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Different Film Versions of Hamlet

Film critics point out from time to time how much the director brings to a film and that if two directors were given the same script to shoot, the results would be very different. Filmmakers are almost never given the same script to shoot, but an exception can be found in plays based on Shakespeare where the same essential script is indeed used and where decisions regarding such elements as costume and set design along with visual style can produce works with very different attitudes based on the same initial material. This can be seen in three versions of Hamlet, the Laurence Olivier version from 1948, the Franco Zeffirelli version from 1990, and the Kenneth Branagh version from 1996. The films have very different "looks" as well as giving emphasis to different aspects of the plot, the characterizations, and other elements, and watching the three shows how many interpretations are possible on material as rich as the shakespeare play and how those interpretations can be developed by changing different elements of a production.

The most obvious difference among the three is the overall look of each film and the tone of the direction. Of course, the Olivier version is in black and white and the Zeffirelli and Branagh versions in color, and this is more than a surface difference. The Olivier film is dark, brooding, and truly theatrical, with sets that are suggestive rather than realistic, expressionistic rather than precise. The darkness of the image is matched by a darkness of spirit and a sense of foreboding that hangs over the film from the first frame. This is not the case with the Zeffirelli version, which tends to be brighter, often excessively colorful, and awash in sunlight on realistic sets, though the effect is muted by the naturalistic settings and the coldness of the atmosphere. This realism does not match the internal nature of the action and specifically of the conflicted character of Hamlet, while the dark and ...

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Different Film Versions of Hamlet. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 01:58, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1707636.html