Essay: Film Adaptation of Hamlet

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Essay: Film Adaptation of Hamlet
Crowl disclosed that Hamlet is a famous literary work by Shakespeare read by many people and was adapted into many different plays and films as years pass by. The play itself shows a heavy ambiance and is set in the sixteenth century where the idea of reformation was abundant (1). William Shakespeare who wrote this unparalleled novel was a famous writer during his prime years. Some of his works that focused on the comedic act of romance were Measure For Measure, All’s Well That Ends Well, and Troilus and Cressida. On the other hand, Hamlet was one of his works that opened a new window of creativity in the works of Shakespeare as it focused on revenge and tragedy (4). Additionally, his experience cannot also be overlooked as during the times he was writing the play Hamlet, he was experiencing the loss of his son and father (3). This paper will present the changes and differences of the play Hamlet when it was adapted into a film last 1990.
The story of Hamlet circulates about how the character Hamlet will take up his revenge for his dead father, who was the former king of Denmark. It was one night when the guards of the castle of Elsinore suspected to have seen a ghost that greatly resembles the father of Hamlet. Together with the guards and Horation, they told Hamlet about the rumored ghost and Hamlet wanted to see it himself. The ghost then showed himself to Hamlet and claimed that he was his late father and that his death was all the doing of Hamlet’s Uncle, Claudius. The story continues as Hamlet struggles for his life and continues to fight and find revenge for his late father. Many deaths happened during the play, just like the death of his companions Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, the death of a woman named Ophelia, his brother named Laertes, and even Hamlet himself at the end of the last act (Shakespeare).
Film Adaptations
According to Lhermitte, adaptation is an action where someone uses the idea of another as a basis for its work. Works under this action are free and illustrated with the help of many foundations as an inspiration to work. Although using other literary works as a basis, it still strives for it to be different. Modifying is also a function for adaptation which brings the adapted works into their uniqueness. Also, the film adaptation is the source of transformation of a product. Studying film adaptation is also considered as knowing how adaption is being used and its context (Cattrysse 58). Adaptation also brings the audience to a better way of understanding. As some directors and filmmakers tend to change the texts for the sake of their audience (Norman 10). Ryan stated that adapting literary novels and plays into films are made by having a great amount of loyalty to the text itself and is open for criticism after adaptation. This criticism could either be because of how the film structurally followed the story in the text or how the film changed the whole structure of the story but remained with the same message (220).
Erne also defined that film adaptation on Shakespeare’s novels is conditional as when it is defined, not only one meaning can be made since the continuous change of context it has. The literary works of Shakespeare that will be the basis for film adaptation is not considered as a stable object, but rather, it is a developing object as it is being adapted by different perspectives (225). Hamlet is one of those famous works of Shakespeare that were adapted into many different versions of films, with the forefront of the creativity of many famous filmmakers. For Cook, the most effective filmmakers who successfully portrayed the novel of Shakespeare were the four famous directors namely, Laurence Olivier, Franco Zeffirelli, Kenneth Branagh, and Michael Almereyda (1). Their works showed their effort into adapting the famous literary work while combining what they have interpreted the play as and the creativity of each filmmaker in the innovation of the film. But not only the directors of the films are the ones who took the adaptation seriously, but also the actors who well-portrayed their characters as their own (2).
The focus of this paper is the film directed by Franco Zeffirelli where holds his original interpretation of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Boose and Burt presented that Zeffirelli considers himself a popularizer. All of his Shakespeare adaptations were presented as successful, especially his adaptation of Romeo and Juliet in 1968 (81). In filming his adaptations of Shakespeare, he was even compared to Laurence Olivier in terms of approach, as he was being more dominant than Olivier. Maybe it was due to the same property that Zeffirelli and Shakespeare had, since they were both popularizers, as being a popular artist is different from it. His consideration regarding picking his actors also made his film successful as he stated that he found Mel Gibson images of Hamlet from the nineties (84). Nevertheless, Zeffirelli as a director is continuously having fidelity regarding Shakespeare’s works. Still, he does not forget his originality in interpreting Shakespeare’s works and the true value that this play holds.
Hamlet (1990) by Franco Zeffirelli
The film adaptation of Zeffirelli on Hamlet also carries changes to represent his originality in his view regarding the interpretation of Shakespeare’s work. According to McCombe and McComb, Zeffirelli accumulated these changes to only combine the details that Hollywood personnel supports as what should be belonged in the two-hour film adaptation. He carefully chose the parts which pique the interest of his target viewers which led to the inevitable change of the storyline. They emphasized that with the changes that occurred in the story, instead of being political genre literature, it is now a drama between the disagreements of the characters as a family (125). Bourus also supported the idea that Zeffirelli focused on the changes of Hamlet in the tastes and standards of Hollywood. He stated that the actions of Mel Gibson during his portrayal of Hamlet were “Hollywood-esque”. Gibson was presenting Hamlet as a modern revenger rather than the deep and intense image of Hamlet according to the portrayal of Nicol Williamson (1). Holding this true, compared to the other film adaptation, disregarding the film quality, Zeffirelli’s adaptation has the ambiance and vibe of innovation in films. Especially with the high ratings of casts and funding to produce the film itself.
The first scene of the film adaptation of Zeffirelli showed the burial process of his late father which was the former king of Denmark. There showed how Hamlet’s mother wept and cried with the meaningful look she gave to Hamlet’s uncle (Hamlet). This scene was very different from what was given in the novel of William Shakespeare about Hamlet. Compared to the novel, Zeffirelli did not start his film adaption with the scene of the guards finding and experiencing the presence of a ghost that is normally used in plays (Shakespeare). Instead, he used the idea of presenting the death of Hamlet’s father and the meaningful look on Gertrude an...