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Times change, but Hamlet still debates whether to be, or not
By Jack Garner
Democrat and Chronicle
(June 23, 2000) -- The new modern-dress Manhattan version of Hamlet is not your father's Hamlet. If you're a Shakespeare purist, it's probably not your Hamlet, either.
But, if you're more adventurous and view the great 400-year-old Shakespeare works as platforms for reinterpretation and experimentation, this Hamlet with Ethan Hawke fascinates at nearly every turn.
Director and screenplay adaptor Michael Almereyda has taken Shakespeare's great tale of revenge, procrastination and mortality, and placed it in today's slacker world.
I would hate to think that this would be the first -- and only -- Hamlet you might see. This new oddball fantasia is too precious and strange to fulfill that important a function.
But, if you've been exposed to other Hamlets -- perhaps with Laurence Olivier, Kenneth Branagh or Mel Gibson on film, or maybe the current Stratford Festival production -- then this variation is a thought-provoking addendum to your more classically oriented memories.
Consider:
- The Denmark of this version is a giant corporation, with headquarters in a posh Manhattan hotel called The Elsinore. The chief executive, the senior Hamlet, has recently died and has been replaced in the corporate boardroom and the family bedroom by his brother, Claudius, who has married his former sister-in-law.
- When the ghost of Hamlet's father first appears, it's in the shadowy black-and-white images of a security camera. Father's message, though, remains classic: He's been murdered by his brother, who has since usurped his position. He commands his son to avenge the bloody betrayal.
- As the young Hamlet debates whether to live or die -- "To be or not to be" -- he wanders through the "action" section of a Blockbuster outlet. (What an appropriate choice! When to take action is at the core of Hamlet's dilemma.)
- The play-within-the-play (in which Hamlet hopes "to catch the conscience of the King") is a self-produced piece of video art.
- And, alas poor Yorick, the memorable graveyard scene is omitted altogether.
But there's a brief, soundless, background TV image of an earlier Hamlet portrayal, with John Gielgud holding the famous skull.
The point of this enterprise, of course, is that Shakespeare's great debates on mortality, his powerful saga of ambition, murder, lust and vengeance all transcend time and place.
The intriguing mysteries of Hamlet also continue to draw our attention -- the relationship between Hamlet and Ophelia, the extent of Gertrude's involvement in the crime and the cover-up, the reason Hamlet seems so young at the start of the play and much older at the end.
Hamlet remains an endlessly fascinating work because of such mysteries. The drama shifts with the attitudes we bring to the work and reflect the age in which we live.
Hamlet also contains so much material, it has easily survived all sorts of cuts over the centuries. At a little under two hours, this Hamlet is among the shortest -- and yet the story offers clarity and impact.
Almereyda has cast well.
Hawke personifies the downtown slacker lifestyle, while simultaneously giving the memorable dialogue a natural, unforced reading.
He's moody, indecisive, angry, and thinks too much to be an effective man of action -- all the things a Hamlet should be.
Julia Stiles is a sadly forlorn Ophelia, Liev Schreiber makes a fiery Laertes, while Kyle MacLachlan is a GQ-styled corporate warrior as Claudius.
Sam Shepard is appropriately spooky and determined as the Ghost, while Bill Murray finds every moment of the considerable humor in the long-winded speeches of Polonius.
Under Almereyda's imaginative direction, they've created provocative proof that Hamlet offers dark and disturbing lessons for all ages.
From Hamlet's intense perspective, his time, our time, all time -- "is out of joint."
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