Today in class we viewed an assortment of film reproductions of the famous scene between hamlet and his father's first meeting after his tragic death.All of the re-creations we viewed portrayed the same image in my mind, but each in a different way.
The dark tone of the Zeffirelli version is immediately set by the low lighting medieval castle and the bafflement of Hamlet. This scene starts off with hamlets friends trying to calm him down. Hamlet is sure his father's spirit is going to visit,but he starts to get anxious. When the ghost of King Hamlet appears,his figure is not very prominent and seems to lurk behind shadows. The emotion of the ghost is that he is very sadden by the situation and wants revenge. At one point a flashback of his wife and her new husband appears, to show how hurt hamlet and his father is about her remarrying so soon and to his deceitful brother. At the end of the scene, Hamlet is even more enraged knowing that his father was murdered by his own uncle. His main mission is to seek revenge, he informs his friends on what happens and aggressively warns them not to say a word. This was overall my favorite version. I feel like the producer provided me with the imagery I comprehended from the original written play. I also like the fact that it was not too overdone and dramatic.
The Second version differs a lot from the first one,especially the way the setting is organized.The music automatically sets a dark tone.In this scene, Hamlet is running through the forest while random fires appear,lighting is striking the ground, ,smoke is everywhere and many other odd catastrophes are happening. He is also talking in a strange fast paced voice as if he we're trying to summon something.When the ghost appears he gives off a very terrifying and evil vibe to me. Also as he speaks, he goes back and forth between an emotional weeping voice which then transitions to a stern tone with the topic of revenge. At the end of the scene, Hamlet is very upset in over dramatic way, he speaks while crying on the wet ground. The producer uses flashbacks of everything including his murder, this is the only quality of this version I like. Other than that,I feel like this version was very over-dramatic and had too much going on. I feel like if the producer used more subtle special effects, it would have been better.
The Almereyda version is set in modern times , which makes it strange in my opinion. This story was written in medieval times so to picture the story in modern times just doesn't make sense to me. The setting is very basic, Hamlet rests on a couch as his father appears to him. King Hamlet's appearance is strange, in the play he is wearing armor, in this version he is wearing a suit. Young Hamlet looks surprised and nervous as did the others, and King Hamlet's tone is stern but in a sense mourning his own murder.He is very touchy with Hamlet and his aggressiveness scares him. But of course at the end of the conversation Hamlet knows what he must do.This version includes no important flashbacks.The only prop that was really used in my opinion was the music variation.Otherwise I feel like interpretation of the play was not very accurate or intriguing.
