Interpretation is everything in the realm of artistic expression – and when it comes to adapting and translating Shakespeare for the screen, it is something that can be assessed both in its abstract and pure forms.
HAMLET is by far one of the most filmed Shakespeare plays, with two major films from Franco Zeffirelli starring Mel Gibson and Glenn Close in 1990 and Kenneth Branagh’s four-hour 70mm epic in 1996 which was the fullest version as was expected from this theatrical multi-hyphenate who was nominated for an Oscar for his 1989 version of HENRY V, itself filmed like HAMLET by Laurence Olivier around the time of the Second World War as a symbol of patriotism for the war effort at the time.
Twenty years in the making, HAMLET / HORATIO is the collaboration of producer David Wenzel and writer David Vando, with Paul Warner in the director’s chair. This new version of the film which – like the Gibson / Zeiffirelli collaboration – is an abridged version of the pure text, takes the perspective of the brother Horatio via the realm of an empty sound-stage and places Horatio as a film-maker given the task of recounting Hamlet’s journey to try and give a new approach to what he went through as a troubled man when there was something, as they say, ‘rotten in the heart of Denmark’
All the key classic quotes are here (and on occasion your mind might just drift to moments like Arnold Schwarzenegger’s very funny take in the cult action film LAST ACTION HERO) but in their intention to try and subvert expectations to audiences who are turned off by Shakespeare, the film-makers might provide an incentive to get audiences into the purer versions of the film from the aforementioned creatives who have filmed the play for cinema before.
This is a very simple – albeit atmospheric – and more theatrical take on the Iambic, with competent performances, coupled with some simple and effective lighting and stage contrasts that give the work resonance. Purists will approach it with some trepidation and a feeling of sacrilege in their devotion to the Bard, but the undecided might just have a positive decision at hand to delve into this ‘undiscovered country’ (with or without hearing it in the original Klingon, as David Warner spoke at the awkward dinner in STAR TREK VI (1991))
