In Mel Gibson's Version of Hamlet's "To Be Or Not To Be..." speech, Hamlet is in what appears to be a basement. It is dark and creepy down there. The viewer can now realize that Hamlet's speech is no joyous affair. As viewers, we can relate to this setting because everyone has that dark and scary basement that they don't want to go down to unless it's completely necessary. Hamlet's speech is dark and scary, just like his basement. We see bones and skulls of dead bodies in the basement.
Hamlet is also talking to a statue that is laying down appearing to be dead. These props allow the viewer to realize that Hamlet is battling the decision to live or not to live. His internal battle is demonstrated through his living self talking to a dead statue which Hamlet would be if he were to in fact kill himself. Hamlet's internal battle is also demonstrated in Kenneth Branaugh's version of Hamlets "To Be Or Not To Be.." speech when Branaugh is looking into the mirror. This demonstrates his battle in a different way than Mel Gibson's Version because Branaugh is directly speaking to himself while Mel Gibson is speaking to dead bodies and a tomb. In Branaugh's version of the speech, Hamlet is in looking into the mirror in a big, empty, bright, colored room.
When I watched it, I didn't think Hamlet's speech was scary and dark as it was supposed to be. And the small knife that Branaugh pulled out of his coat, looked like a letter opener and not something he could kill himself with. I thought this version seemed really pathetic and almost comical because it wasn't scary like death at all. In Lawrence Olivier's version of Hamlet's speech, Olivier is sitting on a cliff high above the ocean. There is no straight forward representation of Hamlet's internal battle. I wouldn't say "To jump or not to jump.." really reminds me of Hamlet. You must look into this version in order to find that Hamlet being on a ledge that he could possibly jump off of is the representation of life vs. death. In Olivier's version of Hamlet's speech, he has a small knife that reminded me of a kitchen steak knife. Again, not something i think he could kill himself with. Even if he could kill himself with it, as a viewer, I didn't think suicide while watching it.
Mel Gibson's version of Hamlet's speech gave the best representation of death out of all three video's. You can reallly sense death in the scary dark basement with dead bodies and bones laying around.
I thought this post was very well written. I could definitely relate to what you said about the dark, scary basements because i have one myself and know how much i hate going down there sometimes. This being said, a basement was the perfect setting for Mel Gibson's version of the "To Be Or Not To Be.." speech. I agree that his was the best version because I could sense his internal battle with life and death more than the other two versions. I do disagree however, when you said that you had to look deeper into Lawrence Oliver's version to see his struggle between life and death. I thought him being on a high cliff like that and pulling out a knife was pretty straight forward.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you 100 percent when you talk about the knife that Hamlet pulls out in Laurence Oliver's version. It's almost funny that he was thinking about killing himself with a knife of that size. I think that they definitely could have made that scene a little more realistic. Mel Gibson's version was definitely the best out of the three with the lighting, location, and props. The viewer gets the sense that his thoughts are dark and disturbed. Overall, I enjoyed your post very much and think you did a very good job.
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