Shakespeare's famous play "Hamlet" was remade for the who knows how many times in the 80's. Starring Mel Gibson and our very own star in psycho women roles, Glenn Close (who in this film is surprisingly sane.) In case all of us are not familar with the story of Hamlet (shame on you if not!) the play details the struggle of a young prince of Denmark, namely Hamlet, who has just lost his father the king and seen his own mother very soon after remarry to his Uncle Claudius. Hamlet learns from the ghost of his recently deceased father that it was his Uncle that killed him, poisoning him as he slept. Hamlet then comes up with a plan to seem as though he is going crazy in order to more easily exact revenge on his Uncle. It is a complex plot with a lot of twists and turns that end with everyone except Hamlets best friend, Horatio, dead or dying on the floor of the hall.
I am not so sure I would recommend this version of the play. I do not really believe the director stayed true enough to the play. He seemed to portray Hamlets character as really insane, not just Hamlet plotting to pretend to be mad. I believe that made the whole movie more confusing and unnecessarily boring. It was very hard to follow, but that is to be expected from Shakespeare. But it was not just that it was hard to follow, it was that the characters often mumbled so you could barely make out what they were saying. Also, the acting was so exaggerated, it was not tasteful at all, especially on Mel Gibson's part.
It is hard to say whether or not this is a distinctly 80's movie because it is classic Shakespeare, it is done in another time so it was hard for me to notice anything.
1 comment:
Yet again Glenn Close in a spooky female role.
Part of the issue here was that Glenn Close was only 3 or 4 years older than Mel Gibson who was supposed to be playing her son.
Post a Comment