Jul 19, 2008

Hamlet | To See or Not to See: Fortinbras in Two Film Productions of Hamlet

J. R. Costa discusses two popular film versions of Hamlet, including Zeffirelli's 1990 version with Mel Gibson and Glenn Close, and Kenneth Branagh's effort with himself and Julie Christie.

Shakespeare's most famous play, Hamlet, exists in three versions known as the First Quarto published in 1603, the Second Quarto published in 1604, and the text in the First Folio (1623). All three versions differ from each other, and are often combined to make what editors call a conflated text. The version that is taught in many schools and used by most performance people is the conflated version of Hamlet that has 3760 lines.

Of the film versions now available on videotape, two have been demonstrated to be more popular than any of the others: Franco Zeffirelli's 1990 version...