Discuss one scene from the movie and describe what choices the director made in creating the scene the way he did. What does his interpretation add to or take away from the play? Also, read last weeks's blogs as a way to study for the test.
I found the opening scene of the movie where the ghost of the dead Hamlet appears very interesting. The director cast the scene to be a lot more frightening than I had pictured from reading the book. He interpreted the scene differently by creating a more suspenseful atmosphere. He did this by adding dramatic music and panning to the ghost when a rise in the music occured. Also the scene was very dark and mysterious. He showed the men being more afraid of the ghost than I had pictured by having them run away from the ghost and talk in loud manners that reflected their fear. Ultimately I feel like the director's interpretation does add to the play because it conveys more of a sense of urgency among the men and makes it clearer to believe that a ghost would be so frightening.
I think that the way the director added scenes when talking about Old Norway was very helpful. It is hard to understand what is being talked about during that scene and showing visuals of them planning a war and showing old Norway reading the letter was a good addition for the movie.
While watching the movie, I found the great hall scene to be different then what I thought it would be. The characters actions and expressions looked different then in my mind. I believe the movie helps to watch after reading because you get a more realistic feel to the action. I had never pictures Hamlet so mad after the great hall scene, but in the movie he was furious. The director added a lot of mysterious behavior and music the play which spiced it up compared to the book. I look forward to comparing the book and movie throughout the rest of the play.
The movie portrays Claudius as much more powerful than in the book. In the scene when Claudius is speaking in the audience hall, the cheers and smiling facial expressions from the audience show that Claudius is well respected as the King. After announcing his marriage to the Queen, the audience is ecstatic and congratulatory. Claudius is dressed in what appears to be expensive clothing and fits the role of a king, more so than he did in the book. The portrayal of Claudius helps to intensify Hamlet’s grief over the death of his father. Hamlet is angered because Claudius seems to so easily take over his father’s position.
At the beginning of the movie I thought it was interesting with the opening of Horatio and Marcellus as the guards to the palace and the ghost appears to them. I think that the director made some important choices when it came to how to make the ghost appear. It was rather interesting that they used a statue when you actually saw the ghost with fog and light behind it which to me could have almost made it seem like the ghost was coming from heaven because of the bright light behind. But what I really enjoyed was the camera angle the director chose to have the camera in the air moving around as Horatio and Marcellus tried to speak to the ghost as though the camera was the ghost. That to me was very creative and made the ghost seem real.
I liked how Shindler and Hamlet have the exact same mustache. I liked how during the soliloques of Hamlet and the likes, the director added little side clips to help hold interest, otherwise I probably would have stopped paying attention to movie long ago. What I didn't really like is that it's pretty easy to tell that the actors were acting and reciting from memory rather than telling a story
When Hamlet was running through the forest he was saying his speech along with that the forest was like bubling, and having an earthquake, also I believe there was some smoke there. The director put this in because I believe he was drawing attention away from what Hamlet was saying. By the distracting things in the forest it was diffcult to follow what he was saying. This might also be becuase the director may not think that what Hamlet was saying was important. In doing this the movie is changed a little bit because some of his speech was missing.
The whole movie is a lot more intense and scary than I pictured it would be. The voices that play in my mind while reading the book are a lot more mellow and controlled and in the movie there is a sense of urgency and a lot of whispering and then yelling. Also the director made it so that some lines are much for bold than others. A lot of the text is very hard to understand in the film but it is impressive that the director decieded to take it ALL from the text. Kristy Cottle
The tones of the actors really add to the emotions of the play. Their emotions and affection towards one another add deeper meanings to the conversations the characters have in the play. The brother sister relationship between Ophelia and Laertes, and the relationship between Laertes and his father Polonius are very close. It seems like in their society its considered acceptable to kiss one another and in todays society, we would be considered weird. I like watching the movie after reading the play, because its a good refreshing review and hopefully it will help for the test next week.
I didn't like some of the decisions that the director made during the scene where Hamlet was talking to the ghost. I didn't like how the director kept zooming in on features like zooming into the eyes and mouth. I can understand that it was to make us relise how uncomfortable it would make you to be in the presents of a ghost but I still didn't really like it. It made it more scary. I also didn't like how there was earth quakes and the ground was breaking when they were in the woods because I don't remember that in the book and I thought it just made it more fake.
I think that the scene between Ophelia and Hamlet was a little overdone. I thought originally that Ophelia was a virgin and that scene definately did not make the viewer think that she was a virgin. Overall it just made the viewer think that Hamlet and Ophelia were more involved than the book made it seem. Also I do not think that Ophelia would have been able to give up Hamlet as easily as she did in the book, so we will have to see how hard it is for her to stop seeing Hamlet in the movie. I think probabaly the reason for the intensity between them in the movie was just to make the movie more dramatic and interesting for the movie because after all, sex sells.
