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What are the differences between the movie and play versions of Hamlet? Are these differences effective?
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Differences between the movie and play versions of Hamlet include setting and character dynamics. The 2000 film adaptation by Michael Almereyda modernizes the story, setting it in a corporate environment with Hamlet as a film student. This update effectively highlights the play's timeless themes, using contemporary elements like surveillance cameras and modern professions to enhance the narrative and characters' relationships.
The effectiveness of a film version of Hamlet is dependent on the quality of the adaptation and its desired audience. For example, Hamlet(2000) directed by Michael Almereyda, is an extraordinarily effective adaptation, as it brings the play into the twenty-first century to present its timeless themes in a contemporary setting. The Denmark Corporation takes the place of the country, and its CEO has been murdered by his brother-in-law, whom his widow immediately marries. Hamlet (Ethan Hawke) is a film student, not only a modern take on his scholarship, but also the perfect vehicle for him to make a film called "The Mousetrap" to screen for family and friends and gauge Claudius's guilt by his reaction. Ophelia, a fellow artist (she's a photographer), is portrayed very sympathetically as a tool manipulated by her father, underplayed to comic perfection by Bill Murray. Liev Schrieber's portrayal of Laertes makes...
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quite clear the incestuous longing he feels for his sister. Surveillance cameras capture much of the play's intrigue, including the alternately forlorn and forbidding appearances ofHamlet's father's ghost (Sam Shepard).