Hamlet is one of Shakespeare’s best known plays. It involves a tragic story of loss and revenge against deceitful relatives, and how vengeance overwhelms all who are involved. The Ethan Hawke version of Hamlet is just one of the many adaptations of the popular play, but this version twists and skews the medieval story into a modern one, granting several changes to fit a 21st century society. Though different in several ways, by merging modern technology with a Shakespearean classic, the Ethan Hawke version of Hamlet shines and expresses the plot and events in a way that we can relate. Act through act of the movie will be thoroughly discussed, and will analyze the modern changes that benefited this age-old tale of revenge.
Act one of Hamlet starts just how it is supposed to start. The Denmark Corporation mourns the loss of their ‘king’, Hamlet’s father, who had been at the very top of the business ladder. It is through this scene alone that we see the newly emerged king, Hamlet’s uncle, Claudius. Just as in the play, Gertrude swoons over her husband’s brother, and Hamlet hangs back from the cheering crowd to watch and videotape them from afar. He continues to wear black, the clothes of mourning, and carries a disheveled look constantly as he stares upon his mother. Curiously enough, though the color of his clothes depict mourning, it also best describes the apparel of many modern-day beatniks. You’d imagine this type of Hamlet at a coffeehouse, stringing together emotional poetry before a crowd of like-minded individuals who carry a negative feeling towards society and feel emotional displacement from society. Different from the original Hamlet, Ophelia is in this scene as well, desperate to hand him a simple note for them both to meet at the fountain, a small area within the Denmark building. We as the audience had missed the events that had occurred before Hamlet’s father’s death, which includes the young love that was cherished between Hamlet and Ophelia. Just through the passing of a single note, the audience can recall that there is a love between these two characters that goes beyond the limits of what the movie had shown. It is also through act one of the Hawke version that the audience can actually see Hamlet’s memories through the video camera he always carries around. This video camera is a constant throughout all of the acts as Hamlet remembers the love that had been shown between his mother and father, and the joy that he had once had with Ophelia. This is the best feature about the movie, for what the play suggested through lengthy monologues the modern version did better, giving the audience a picture of the current thoughts racing through Hamlet’s mind.
In Act Two, It can be assumed that Polonius works in the Denmark Corporation as an advisor to the king, while Laertes acts as a proper businessman’s son, set out to go to school. Ophelia might possibly work at the Corporation as well, for as often as she’s seen there, but it’s later discovered that she enjoys taking photographs of everything important and beautiful to her. It is in this scene that Polonius tells his daughter to reject the courtship attempts of Hamlet, which she reluctantly agrees to do. Afterwards, Hamlet leaves in a huff for Ophelia’s studio, and while she’s developing her photographs, he barges in and kisses Ophelia full on the lips. This is different from what the play had created, where he simply grabbed her and looked at her. The absence of speech for only a kiss however is strong and meaningful. It’s at this point in the movie that Hamlet begins to act crazy for the sake of fooling his uncle, but this scene alone showed Hamlet’s torment at not being allowed to be with whom he loved and cherished to such a degree. He rushes out just as Polinius enters, and soon decides that to see if his Uncle killed his father, he will make a short movie that shows the actor being poisoned and watch Claudius’ reaction.
Act 3 pointed out yet another modern difference in the 2000 version. Hamlet was an amateur movie-maker. This leads to the factor that plays a role in the current hierarchy within the Denmark Corporation, for though Hamlet was to be the rightful heir before his mother’s marriage, he seems less a businessman than an artsy individual who’d much rather ponder the world and its distinctive downward spiral. Indeed, of all the characters in the movie, Hamlet seemed like the sort of person who actually would speak Shakespearian. Either ways, Hamlet invites his uncle and mother to the opening of his independent film, where the poisoning scene is played out successfully and Claudius runs off in distress. One can note that in all acts of Hamlet 2000, the various settings are abstract, yet with meaning. For example, Hamlet treads through a Blockbuster video store, and quotes the infamous ‘To be or not to be’ soliloquy specifically in the action section. ‘To be or not to be’ represents Hamlet’s personal controversy within himself to take action over the death of his father and the loss of morality of his mother and not succumb to the desire to commit suicide over the terrible events that are happening. The scene comes to
Other differences involved the setting of the movie. Because this version of Hamlet was based in the 21st Century, the scenery had to change. For example, the kingdom of Denmark in the original Hamlet is now a large corporation. The scene where the ghost was scene is now something of an empty warehouse room beneath the building. The way in which Hamlet leaves his home is by airplane, of which the medieval ages had only boats. The Hawke adaptation was keen on remaking the movie to suit an everyday audience, and every single medieval object in Hamlet had been successfully replaced by a modern counterpart, leaving each scene interesting to watch if only to see how they changed it.
Job titles have also been changed to suit a modern way of living. Hamlet’s deceased father was the ‘King’ of the Denmark Corporation, at the very highest of the ladder. Gertrude was ‘Queen’, and Hamlet was to be heir of the family business. Throughout the movie though, it seems as though Hamlet doesn’t consider being the heir of the Corporation, delving instead in making odd, abstract movies for a select audience of people. Perhaps it is through this stark contrast in not acting like the business man he’s meant to be, that Hawke’s Hamlet is considered crazy by the workers in Denmark. It’s rather certain that Polonius works for the corporation, Laertes is heading off to school, and Ophelia is a photographer. This was a unique hobby to give to Ophelia of all people, with her and Hamlet using memory devices to remember what truly mattered to them both. When she threw away those sacred pictures, Ophelia lost it and killed herself.
These are the main 21st century aspects that Ethan Hawke’s version of Hamlet displayed. Creative and symbolic, all changes had a purpose. Electronic devices represented thoughts and memories. Modern ways of transportation and working replaced those objects of old, and job titles became more thought out for the sake of representing the characters at their finest. Though the characters spoke Shakespearean and still had the names of their counterparts, it’s obvious to see that the modern aspects of this movie were meant to better relate to the story and thoroughly understand the cast of this tragic tale.