I found that the scenes in the movie were more dramatic than I had invisioned them while reading the book. This is especially apparent in the forest scene with the ghost. I think that the director's choice to use flashbacks during scenes is interesting, but there are some times where one would expect there to be a flashback, but it doesn't occur. This happened in the scene where Ophelia is explaining how Hamlet grabbed her and was sweating and acting erratic. In these scene I think a flashback would have been appropriate.
I liked the choice to have flash-backs to help explain what was going on. Some of them were not as I orginally imagined was happening, such as Ophelia and Hamlet sleeping together, but I think it really added to my comprehension to see what happened. Ophelia and Hamlet together was not what I really expected to see in the flash-backs because it seemed like in the text, when she was being warned by her father, that she should not give up her virginity, while in the movie it is clear that this is not something she has to give up.
In the book, when Polonius tells Ophelia that Hamlet is of a higher status than her and she shouldn't get her hopes up, I thought that Polonius came from a poor family. However, in the movie he has a nice room and can afford a mistress and fancy things. Ophelia as well, has fancy clothes, and it might appear that she is wealthy like Hamlet too. In doing this, the movie version seems to suggest that perhaps there is another reason why Polonius doesn't want Ophelia to get involved with Hamlet. Also, by messing around with a prostitute, he shows himself as hypocritcal, as they too are not of the same status.
The one scene that stood out in my mind that was very different from the written play was when Hamlet spoke to his father's ghost. I though that it was very different because the director added many changed including the fire in the forest and the smoke coming out of the cracking ground. All of these images were not in the play and I think that they actually added to the story because it made it much more dramatic. However, one could interpret this dramatic scene as being way too over the top, because the play does not give such a strong visual. This dramatic feeling was also added by the actor who played Hamlet, as he spoke to the air in a state of madness and yelled at the ghost above him. While we read this scene in class, I didn't picture it as being in a forest, so this was another change for me.
When the King (Hamlet's uncle and new father) and Queen (Hamlet's mother) are introduced into the movie in the large hall, I feel that the director's choice of design for the stage was more modern than it should have been. It seemed to be placed quite a few decades after than it should have been in England. This takes away from the play in the sense that the old, traditional Shakespearean feel is lost and replaced with a modern and refined location.
I found the hall scene where Hamlet's Uncle (the King) and his mother are talking to him is very different than I would have thought. Since it is such a personal conversation and they are criticizing Hamlet and trying to see why he is still sad after his fathers death it is kind of strange that there were so many people there. I would think it would be more of a private conversation. I thought it was a good choice on the costumes though, everyone had on the colors of Denmark.. I believe red and gold. Then you have Hamlet with all black looking kind of creepy.. and his mother wearing her wedding dress. I think this was also a good choice because it shows how soon she had moved on after the death of his father.. she is telling him to stop grieving but there she is marrying his brother.
I found the director's use of secret passages ways to be an interesting addition to the play. When Hamlet is told of the ghost by Horatio and Marcellus, first they duck into a different room and them leave through a secret passage. I found this to be a really good way to play up the secrecy of the ghost and hiding things from the king. It really sets the tone to be one of cloak and dagger secret plots to overthrow the king or to make someone look foolish. the same thing occurs with the girl in Polonius' room and Reynaldo with Polonius. It allows the central characters to be complete hypocrites of what they are saying and have nobody know about it.
While watching the movie, I noticed that many of the scenes were made very dramatic in order to portray the emotion within the line. I like that the director made a point to deliver the lines in the film in a very dramatic and engaging way. It made the emotions come forward more strongly and the lines and meaning were easier to follow than they are when we read from the book and analyze the words and they are portraying in context of the story. Watching the film gives us the opportunity follow the story and have a better understanding of what is going on without analyzing what it means.
In general, the movie is more focused on emotions rather than the actual meanings of the dialogue. I felt that one scene in particular had multiple things added to it. This scene that I'm talking about is the scene where Hamlet speaks to Horatio and the other guard about how they saw the ghost. In the book, it seems very formal and outright when they have this discussion. But in the movie, Hamlet quickly ushers them into another room once they mention the ghost and speaks in a whisper pretty much the whole time. Also, after they speak about the ghost, Hamlet has them leave through a secret passageway in the castle, which adds to the whole effect of Hamlet being very secretive about the ghost. This adds to the suspicions of Hamlet of there being something weird about his father's death that the book just does not achieve.
The scene in the grand hall when King Claudius and the Queen are introducing their marriage thing and giving permission for Laertes to go to Paris was not what i expected. I didnt think there was going to be a room full of people cheering and such for sending laertes off to paris. When Hamlet replies to follow his mother's wishes instead of saying to the King and seeing the stunned look of the court was something i thought was good about the scene. It showed how everyone understood that Hamlet disproved of following Claudius and such and it was just an extra way to prove how awkward it is to sway or follow someone else's wishes besides the king.
