See, that's precisely how I've always seen him: a teenager with a really severe Oedipal thing going on, sulky, self-absorbed, not remotely heroic, and extremely physical because he's uncomfortable in his body.
I've always seen him as a post-grad, mid-twenties guy. Someone who really likes being an intellectual, hanging out with actors, discussing the meanings of things. I think that's the problem with Hamlet. When you read the play his voice is so strong that everybody has his/her own idea about him. I've never seen a Hamlet to equal the guy in my head. (Although I've never seen the Olivier version, it's next on my Netflix queue. Yay! I've joined Netflix!) I hate the Mel Gibson movie though, because I think the Oedipal stuff should never be that overt (it's there without the blatant allusions). Also, Glen Close is like 7 years older than Mel.
I'd love a new shiny version of the Scottish play.
How 'bout a Fringe show, picking up the tale of the Three, MacBeth, and MacDuff 900 years later? (That's what provoked my comment about historical liberties last night.)
I should tell you that I find iambic pentameter very, very sexy.
Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is took,
And each doth good turns now unto the other....
I've always seen him as a post-grad, mid-twenties guy. Someone who really likes being an intellectual, hanging out with actors, discussing the meanings of things.
Definitly the Ethan Hawke version, then.
Also, I'm unreasonably fond of Polanski's version of the Scottish play, despite some significant liberties with the text (although more in terms of the action than the speech).
Isn't that the one where Lady Macbeth is like sixteen? It's so dark and dreary. And the floating dagger is kind of laughable. But it has a nice beheading. We saw this is as well in The Class.
Definitly the Ethan Hawke version, then.
Yeah, but that requires stomaching Ethan Hawke. The last time I liked him was in Gattica. I guess I already consider him to be so whiny that I had a hard time separating him from the role.
One thing with Branagh's Hamlet, I finally understood what teh big deal about Charlton Heston was. That one speech, delivered from a single standing position, gave me chills.
And while there are issues with the "stunt" casting, Billy Crystal was perfect as the Gravedigger. Cynical, sarcastic, contemptuous, much more at home with the bones than with people.
Gods, yes. Jon Finch and Francesca Annis. I adore that version, unlike the largely unwatchable Orson Welles version.
I like the Welles because he filmed it just like a made on the cheap Republic serial (mainly because he made it for Republic, on the cheap), although that doesn't excuse Jeanette Nolan as his atrocious Lady M.
I also love THRONE OF BLOOD, but, I mean, Tushiro Mifune - what's not to love?
Definitly the Ethan Hawke version, then.
Well, except that version has no Players.
I saw it in April in Stratford-Upon-Avon by the Royal Shakespeare Company, and it was amazing! Squee!
Our Stratford is putting on Macbeth this season. C'mon up!
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t Taunty McTempterson
I should tell you that I find iambic pentameter very, very sexy.
And in the spiced Indian air by night,
Full often hath she gossiped by my side,
And sat with me on Neptune's yellow sands,
Marking the embarked traders on the flood...
