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redfiona99The Case For The Prosecution:
I try not to be precious about Shakespeare. Update him, reset him, add songs and dance, I'm pretty cool with it. Just don't screw up the verbiage (this obviously does not apply to wholesale-changed ones like Kiss Me Kate or the Shakespeare: ReTold Taming of the Shrew). I don't mind scenes being cut. I have long made my peace with the fact I am never going to get all of Act 3, Scene 7 in any Henry V. There are scenes I demand be in, e.g. the Jason Connery Macbeth gets less than nul points because it takes out MacDuff's "one fell swoop" speech, but I try to be cool.
But, if you're using the words, at least say them, don't just mumble along and hope someone will know what you mean. Christ, I've heard 13 year olds deal better with iambic pentameter.
Even when the actor's aren't mumbling, the sound quality in the Ethan Hawke Hamlet is pretty bad so you can't make out what's going on.
I can see the appeal of playing the play as "Hamlet, Slacker Prince", even if it goes completely against how I see the character (every generation reworks Hamlet in its own image, discuss). In the hands of a competent director it might even have been good. This film was also lacking one of them.
Bill Murray should be able to do things with Polonious given that he's got great timing, but no-one except Hamlet is given any time or room to do anything. The film is a waste of time, idea and resources.
The Scene Itself:
Why the scene is so good:
In the middle of all this terrible misuse of English, Shakespeare and the cinematic arts there are two people that get it. They are Liev Schreiber and Julia Stiles as Laertes and Ophelia. When they speak, it sounds like people, and because they're both theatre types, you can actually hear what they're saying. And oh how much Laertes loves his sister, and this is only going to end badly.
This is one of those versions of Hamlet where I am team Laertes.
I try not to be precious about Shakespeare. Update him, reset him, add songs and dance, I'm pretty cool with it. Just don't screw up the verbiage (this obviously does not apply to wholesale-changed ones like Kiss Me Kate or the Shakespeare: ReTold Taming of the Shrew). I don't mind scenes being cut. I have long made my peace with the fact I am never going to get all of Act 3, Scene 7 in any Henry V. There are scenes I demand be in, e.g. the Jason Connery Macbeth gets less than nul points because it takes out MacDuff's "one fell swoop" speech, but I try to be cool.
But, if you're using the words, at least say them, don't just mumble along and hope someone will know what you mean. Christ, I've heard 13 year olds deal better with iambic pentameter.
Even when the actor's aren't mumbling, the sound quality in the Ethan Hawke Hamlet is pretty bad so you can't make out what's going on.
I can see the appeal of playing the play as "Hamlet, Slacker Prince", even if it goes completely against how I see the character (every generation reworks Hamlet in its own image, discuss). In the hands of a competent director it might even have been good. This film was also lacking one of them.
Bill Murray should be able to do things with Polonious given that he's got great timing, but no-one except Hamlet is given any time or room to do anything. The film is a waste of time, idea and resources.
The Scene Itself:
Why the scene is so good:
In the middle of all this terrible misuse of English, Shakespeare and the cinematic arts there are two people that get it. They are Liev Schreiber and Julia Stiles as Laertes and Ophelia. When they speak, it sounds like people, and because they're both theatre types, you can actually hear what they're saying. And oh how much Laertes loves his sister, and this is only going to end badly.
This is one of those versions of Hamlet where I am team Laertes.