I was interested to see how the director of the movie would portray the ghost and what type of camera angles he would use. I think it was smart to portray the ghost as an actual person versus a computerized figure. I could easily see that it was supposed to be a ghost. The director also used interesting ways to fill the scenes with lots of continuous talking. The shots of the eyes and mouth made the scene more interesting than just focusing on who was speaking.
I liked some of the choices the director made in the scene when Hamlet talks to the ghost. When they first zoomed in on the eyes of both Hamlet and the ghost I get a feel of seriousness or importance. Or that Hamlet is focusing very well on what the ghost says. Also though what we've seen so far they have provided visual evidence of what they are talking about that helps I think. When the ghost is explaining how he died, a short scene of his death appears. Though sometimes I can't understand what they say because they talk too fast, it helps to sorta know the script already.
One scene that I thought was very different than what I depicted in the book was when Hamlet starts to follow the ghost. The movie shows Hamlet as uptight and almost to the point of craziness to find him. The very quick and short screen shots helped even more to create an even more intense scene. However, I felt when I read the story Hamlet was not as engrossed into what he was doing. He was worried about whether this ghost was the real thing but I did not get the feeling that he had went crazy this early in the play.
I found it very interesting and exciting to watch the movie portraying the play Hamlet. The scene where it opens up with the queen getting marry to the King Claudius was different from what I have imagined when reading the play. The ceremony took place at the same time as a Danish court meeting in the grand hall. When reading the play, I imagined it that there were only a few people including the king and queen, but in the movie, the director chooses to combine things together to show the upcoming scene where Hamlet speaks to himself about his mother marrying his uncle, only a month after his father's death. I thought they were in a small court room talking about things and then Hamlet appears in fron of them, rather than having him shows up in his mother's wedding in black. I think it was cool to see Hamlet dresses in black to his mother's wedding--withholding his love, and grief for his be-deaded father.
In the movie version of Hamlet the scene I choose to use is when Polonius is talking with Ophelia. She seems to be more involved with Hamlet then is portrayed in the book. During Polonius's lecture she breaks down and shows more emotion then before. The director cuts into the movie by showing scenes of Hamlet and Ophelia's previous sexual encounters proving that they were more involved then the book seemed to make them out to be. I believe that this added detail and actually sets up the future acts that are left in the play. It should be interesting to see how things play out.
The director often included flashback visuals as the characters were giving information. This method of filming was extemely helpful to me because it took away most of the guessing. Listening to just conversation after conversation would make the movie awful boring, so I think adding images of what is being described was a great addition. One critisim of this would be that it doesn't allow the reader to infer himself what went on.
I thought for the scene where Hamlet and the ghost are talking in the woods that the director made some very interesting choices. First i noticed that the camera angles for the two different characters made you see them differectly. When the camera was on the ghost it appeared to be shooting from below to give the illusion that he was very tall and large, when the camera was on Hamlet the camera seemed to be either straight on or looking down to give the appearence that Hamlet was smaller and not as large. Along with the different camera angles the director also chose to zoom in on eyes and mouths which made the viewer almost want to look away becasue it was uncomfortable. I think that this almost took away from what the character was saying because it made you want to look away and to some point not pay attention. I do have to say somthing that i found the director did that was good was puting the flashbacks of what happened in. This gave the viewer an amount of visual information that helped to explain what was being said and what was meant. I am looking forrward to seeing what other choices the director will make in the rest of the movie.
I think the scene where Ophelia converses with her father is very different, since I pictured it as a stern conversation or advice giving. I didn't think that Polonius would actually be yelling at her, nor did I imagine that she and Hamlet could be as involved as they are portrayed in the movie. I think I prefer the book, as it's more open to interpretation and there's more freedom in how you choose to view it.
I thought that the scene in which Hamlet first appears in the movie and is talking with his mother and the new king was very well done. I enjoyed watching the reaction of the people in the room when Hamlet ignores the king and responds only to his mother. I thought that the body language of Hamlet was perfect because it really marginalized King Claudius' character and made him look much less important to his new subjects due to the fact that Hamlet, who is now of lower stature than his uncle, wouldn't even give him the time of day.
The one scene that really caught my eye was the exchange between Ophelia and her father. This is the one where he tells her that she can never see Hamlet again. When I read this in the book it seemed very mellow to me, as if Ophelia was only too happy to comply, and that she was cool to live her life with out our mustascheoed protagonist. But the movie painted a picture of utter devastation and, in my opinion, really added to the chaos of this movie and the characters.
