Franco Zefirelli's Film Version Of Hamlet

In the Franco Zefirelli's film version of Hamlet Mel Gibson plays Hamlet and portrays him as being intimidated and not as confident when going into the fight with Laertes. Before the fight begins the king is portrayed as anxious and on edge waiting for Laertes to kill Hamlet and win the fight when he stabs Hamlet with the poisoned sword or if and when Hamlet drinks from the cup which the king has poisoned. Either way the king and Laertes want revenge and plan on getting it through a series of different set ups they have prepared. In the film the fighting scene seems over exaggerated; every swing of the sword is overdrawn and very theatrical. When the queen takes the cup intended for Hamlet and drinks from it the king tries to tell her not to drink from it but doesn’t really seem too aggressive in making sure she doesn’t drink from the cup even knowing that it will kill her. …show more content…
Then Laertes cuts Hamlet on the back of his shoulder but not too badly just enough to show that he is wounded and bleeding During this the camera switches back and forth between the fight and the queen slowly and quietly being overtaken by the poison. Gertrude eventually realizes the king's intention to kill Hamlet and gets up as if to make a scene and falls to the ground saying that she was dying at the hands of the king although it wasn’t meant for. Hamlet then stabs the king and makes him drink from the same cup of poison killing him. Hamlet then stubbles to the ground dying and the camera angles make the ending scene depressing intending to play on the emotion of the viewers with the dead bodies on the ground and the bystanders just