Hawke as Hamlet

A day free from work gave me an opportunity to spend the better part of the afternoon with Hamlet.  This time, it was a chance to revisit Michael Almereyda's 2000 film starring Ethan Hawke in the title role.  I had seen it once many years ago, well before I began this blog.  Time to dig the DVD copy out of the collection to give it a repeat viewing.

What struck me throughout the film was how well Shakespeare's words fit into the updated context.  This is a modern presentation of a very old play, and yet the words did not feel out of place.  And while the script is much reduced, most of the words that one would expect did appear.  I was surprised at how much of the original play remained in the film.  There were numerous novel re-workings of the play and the dialogue.  The final lines of the film ("Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own."), for instance, had been moved from the Player King's speech in Act III, scene ii of the original.  It was as if Almereyda had been advised by Hamlet himself:  "Suit the action to the word, the word to the action...."

While the film displayed the timelessness of Shakespeare's work, it also provided a window into a then-modern time period that is now recent past.  Sights of cumbrous movie cameras, rental VHS tapes at Blockbuster Video (RIP), Polaroid snapshots, pay phones, fax machines and floppy disks are a sign of the relentless progression of time and technology.  Even a familiar voice welcoming a caller to Moviefone (777-FILM) is now just a memory.  Oddly, these sights and sounds felt, to me, more ancient than the dialogue being spoken by the actors on the screen.

I could not help but to notice one popular culture reference that was present.  As Hamlet spoke the "Rogue and peasant slave" soliloquy, his own call to action was voiced while pictures of James Dean appeared on the screen.  Filmdom's original "Rebel Without a Cause" was a fitting counterpoint to Shakespeare's "Rebel With a Cause."

Considering the modern re-working of Hamlet, it would be senseless to recount all of the differences between the play and the film.  One notable adaptation, though, involves Gertrude.  During the duel scene, oddly played as a fencing match on a rooftop, it becomes obvious that she is aware of Claudius' scheme involving the poisoned chalice.  The camera betrays that realization on her face.  When she takes the cup to drink, it is an act of sacrifice, preventing her son from getting it.  The Gertrude of this version of Hamlet commits suicide in order to attempt to save her son from death.  The act only delays the inevitable, though, as Laertes and a handgun finish the action.

According to Orson Welles, director of a screen version of Macbeth, "[Assuming] that the film is an art form, I took the line that you can adapt a classic freely and vigorously for the cinema."  (See Hindle (11/9/14 post), pg. 33.)  This version of Hamlet is adapted freely and vigorously, the result being a very entertaining and satisfying film.