I thought that it was interesting the way that the narrorator portrayed the scene where Polonious is talking to Opehlia. One interesting thing that i noticed was that it appeared to take place in a sort of sanctuary area, there was a cross clearly visible in the room they walked into, and this kind of made me think of the religious issues that surround the relationship between Ophelia and Hamlet. Also i found it interesting that when Polonious was talking to Ophelia he was almost yelling at her, which was a contrast to all of the speeches he had given previously. Also Ophelia was very emotional and almost seemed as if she was scared of her father because he was yelling at her. Last, i found it interesting that the director but in the flashes of Ophelia and Hamlet together, as the book never says that they are that intimate. I think that by adding this in it makes more sense that Ophelia would act the way she did.
Throughout watching the movie I have been surprised by some of the choices the director has made. Some of them helped, I believe, but others almost confused me and did not play out like I would have thought. One choice that I enjoyed was how the director incorporated the flashbacks; it helped me understand parts of the play to a higher extent. There was, however, a flashback that I did not agree with. When the play is talking about Hamlet and Ophelia and it flashes back to an "intimate" scene, I did not quite expect that. I thought the book said that Ophelia was a virgin, but by the looks of the scene the director interpreted the book differently. The book makes it sound like it wasn't the worst thing in the world for Ophelia to be separated from Hamlet, but in the movie, it seems like a bigger deal, which I understand if Hamlet and Ophelia had an "intimate" relation. I just found it interesting how that part of the movie played out compared to what I comprehended from the book.
In the book, I read the character of Claudius as a much different person. In the movie, when the King is speaking, and you can see the reaction of the people when he announces his marriage as more open and warm, as if they admire him. He seems to hold more power than I thought. When reading the book I read more into the relationship, and the hatred between Hamlet and Claudius, and not how other characters saw him as.
The scene of Hamlet talking to his father is an interesting take on the real thing. The director made a choice of making close ups of King Hamlets eyes, nose and mouth. I thing he did this to make the viewer uncomfortable and show the despair of the king. It was also very loud and shaky which keeps the viewer on the edge of his seat. Also young Hamlet is much more disturbed than I imagined. I did like the directors version of this scene. It felt real instead of fake and kept my attention.
I loved the scene where Hamlet is running after the ghost. I think the way that Branaugh shot it so that it was more of Hamlet talking to himself about whether the ghost was good or evil, as opposed to the ghost was very interesting and definitely added something to the scene. In general that scene was much more suspenseful that I had imagined it while reading the play.
I think that the visuals in the movie are helpful but takes the "watchers" ability to make his own conclusions away. Especially the scene with the King and Hamlets mom where the King is just taking shots and being very animated and acting like an arrogant teenager. After seeing that strong and bold of actions on film its hard to formulate opinions or views that differ in anyway from that of the director of the movie.
I think that the flashbacks in the movie were very helpful. It made it easier to understand and follow what was happening. Also the fact that everything was visual I could understand what was happening, because when you just listen to them talk forever it gets really confusing to follow.
One thing i liked about the movie that helped in my understanding of the plot what the way the director added a few scenes when talking about old norway. I thought that the flashes of the planning of the war made it more clear what was bieng said and what was going on.
I found that the speaking parts in the movie seemed to be over-done. I especially noticed this when Ophelia was talking to Laertes about how Hamlet had scared her. The tone and volume of her voice made her acting unbelievable and gave me the impression that she was over-acting. I also noticed this when Hamlet was getting the men to swear on his sword that they wouldn't tell of the ghost or of what they had seen. Hamlets excessive use of hand gestures and ever-changing tone made it hard to stay focused on the actual dialogue that was being exchanged between characters.
I believe the scene where Laertes speaks to Ophelia about Hamlet is portrayed slightly differently in the movie. For example, in the book I imagined Laertes giving advice forcefully to Ophelia about the relationship he doesn't approve of. However, in the movie, the director chose Laertes to be more kind in his tone while giving advice to his sister. Also, the movie showed how close Laertes and Ophelia are as brother and sister, whereas you don't get that impression in the book. Overall, I think Laertes kindness and affection towards his sister adds to the play and makes the audience become more engaged with the characters.
I thought the director made the scenes with the ghost of King Hamlet really creepy. Almost always, seeing the images are more frightening than reading a description in a book, but I thought the director tried hard to make the ghost especially freaky. I think he did this to set the tone for the rest of the act.
In the movie i thought the scene where Hamlet is talking to the actor about adding a dozen lines or so to the play was very well done. I thought the director did a very good job of following the play almost exactly. I didn't picture Hamlet looking the way he did, but pretty much everything was exactly how i pictured. I also liked when Hamlet was talking to himself about looking at the King to see if he would react to the part of the play Hamlet would add in to simulate his father's death.
The scene when Hamlet follows the ghost into the forest is awesome. It's really hard to grasp all of the emotions and volumes when we read in class because we don't know when the scenes are escalating or when they are steady. I understand the context of the words now that I have seen the movie to go with it. The eyes of Hamlet's father were absolutely disturbing but they intensified the scene that much more. The test should be much easier now that I can put a quote with a face, or at least an actor...
