Franco Zeffirelli’s 1990 adaptation of Hamlet, with its streamlined plot, may be a Shakespearian purist’s worst nightmare, but it’s a godsend to struggling students, writes Finnian Cooney.
Hamlet is the longest Shakespearian play totalling 4,042 lines. For any typical high school student, this Herculean task is daunting and quite frankly unattractive to read. English teachers recognise this and often try to help students get a better understanding of the play by showing them a film adaptation. However, many with the right intentions make the mistake of showing students versions that regurgitate the play onto film, which does little to improve students understanding. Instead, we need to help clarify meaning by stripping back some of the content that is not vital to the plot and focus on the core meaning of the play. For Hamlet, this is the struggle of a young man with mortality, moral corruption, revenge and madness. The Franco Zeffirelli 1990 film adaptation does this by reworking the plot, clarifying the theme of mortality, and by sticking true to the Shakespearian setting in order to limit complexity.
To some fanatics, even the slightest altering of Shakespeare’s works is seen as the ultimate sin; with Washington Post film critic Hal Hinson describing the Zeffirelli …show more content…
When the play is moved to the modern era, the Old English spoken is out of place and distracts the audience. Additionally, the gender roles do not make sense in a modern setting. Gertrude’s quick marriage to Claudius can be explained in the play because without the marriage, she would have lost all her power and wealth. In a modern version, a complicated scenario is required to make this believable. These out of context social constructs do anything but clarify the play, instead they add another layer of complexity for students to
Hamlet is the longest Shakespearian play totalling 4,042 lines. For any typical high school student, this Herculean task is daunting and quite frankly unattractive to read. English teachers recognise this and often try to help students get a better understanding of the play by showing them a film adaptation. However, many with the right intentions make the mistake of showing students versions that regurgitate the play onto film, which does little to improve students understanding. Instead, we need to help clarify meaning by stripping back some of the content that is not vital to the plot and focus on the core meaning of the play. For Hamlet, this is the struggle of a young man with mortality, moral corruption, revenge and madness. The Franco Zeffirelli 1990 film adaptation does this by reworking the plot, clarifying the theme of mortality, and by sticking true to the Shakespearian setting in order to limit complexity.
To some fanatics, even the slightest altering of Shakespeare’s works is seen as the ultimate sin; with Washington Post film critic Hal Hinson describing the Zeffirelli …show more content…
When the play is moved to the modern era, the Old English spoken is out of place and distracts the audience. Additionally, the gender roles do not make sense in a modern setting. Gertrude’s quick marriage to Claudius can be explained in the play because without the marriage, she would have lost all her power and wealth. In a modern version, a complicated scenario is required to make this believable. These out of context social constructs do anything but clarify the play, instead they add another layer of complexity for students to