CONTEMPORARY HAMLET.

Abstract

The following assignment belongs to a study where it will be able to observe three different kinds of movies that were inspired in the original William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The first movie was made in the year 1948 by Laurence Olivier. The second movie was made in the year 2000 by Michael Almereyda. The last movie recently made in the year 2007 by Alexander Fodor.

The reason for the study was to analyze if Shakespeare’s original language in his known soliloquy “To Be or Not To Be” has remained during the four hundred years. Also, to analyze how the contemporary filmmakers were able to change the images of the films, to attract new audiences that belong to their times. Adding to the previous aim, to appreciate how the three main themes: Revenge, Suicide and Procrastination have sustained through different images regardless of the culture in which they were written in.

The procedure to attain our research was through reading two books (British and American versions) and viewing the three movies mentioned above. Firstly, the original script from soliloquy “To Be or Not To Be” was compared to each of the other movies, realizing that only Shakespeare Language remained in all of them.