46 comments:
I found the opening scene of the movie where the ghost of the dead Hamlet appears very interesting. The director cast the scene to be a lot more frightening than I had pictured from reading the book. He interpreted the scene differently by creating a more suspenseful atmosphere. He did this by adding dramatic music and panning to the ghost when a rise in the music occured. Also the scene was very dark and mysterious. He showed the men being more afraid of the ghost than I had pictured by having them run away from the ghost and talk in loud manners that reflected their fear. Ultimately I feel like the director's interpretation does add to the play because it conveys more of a sense of urgency among the men and makes it clearer to believe that a ghost would be so frightening.
I think that the way the director added scenes when talking about Old Norway was very helpful. It is hard to understand what is being talked about during that scene and showing visuals of them planning a war and showing old Norway reading the letter was a good addition for the movie.
While watching the movie, I found the great hall scene to be different then what I thought it would be. The characters actions and expressions looked different then in my mind. I believe the movie helps to watch after reading because you get a more realistic feel to the action. I had never pictures Hamlet so mad after the great hall scene, but in the movie he was furious. The director added a lot of mysterious behavior and music the play which spiced it up compared to the book. I look forward to comparing the book and movie throughout the rest of the play.
The movie portrays Claudius as much more powerful than in the book. In the scene when Claudius is speaking in the audience hall, the cheers and smiling facial expressions from the audience show that Claudius is well respected as the King. After announcing his marriage to the Queen, the audience is ecstatic and congratulatory. Claudius is dressed in what appears to be expensive clothing and fits the role of a king, more so than he did in the book. The portrayal of Claudius helps to intensify Hamlet’s grief over the death of his father. Hamlet is angered because Claudius seems to so easily take over his father’s position.
At the beginning of the movie I thought it was interesting with the opening of Horatio and Marcellus as the guards to the palace and the ghost appears to them. I think that the director made some important choices when it came to how to make the ghost appear. It was rather interesting that they used a statue when you actually saw the ghost with fog and light behind it which to me could have almost made it seem like the ghost was coming from heaven because of the bright light behind. But what I really enjoyed was the camera angle the director chose to have the camera in the air moving around as Horatio and Marcellus tried to speak to the ghost as though the camera was the ghost. That to me was very creative and made the ghost seem real.
I liked how Shindler and Hamlet have the exact same mustache. I liked how during the soliloques of Hamlet and the likes, the director added little side clips to help hold interest, otherwise I probably would have stopped paying attention to movie long ago. What I didn't really like is that it's pretty easy to tell that the actors were acting and reciting from memory rather than telling a story
When Hamlet was running through the forest he was saying his speech along with that the forest was like bubling, and having an earthquake, also I believe there was some smoke there. The director put this in because I believe he was drawing attention away from what Hamlet was saying. By the distracting things in the forest it was diffcult to follow what he was saying. This might also be becuase the director may not think that what Hamlet was saying was important. In doing this the movie is changed a little bit because some of his speech was missing.
The whole movie is a lot more intense and scary than I pictured it would be. The voices that play in my mind while reading the book are a lot more mellow and controlled and in the movie there is a sense of urgency and a lot of whispering and then yelling. Also the director made it so that some lines are much for bold than others. A lot of the text is very hard to understand in the film but it is impressive that the director decieded to take it ALL from the text.
Kristy Cottle
The tones of the actors really add to the emotions of the play. Their emotions and affection towards one another add deeper meanings to the conversations the characters have in the play. The brother sister relationship between Ophelia and Laertes, and the relationship between Laertes and his father Polonius are very close. It seems like in their society its considered acceptable to kiss one another and in todays society, we would be considered weird. I like watching the movie after reading the play, because its a good refreshing review and hopefully it will help for the test next week.
I didn't like some of the decisions that the director made during the scene where Hamlet was talking to the ghost. I didn't like how the director kept zooming in on features like zooming into the eyes and mouth. I can understand that it was to make us relise how uncomfortable it would make you to be in the presents of a ghost but I still didn't really like it. It made it more scary. I also didn't like how there was earth quakes and the ground was breaking when they were in the woods because I don't remember that in the book and I thought it just made it more fake.
I think that the scene between Ophelia and Hamlet was a little overdone. I thought originally that Ophelia was a virgin and that scene definately did not make the viewer think that she was a virgin. Overall it just made the viewer think that Hamlet and Ophelia were more involved than the book made it seem. Also I do not think that Ophelia would have been able to give up Hamlet as easily as she did in the book, so we will have to see how hard it is for her to stop seeing Hamlet in the movie. I think probabaly the reason for the intensity between them in the movie was just to make the movie more dramatic and interesting for the movie because after all, sex sells.
