And vice versa.
Hamlet is, to me, the greatest work in the English language. It dares us to look at the truth of our own mortality and at the same time consider right vs wrong.
Branagh's choice was to present the entire play, Zefirelli chose to compress it for the screen. Each choice has its merits. I like Branagh's version too and I think it's a mistake to compare the 2 versions or add a comparison to Olivier either. Judge each on its own merits.
Looking at this film, Mel Gibson is simply great. His Hamlet is obviously someone with a zest for life and a sense of humor who is completely stunned by the events at the opening of the film and thrown even more off kilter by his father's ghost. All I can say is, I love the way he plays it. The other players are excellent as well. I've never particularly liked Glenn Close's looks, but she's a great actress. Helena is my favorite Ophelia ever. And Alan Bates is superb.
I've never quite accepted the theory that Hamlet can't make up his mind. Just reading the play one sees Hamlet go from a thirst for blood to messing around with a fencing match because Claudius placed a bet on it. How to explain this? What we are seeing is a bright, brilliant mind going through a nervous breakdown and then regaining sanity.
You HAVE TO understand, too, that Hamlet can't just go stick a sword in his popular uncle and say his father's ghost told him to do it. Pay attention and it's clear that he needs more than just the word of the ghost and this limits his choices. After the visit from his father's ghost Hamlet seems to be not just feigning madness but literally out of his mind, he's not in control. Hamlet tells us that one reason not to commit suicide is that God has outlawed that choice. If Hamlet accepts that from God, how can he commit murder, even if his father's ghost tells him to? Hamlet's "antic disposition" at the Mousetrap is not an act. And Gibson's Hamlet really is off his rocker when he rails at his mother and accidentally kills Polonius. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are victims of this madness as well.
The Hamlet who comes back from England isn't charging back to Denmark for revenge, is he? He hardly mentions it. To me, at this point Hamlet HAS made up his mind. He has resigned himself to the fact that he does not want to be a killer and he is going to take things a day at a time. Gibson plays it with this sense of resignation. He still has his intelligence and sense of humor, he's regained control of himself. He is swept into the duel with Laertes willy-nilly, there is no more strategy for killing the king. He's almost beginning to enjoy life again as the duel starts. He even tells Laertes that he was crazy when Polonius was killed and says it wasn't the real Hamlet who did that. It's not until Gertrude is poisoned and Laertes tells Hamlet he is doomed that he explodes with rage again and doubly kills Claudius. His father's murder isn't the reason for this act, it's rage at Claudius for the deaths of Getrude, Laertes, and Hamlet himself.
Hamlet's fatal flaw isn't indecision, it's his humanity, intelligence, and his conscience. That's the human being that Shakespeare created and Gibson brings to life.
Hamlet is, to me, the greatest work in the English language. It dares us to look at the truth of our own mortality and at the same time consider right vs wrong.
Branagh's choice was to present the entire play, Zefirelli chose to compress it for the screen. Each choice has its merits. I like Branagh's version too and I think it's a mistake to compare the 2 versions or add a comparison to Olivier either. Judge each on its own merits.
Looking at this film, Mel Gibson is simply great. His Hamlet is obviously someone with a zest for life and a sense of humor who is completely stunned by the events at the opening of the film and thrown even more off kilter by his father's ghost. All I can say is, I love the way he plays it. The other players are excellent as well. I've never particularly liked Glenn Close's looks, but she's a great actress. Helena is my favorite Ophelia ever. And Alan Bates is superb.
I've never quite accepted the theory that Hamlet can't make up his mind. Just reading the play one sees Hamlet go from a thirst for blood to messing around with a fencing match because Claudius placed a bet on it. How to explain this? What we are seeing is a bright, brilliant mind going through a nervous breakdown and then regaining sanity.
You HAVE TO understand, too, that Hamlet can't just go stick a sword in his popular uncle and say his father's ghost told him to do it. Pay attention and it's clear that he needs more than just the word of the ghost and this limits his choices. After the visit from his father's ghost Hamlet seems to be not just feigning madness but literally out of his mind, he's not in control. Hamlet tells us that one reason not to commit suicide is that God has outlawed that choice. If Hamlet accepts that from God, how can he commit murder, even if his father's ghost tells him to? Hamlet's "antic disposition" at the Mousetrap is not an act. And Gibson's Hamlet really is off his rocker when he rails at his mother and accidentally kills Polonius. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are victims of this madness as well.
The Hamlet who comes back from England isn't charging back to Denmark for revenge, is he? He hardly mentions it. To me, at this point Hamlet HAS made up his mind. He has resigned himself to the fact that he does not want to be a killer and he is going to take things a day at a time. Gibson plays it with this sense of resignation. He still has his intelligence and sense of humor, he's regained control of himself. He is swept into the duel with Laertes willy-nilly, there is no more strategy for killing the king. He's almost beginning to enjoy life again as the duel starts. He even tells Laertes that he was crazy when Polonius was killed and says it wasn't the real Hamlet who did that. It's not until Gertrude is poisoned and Laertes tells Hamlet he is doomed that he explodes with rage again and doubly kills Claudius. His father's murder isn't the reason for this act, it's rage at Claudius for the deaths of Getrude, Laertes, and Hamlet himself.
Hamlet's fatal flaw isn't indecision, it's his humanity, intelligence, and his conscience. That's the human being that Shakespeare created and Gibson brings to life.