Hamlet (Gibson)
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David O. Selznick, the most successful producer of literature classics in the history of Hollywood (A Tale of Two Cities, David Copperfield, Captain’s Courageous, etc.), once said to the army of writers involved in the often brutal and fraught with emotion screen adaptation sessions of another classic, Gone With The Wind, that the audience would forgive them any cuts they had to make as long as they added nothing of their own invention at their expense. It is obvious Franco Zeffirelli never heard this advice or chose to ignore it during his filming of Hamlet, starring Mel Gibson and Glenn Close. Another film, the Franco Zeffirelli film version of Romeo and Juliet, was criticized for its young stars whom were unable to speak Shakespearean verse. However, in that film, the casting of the fifteen-year-old Olivia Hussey and the seventeen-year-old Leonard Whiting in the title roles, embodied all of the youth, desire and impulsivity written into the roles by Shakespeare. This is why that film was the most financially successful Shakespeare play ever produced for the screen. The Zeffirelli screen version of Hamlet is not so fortunate. For this is a film starring Mel Gibson, whose speaking of Shakespearean verse is not much above that of teenagers, but more importantly this casting decision diminishes the interpretation and tone of the film. With Gibson in the title role, this Hamlet is pure and simple an action hero out for revenge (Gibson’s brea
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termines the father must be killed. While these modern interpretations can be supported with text, the physical action and extremely carnal rendition of this scene by Zeffirelli cannot.
In the film version, if we did not know better and tuned into the film during this scene, we might think Hamlet is an incestuous tale of pornography from the Elizabethan era. For Gibson’s Hamlet and Close’s Gertrude go as far in furthering the Oedipal interpretation of the text, considering the absence of physicality in the text, as Larry Flynt did in exposing female genitalia in the mass media. Starting on III.iv. 17, Gibson lets out a primal scream and warns his mother, “Come, come, and sit you down, you shall not boudge.” After killing Polonius in both versions, Hamlet then proceeds to tell his mother of her husband’s crime and her complicity in it. Hamlet’s dialogue in the text then runs from III.iv. 54-88, but Zeffirelli cuts lines 56-60, and 71-88. However, even though there is no physicality described in the text between the two, Zeffirelli ignores this fact. Instead, during this series of text, he has Hamlet rudely throw Gertrude onto her bed. He lunges on top of her, mounting her from behind. As he spits out these lines, he see
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1811
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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