I found that the scenes in the movie were more dramatic than I had invisioned them while reading the book. This is especially apparent in the forest scene with the ghost. I think that the director's choice to use flashbacks during scenes is interesting, but there are some times where one would expect there to be a flashback, but it doesn't occur. This happened in the scene where Ophelia is explaining how Hamlet grabbed her and was sweating and acting erratic. In these scene I think a flashback would have been appropriate.
I liked the choice to have flash-backs to help explain what was going on. Some of them were not as I orginally imagined was happening, such as Ophelia and Hamlet sleeping together, but I think it really added to my comprehension to see what happened.
Ophelia and Hamlet together was not what I really expected to see in the flash-backs because it seemed like in the text, when she was being warned by her father, that she should not give up her virginity, while in the movie it is clear that this is not something she has to give up.
In the book, when Polonius tells Ophelia that Hamlet is of a higher status than her and she shouldn't get her hopes up, I thought that Polonius came from a poor family. However, in the movie he has a nice room and can afford a mistress and fancy things. Ophelia as well, has fancy clothes, and it might appear that she is wealthy like Hamlet too. In doing this, the movie version seems to suggest that perhaps there is another reason why Polonius doesn't want Ophelia to get involved with Hamlet. Also, by messing around with a prostitute, he shows himself as hypocritcal, as they too are not of the same status.
The one scene that stood out in my mind that was very different from the written play was when Hamlet spoke to his father's ghost. I though that it was very different because the director added many changed including the fire in the forest and the smoke coming out of the cracking ground. All of these images were not in the play and I think that they actually added to the story because it made it much more dramatic. However, one could interpret this dramatic scene as being way too over the top, because the play does not give such a strong visual. This dramatic feeling was also added by the actor who played Hamlet, as he spoke to the air in a state of madness and yelled at the ghost above him. While we read this scene in class, I didn't picture it as being in a forest, so this was another change for me.
When the King (Hamlet's uncle and new father) and Queen (Hamlet's mother) are introduced into the movie in the large hall, I feel that the director's choice of design for the stage was more modern than it should have been. It seemed to be placed quite a few decades after than it should have been in England. This takes away from the play in the sense that the old, traditional Shakespearean feel is lost and replaced with a modern and refined location.
I found the hall scene where Hamlet's Uncle (the King) and his mother are talking to him is very different than I would have thought. Since it is such a personal conversation and they are criticizing Hamlet and trying to see why he is still sad after his fathers death it is kind of strange that there were so many people there. I would think it would be more of a private conversation. I thought it was a good choice on the costumes though, everyone had on the colors of Denmark.. I believe red and gold. Then you have Hamlet with all black looking kind of creepy.. and his mother wearing her wedding dress. I think this was also a good choice because it shows how soon she had moved on after the death of his father.. she is telling him to stop grieving but there she is marrying his brother.
I found the director's use of secret passages ways to be an interesting addition to the play. When Hamlet is told of the ghost by Horatio and Marcellus, first they duck into a different room and them leave through a secret passage. I found this to be a really good way to play up the secrecy of the ghost and hiding things from the king. It really sets the tone to be one of cloak and dagger secret plots to overthrow the king or to make someone look foolish. the same thing occurs with the girl in Polonius' room and Reynaldo with Polonius. It allows the central characters to be complete hypocrites of what they are saying and have nobody know about it.
While watching the movie, I noticed that many of the scenes were made very dramatic in order to portray the emotion within the line. I like that the director made a point to deliver the lines in the film in a very dramatic and engaging way. It made the emotions come forward more strongly and the lines and meaning were easier to follow than they are when we read from the book and analyze the words and they are portraying in context of the story. Watching the film gives us the opportunity follow the story and have a better understanding of what is going on without analyzing what it means.
In general, the movie is more focused on emotions rather than the actual meanings of the dialogue. I felt that one scene in particular had multiple things added to it. This scene that I'm talking about is the scene where Hamlet speaks to Horatio and the other guard about how they saw the ghost. In the book, it seems very formal and outright when they have this discussion. But in the movie, Hamlet quickly ushers them into another room once they mention the ghost and speaks in a whisper pretty much the whole time. Also, after they speak about the ghost, Hamlet has them leave through a secret passageway in the castle, which adds to the whole effect of Hamlet being very secretive about the ghost. This adds to the suspicions of Hamlet of there being something weird about his father's death that the book just does not achieve.
The scene in the grand hall when King Claudius and the Queen are introducing their marriage thing and giving permission for Laertes to go to Paris was not what i expected. I didnt think there was going to be a room full of people cheering and such for sending laertes off to paris. When Hamlet replies to follow his mother's wishes instead of saying to the King and seeing the stunned look of the court was something i thought was good about the scene. It showed how everyone understood that Hamlet disproved of following Claudius and such and it was just an extra way to prove how awkward it is to sway or follow someone else's wishes besides the king.
