My mother found this movie in a discount bin at Wal-Mart and, knowing I'm an English major, sent it to me from Maine to Arkansas. I picked it up in my mailbox and brought it with me to my Shakespeare class. My professor got a kick out of it, 'cause Shakespeare is his concentration and he'd never heard of this adaptation. He made fun of it a bit, calling it my "Hallmark Hamlet." We all teased the innocent movie for a while and I tucked it away while we went on discussing King Lear.
Well, I didn't have a TV or VCR in the dorms, so I tucked it away for a while; I knew full well that there was no way my girlfriend was going to let me use her VCR (which I had actually leant to her) to watch a Shakespeare film other than A Midsummer Night's Dream. But when I finally did get my own place and took my VCR back, the first thing I did was put in my Hallmark Hamlet and press play.
At first I couldn't help but make fun of the campy acting, but the more I watched, the more I bought the lines they spoke. There is something very odd about this adaptation which I haven't found in any other Shakespeare movies: the acting is totally phony and yet paradoxically believable at the same time. The expressions on the actors faces along with the varying tones in their speech (except a dreadful Laertes) really spoonfeeds the viewer the material without dumbing down the language.
Most people will admit, I think, that Shakespeare was never really a plot man. Most of his plots were actually driven by some goofy storylines. It was his dialogue that made him the legend that he is. Most Shakespeare films I've seen are so interested in making the acting as fluent and realistic as possible that they neglect the actual lines. They fly through verse after verse the way we would in modern conversation without giving the language time to marinate in our gooey gray matter. Campbell Scott's Hamlet really does slow everything down to a pace that actually allows meditation on the lines.
Other comments about the movie--the anachronisms (spelling?) work well and I loved Hamilton's Ophelia. When she sings her little lunatic song, it really breaks your heart. They really shouldn't have cut as many of her lines as they did. Oh, but I've got to say the second Ghost scene was more annoying than intense. I didn't really understand why the ghost would want to put his son through the pain he himself suffered, and the high pitched ringing drove me insane. That said, the idea of having the hand come up from below when they were swearing the oath, that was just cool. But anyway, I need to get back to my book. I was hoping to finish The Life and Death of King John acts 1 and 2 by the time my girlfriend got home. Later!
Well, I didn't have a TV or VCR in the dorms, so I tucked it away for a while; I knew full well that there was no way my girlfriend was going to let me use her VCR (which I had actually leant to her) to watch a Shakespeare film other than A Midsummer Night's Dream. But when I finally did get my own place and took my VCR back, the first thing I did was put in my Hallmark Hamlet and press play.
At first I couldn't help but make fun of the campy acting, but the more I watched, the more I bought the lines they spoke. There is something very odd about this adaptation which I haven't found in any other Shakespeare movies: the acting is totally phony and yet paradoxically believable at the same time. The expressions on the actors faces along with the varying tones in their speech (except a dreadful Laertes) really spoonfeeds the viewer the material without dumbing down the language.
Most people will admit, I think, that Shakespeare was never really a plot man. Most of his plots were actually driven by some goofy storylines. It was his dialogue that made him the legend that he is. Most Shakespeare films I've seen are so interested in making the acting as fluent and realistic as possible that they neglect the actual lines. They fly through verse after verse the way we would in modern conversation without giving the language time to marinate in our gooey gray matter. Campbell Scott's Hamlet really does slow everything down to a pace that actually allows meditation on the lines.
Other comments about the movie--the anachronisms (spelling?) work well and I loved Hamilton's Ophelia. When she sings her little lunatic song, it really breaks your heart. They really shouldn't have cut as many of her lines as they did. Oh, but I've got to say the second Ghost scene was more annoying than intense. I didn't really understand why the ghost would want to put his son through the pain he himself suffered, and the high pitched ringing drove me insane. That said, the idea of having the hand come up from below when they were swearing the oath, that was just cool. But anyway, I need to get back to my book. I was hoping to finish The Life and Death of King John acts 1 and 2 by the time my girlfriend got home. Later!