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Essay on The Producers: Movie Vs. Play
Shakespeare, the favorite dramatist of British crowned heads during the 1500s, is able to keep pace with the fast rhythm of today's entertainment industry. That might look like a paradox because his plays, so full of symbols, strong emotions, vivid characters, and savory puns, don't seem to fit into the tight and usually redundant patterns of today's mass-produced entertainment. Yet his plays are continually adapted and performed, either in a classic manner, or in one radically changed from the original.
This proves that, in the way he used and manipulated his subjects, Shakespeare appealed to a part of the human mind that isn't influenced by its innate culture, and this is why many actors have tried their skills on Shakespearian plays, from high-school kids to acclaimed artists (Bates, Jackson, 7).
Hamlet, next to Romeo and Juliet, is one of the most popular works of Shakespeare today.
It has inspired many movies, some that tried to get as close as possible to the original play, while others aimed at transforming the social circumstances and keeping only the essence of the original. In the first group fits Zeffirelli's Hamlet, a film made in 1990. It stars Mel Gibson as Hamlet, Glenn Close as Queen Gertrude, and Alan Bates as King Claudius.
The actors convincingly portray all the main characters in this movie, and most changes from Shakespeare's version are there to help adapt the plot to suit modern standards. Although there is one big difference between the movie and the original play - there are suitable settings for the action in the movie, while in Shakespeare's times backgrounds were nonexistent - the film tries to follow the play's guidelines and to maintain as much of the original as possible.
Some of the changes made give new insight into Hamlet's mind, helping the audience....