I was interested to see how the director of the movie would portray the ghost and what type of camera angles he would use. I think it was smart to portray the ghost as an actual person versus a computerized figure. I could easily see that it was supposed to be a ghost. The director also used interesting ways to fill the scenes with lots of continuous talking. The shots of the eyes and mouth made the scene more interesting than just focusing on who was speaking.
I liked some of the choices the director made in the scene when Hamlet talks to the ghost. When they first zoomed in on the eyes of both Hamlet and the ghost I get a feel of seriousness or importance. Or that Hamlet is focusing very well on what the ghost says. Also though what we've seen so far they have provided visual evidence of what they are talking about that helps I think. When the ghost is explaining how he died, a short scene of his death appears. Though sometimes I can't understand what they say because they talk too fast, it helps to sorta know the script already.
One scene that I thought was very different than what I depicted in the book was when Hamlet starts to follow the ghost. The movie shows Hamlet as uptight and almost to the point of craziness to find him. The very quick and short screen shots helped even more to create an even more intense scene. However, I felt when I read the story Hamlet was not as engrossed into what he was doing. He was worried about whether this ghost was the real thing but I did not get the feeling that he had went crazy this early in the play.
I found it very interesting and exciting to watch the movie portraying the play Hamlet. The scene where it opens up with the queen getting marry to the King Claudius was different from what I have imagined when reading the play. The ceremony took place at the same time as a Danish court meeting in the grand hall. When reading the play, I imagined it that there were only a few people including the king and queen, but in the movie, the director chooses to combine things together to show the upcoming scene where Hamlet speaks to himself about his mother marrying his uncle, only a month after his father's death. I thought they were in a small court room talking about things and then Hamlet appears in fron of them, rather than having him shows up in his mother's wedding in black. I think it was cool to see Hamlet dresses in black to his mother's wedding--withholding his love, and grief for his be-deaded father.
~~Mea Pen~~
In the movie version of Hamlet the scene I choose to use is when Polonius is talking with Ophelia. She seems to be more involved with Hamlet then is portrayed in the book. During Polonius's lecture she breaks down and shows more emotion then before. The director cuts into the movie by showing scenes of Hamlet and Ophelia's previous sexual encounters proving that they were more involved then the book seemed to make them out to be. I believe that this added detail and actually sets up the future acts that are left in the play. It should be interesting to see how things play out.
The director often included flashback visuals as the characters were giving information. This method of filming was extemely helpful to me because it took away most of the guessing. Listening to just conversation after conversation would make the movie awful boring, so I think adding images of what is being described was a great addition. One critisim of this would be that it doesn't allow the reader to infer himself what went on.
I thought for the scene where Hamlet and the ghost are talking in the woods that the director made some very interesting choices. First i noticed that the camera angles for the two different characters made you see them differectly. When the camera was on the ghost it appeared to be shooting from below to give the illusion that he was very tall and large, when the camera was on Hamlet the camera seemed to be either straight on or looking down to give the appearence that Hamlet was smaller and not as large. Along with the different camera angles the director also chose to zoom in on eyes and mouths which made the viewer almost want to look away becasue it was uncomfortable. I think that this almost took away from what the character was saying because it made you want to look away and to some point not pay attention. I do have to say somthing that i found the director did that was good was puting the flashbacks of what happened in. This gave the viewer an amount of visual information that helped to explain what was being said and what was meant. I am looking forrward to seeing what other choices the director will make in the rest of the movie.
I think the scene where Ophelia converses with her father is very different, since I pictured it as a stern conversation or advice giving. I didn't think that Polonius would actually be yelling at her, nor did I imagine that she and Hamlet could be as involved as they are portrayed in the movie. I think I prefer the book, as it's more open to interpretation and there's more freedom in how you choose to view it.
-Jonathan Rush
I thought that the scene in which Hamlet first appears in the movie and is talking with his mother and the new king was very well done. I enjoyed watching the reaction of the people in the room when Hamlet ignores the king and responds only to his mother. I thought that the body language of Hamlet was perfect because it really marginalized King Claudius' character and made him look much less important to his new subjects due to the fact that Hamlet, who is now of lower stature than his uncle, wouldn't even give him the time of day.
The one scene that really caught my eye was the exchange between Ophelia and her father. This is the one where he tells her that she can never see Hamlet again. When I read this in the book it seemed very mellow to me, as if Ophelia was only too happy to comply, and that she was cool to live her life with out our mustascheoed protagonist. But the movie painted a picture of utter devastation and, in my opinion, really added to the chaos of this movie and the characters.
also i'm not sure if i spelled "mustacheoed" correctly...
