Review of Hamlet (1990) by Lora K — 10 Feb 2013

Zeffirelli made a mistake by taking on the challenge of making this adaptation. Shakespeare's play can have many different interpretations based on the reader, writer, or in this case, director. The problem with this adaptation was the confusing switching around of scenes, the constant focus on revenge, and the all important foil character's disappearance.

The way this adaptation was rewritten made the movie hard to follow. I am one to stay close to the text so watching a rewritten scene by scene remake was confusing to me. A lot of the staging was edited in text and cinematic work for easy comprehension and understanding.

The way Hamlet was portrayed also made this adaptation a little unsavory. The casting of Mel Gibson, in my opinion, was not a good choice. He overplayed the madness aspect and his main focus was on getting revenge. I agree that this may help in getting a clear understudying of his goal but it was very dramatic in the way it was filmed.

Lastly, Fortinbras never showed up in this adaption of the play. The prince was Hamlet's foil character and although he shows up twice in the play, he was never even mentioned in this movie. He has somewhat of a major role in this production. He was the one who wanted to avenge his own father's death by killing Hamlet. Poor Fortinbras' back story was never found out.

Overall, this movie isn't under my recommendation list. Zeffirelli may be a good director but this movie definitely didn't boost his reputation.