or how many unknown quantities are taken for granted when people act or when they evaluate one another's actions. Hamlet is an especially intriguing production, both on the set and on the screen because of its uniqueness to be different from what most people

  • A Comparison Of Two Versions Of Hamlet, Lawrence Olivier's Hamlet

    548 Words  | 2 Pages

    Compare/Contrast Kevin Klein's Hamlet, Lawrence Olivier's Hamlet and Mel Gibson's hamlet         Hamlet is one of the best known pieces of literature around the world, and has fascinated many people from all walks of life, from critics to psychologists.  There has been much speculation to the different interpretations of the play.  Every reader has his or her own views of the play, like which words are emphasized in a speech and what actions the actors are making throughout

  • An Analytical Essay on Comic Relief in Hamlet

    642 Words  | 2 Pages

    An Analytical Essay on Comic Relief in Hamlet In Hamlet, the majority of the comic relief is dark and depressing. The main character is obsessed with death and makes morbid jokes about old age, deception, and corpses. This side of the character is shown so that the reader can understand how much this disturbs the prince. The result of this is a play with some very depressing scenes. Hamlet's negative attitude gives way to many sadistic jests at the events surrounding him. He tells his friend

  • Mortality in "Hamlet"

    579 Words  | 2 Pages

    judgements, casual slaughters, of deaths put on by cunning and forced cause”, (Hamlet, Act V, Scene 2, Lines 381-384). Horatio, best friend of Prince Hamlet, says this in the final lines of the play. He says this after Gertrude, Queen of Denmark, Hamlet, Claudius, King of Denmark, and Laertes, son of Polonius all die in the battle between Hamlet and Laertes. Hamlet, King of Denmark, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, former friends of Hamlet, Polonius, councillor to the King, and Ophelia, daughter of Polonius

  • Research Paper On Hamlet

    1602 Words  | 4 Pages

    Montgomery World Literature Deborah Germany May 1, 2017 Hamlet When Shakespeare penned down the famous play, Hamlet, in 1600, he had already established himself as a prolific writer in a type of fashionable drama referred to as revenge tragedy. Hamlet is a well scripted and captivating conventional tragedy whose main character is faced with an inevitable command to take vengeance against his enemy; but instead, the protagonist, Hamlet, delays and even act as if he has been taken mad before taking

  • Annotated Bibliography/Film Analysis Of Hamlet '

    677 Words  | 2 Pages

    bibliography/Movie analysis of Hamlet Almereyda, Michael. dir. Hamlet. Perf. Ethan Hawke. Miramax Films, 2000. Film. The Hamlet movie starring Ethan Hawke attempts to bring the Elizabethan era to modern terms by bringing it to the city of New York in the late 1990s. Almereyda’s attempts do not give proper credit to how artistic the play was meant to be since the atmosphere and theme of the original play are lost. The known “To be or not to be” soliloquy said by Hamlet echos a very miserable tone to

  • Movie Essays - Oedipal Hamlet in Film

    1715 Words  | 4 Pages

    Oedipal Hamlet on Film It has commonly been suggested by such disciples of Sigmund Freud as Ernest Jones that Shakespeare's character of Hamlet is the victim of an Oedipus complex. While any reading of the play Hamlet, Prince of Denmark that focuses on the text and not the psychoanalytical fads of the current age disproves any notion of Hamlet's oedipal nature, many film artists have followed popular psychology and have adopted this theory for the screen. Whether out of precedent, pressure,

  • Analysis Of Hamlet Almereyda

    683 Words  | 2 Pages

    Owings 3 Alex Owings Professor Jellerson English 102 8 April 2014 Hamlet Almereyda Film Analysis ​Throughout Almyereyda’s version of Hamlet there are many scenes that are unique, but I feel that one scene that stands out the most is the movie that Hamlet makes. This is a major scene because of the importance that it has to the movie. It shows the reaction of King Claudius to the exact reenactment that Hamlet has made to the way he killed Hamlet’s father. The director does a good job of putting

  • Hamlet Movie Comparison

    874 Words  | 2 Pages

    Hamlet is a world renowned play written by William Shakespeare. I will be discussing the theatrical film adaptation of the 1996 production of Hamlet directed by Kenneth Branagh. To give a brief synopsis in Branagh’s own words, Hamlet is an incredibly flawed man who is the rightful heir to the Danish throne. His father, the king, has just died and to Hamlet’s detest the queen is quickly remarrying to the king’s brother Claudius. The ghost of the fallen king appears to Hamlet and informs him that Claudius

  • Polonius Tragedy In Hamlet

    721 Words  | 2 Pages

    Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a tale of betrayal and revenge, attrition and tragedy. One sees this theme throughout the interactions between each character. While the play’s main tragedy is the death of King Hamlet at the hand of his brother Claudius, the accidental death of Polonius truly initiates the demise of the others. In a tragedy, audiences often seek someone to hold responsible. Polonius is a trusted advisor, Lord Chamberlain, for the king and queen. He has one son and one daughter. His son, Laertes

  • How Is Hamlet Indecisive

    895 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Road of Indecisiveness There comes a time in everyone’s life where we must face a hard often life-changing decision. In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, protagonist Hamlet debates the philosophical advantages and disadvantages of existing. Using situations from his own life, Hamlet displays various amounts of emotion, ranging from depression to bitterness. He juggles between “whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” (3.1.58-59), or “to take arms

  • The Politics of Contemporary Approaches to Shakespeare

    3167 Words  | 7 Pages

    Abstract Postmodern performance of Shakespeare, particularity in film, is characterized by a subjective experience within the play not an objective experience from the play. Under postmodernism, Shakespeare undergoes theorizing, deconstruction, displacement or death of the author, textual criticism, and cultural and political relativism but fails to produce solid answers. Postmodern Shakepseare does not offer new meanings but new and more possibilities for contemplating meaning. This fails both

  • Analysis Of Fortinbras In Shakespeare's Hamlet

    966 Words  | 2 Pages

    Shakespeare’s Hamlet depicts an internal struggle in which Hamlet must battle his cowardice to do what is right for his father, his mother, and Denmark. The play shows Hamlet attempting to avenge his father’s, King Hamlet, death. The ghost of King Hamlet returns to speak with Hamlet regarding the matter. Unlike what the country has been told, his father informs Hamlet that he had in fact been murdered by Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle who had taken the throne. King Hamlet assigns his son with the task

  • Act 5 Scene 2 Hamlet Analysis

    1046 Words  | 3 Pages

    audience. Shakespeare’s Hamlet character is very complex because of the two sides of him- real him who wants to avenge his father’s death and the fake side of him where he shows everyone he is completely mad. Each director tries to develop the Hamlet that can influence their audience. Act 5 Scene 2 in Hamlet is a unique scene because of the very famous sword fight between Hamlet and Laertes and various characters’ developments as well as the tragic outcome that makes Hamlet a tragedy. Kenneth Branagh’s