I thought that it was interesting the way that the narrorator portrayed the scene where Polonious is talking to Opehlia. One interesting thing that i noticed was that it appeared to take place in a sort of sanctuary area, there was a cross clearly visible in the room they walked into, and this kind of made me think of the religious issues that surround the relationship between Ophelia and Hamlet. Also i found it interesting that when Polonious was talking to Ophelia he was almost yelling at her, which was a contrast to all of the speeches he had given previously. Also Ophelia was very emotional and almost seemed as if she was scared of her father because he was yelling at her. Last, i found it interesting that the director but in the flashes of Ophelia and Hamlet together, as the book never says that they are that intimate. I think that by adding this in it makes more sense that Ophelia would act the way she did.
Throughout watching the movie I have been surprised by some of the choices the director has made. Some of them helped, I believe, but others almost confused me and did not play out like I would have thought. One choice that I enjoyed was how the director incorporated the flashbacks; it helped me understand parts of the play to a higher extent. There was, however, a flashback that I did not agree with. When the play is talking about Hamlet and Ophelia and it flashes back to an "intimate" scene, I did not quite expect that. I thought the book said that Ophelia was a virgin, but by the looks of the scene the director interpreted the book differently. The book makes it sound like it wasn't the worst thing in the world for Ophelia to be separated from Hamlet, but in the movie, it seems like a bigger deal, which I understand if Hamlet and Ophelia had an "intimate" relation. I just found it interesting how that part of the movie played out compared to what I comprehended from the book.
In the book, I read the character of Claudius as a much different person. In the movie, when the King is speaking, and you can see the reaction of the people when he announces his marriage as more open and warm, as if they admire him. He seems to hold more power than I thought. When reading the book I read more into the relationship, and the hatred between Hamlet and Claudius, and not how other characters saw him as.
The scene of Hamlet talking to his father is an interesting take on the real thing. The director made a choice of making close ups of King Hamlets eyes, nose and mouth. I thing he did this to make the viewer uncomfortable and show the despair of the king. It was also very loud and shaky which keeps the viewer on the edge of his seat. Also young Hamlet is much more disturbed than I imagined. I did like the directors version of this scene. It felt real instead of fake and kept my attention.
I loved the scene where Hamlet is running after the ghost. I think the way that Branaugh shot it so that it was more of Hamlet talking to himself about whether the ghost was good or evil, as opposed to the ghost was very interesting and definitely added something to the scene. In general that scene was much more suspenseful that I had imagined it while reading the play.
I think that the visuals in the movie are helpful but takes the "watchers" ability to make his own conclusions away. Especially the scene with the King and Hamlets mom where the King is just taking shots and being very animated and acting like an arrogant teenager. After seeing that strong and bold of actions on film its hard to formulate opinions or views that differ in anyway from that of the director of the movie.
I think that the flashbacks in the movie were very helpful. It made it easier to understand and follow what was happening. Also the fact that everything was visual I could understand what was happening, because when you just listen to them talk forever it gets really confusing to follow.
One thing i liked about the movie that helped in my understanding of the plot what the way the director added a few scenes when talking about old norway. I thought that the flashes of the planning of the war made it more clear what was bieng said and what was going on.
I found that the speaking parts in the movie seemed to be over-done. I especially noticed this when Ophelia was talking to Laertes about how Hamlet had scared her. The tone and volume of her voice made her acting unbelievable and gave me the impression that she was over-acting. I also noticed this when Hamlet was getting the men to swear on his sword that they wouldn't tell of the ghost or of what they had seen. Hamlets excessive use of hand gestures and ever-changing tone made it hard to stay focused on the actual dialogue that was being exchanged between characters.
I believe the scene where Laertes speaks to Ophelia about Hamlet is portrayed slightly differently in the movie. For example, in the book I imagined Laertes giving advice forcefully to Ophelia about the relationship he doesn't approve of. However, in the movie, the director chose Laertes to be more kind in his tone while giving advice to his sister. Also, the movie showed how close Laertes and Ophelia are as brother and sister, whereas you don't get that impression in the book. Overall, I think Laertes kindness and affection towards his sister adds to the play and makes the audience become more engaged with the characters.
I thought the director made the scenes with the ghost of King Hamlet really creepy. Almost always, seeing the images are more frightening than reading a description in a book, but I thought the director tried hard to make the ghost especially freaky. I think he did this to set the tone for the rest of the act.
In the movie i thought the scene where Hamlet is talking to the actor about adding a dozen lines or so to the play was very well done. I thought the director did a very good job of following the play almost exactly. I didn't picture Hamlet looking the way he did, but pretty much everything was exactly how i pictured. I also liked when Hamlet was talking to himself about looking at the King to see if he would react to the part of the play Hamlet would add in to simulate his father's death.
The scene when Hamlet follows the ghost into the forest is awesome. It's really hard to grasp all of the emotions and volumes when we read in class because we don't know when the scenes are escalating or when they are steady. I understand the context of the words now that I have seen the movie to go with it. The eyes of Hamlet's father were absolutely disturbing but they intensified the scene that much more. The test should be much easier now that I can put a quote with a face, or at least an actor...
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