Michael Almereyda’s Hamlet
2000 with Ethan
Hawke, Kyle Maclachlan, Bill Murray, Liev Schreiber, Sam Shepard,
Julia Stiles, Diane Venora (Top)
"HAMLET is a contemporary adaptation of
the classic play set in New York City, circa 2000 -- a world of
laptops and limousines. The President of the Denmark Corporation
is dead, and already his wife is remarried to the man suspected
of the murder. Nobody is more troubled than her son Hamlet (Ethan
Hawke). Now, after this hostile takeover, trust is impossible,
passion is on the rise and revenge is in the air." --Miramax
- Something rotten in the state of
New York? To what extent do you think that this version
almost makes a "character" of the setting of
New York and of contemporary time? Is shifting part of
the evil in "Denmark" from the culpability of
Claudius to the impersonal contemporary urban environment
a tenable interpretation? [Discussion Topic 4:
New York—HamFilms4]
Elvis Mitchell in The New York Times
contrasts Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet with this Hamlet:
"Whereas Mr. Luhrmann's dazzle is all from the outside,
Mr. Almereyda goes to the heart of things and has given
Shakespeare a distinctively American perspective.
"Hamlet" is a movie about urban isolation and the
damage it causes, using corrupted wealth as a surrogate for
stained royalty. To what extent do you think that shifting
part of the evil in Denmark from the culpability of Claudius
to the environment is a tenable view?
- Gravedigger cut: Almereyda had the job of cutting Hamlet from four hours to two. So he has to make cuts. Among the cuts is the gravedigger and Hamlet's response in Act 5. Probably you don't want Hamlet lying in a graveyard in the middle of Manhattan. But what is the essential meaning of scene 1 (and Hamlet's talk with Horatio in scene 2 of Act 5)? How could the director reinterpret the literal words and setting of the play in order not to lose the essence in the contemporary movie? [Discussion Topic: cuts—HamFilms]
- Allusions. Almereyda
makes considerable use of visual and musical allusions in
the film. Help me out and identify some of the ones you
spotted and comment on the effect, if any, the particular
allusion you noticed contributes to the film's meaning.
[Discussion
Topic: allusions—HamFilms]
- Reviews of Hamlet 2000 by