Almereyda’s Hamlet was filmed in the modern day and age, when technology was something everyone had to have, and big corporations made up the bulk of businesses in our country. This can be seen from the very beginning of the film. The mixed discourse of “The King and C.E.O. of Denmark Corporation is dead” announces the kind of Shakespearean adaptation we are entering. “King” and “Denmark” represent the Shakespearean language that the characters will speak, while “C.E.O.” and “Corporation” proclaim the modern American referents, which the film will convey visually, to Shakespeare’s words and story. Almereyda’s film is filled with the disposable, fast-moving, and slippery corporate world of stockbrokerage, mergers, and acquisitions of Wall Street
…show more content…
Choosing to do something different and unparalleled to his predecessors, Almereyda adapts to the modern day putting the setting of the play in New York City in the year 2000. Instead of having nations fight territorial disputes, he replaces the monarchy with the world of big business and large corporations. Elsinore is a large corporation, and Claudius is the new CEO. This shows how Hamlet can be adapted to fit the modern audience because Almereyda decides to tap into the concerns of the Western audience at the time which were largely focused on economic and technological changes (Cain 41). Throughout the film there are constant interruptions from the television, signs, and radio; giving the narrative a deeper meaning and resulting in an unearthly alienation from sensory overload. Almereyda uses these fragments to increase the tension and urgency within the film and to help translate the concerns of royalty in Denmark to a modern audience. The corporations represent the aristocracy existing in the glass skyscrapers of privilege. This allows the modern audience to relate to Hamlet because at the time this movie was made, Kings and Queens were very rare to the American people, and big corporations such as Microsoft, Apple, and ExxonMobil were cementing themselves as leading public companies. Instead of an invading army, the threat of Norway is a hostile takeover of the company’s business. Almereyda adapted the characters of Hamlet and Ophelia to the modern world of 2000 by making Hamlet a film student and Ophelia a photographer. This gives the characters realistic jobs that the audience can relate to. The empire of Denmark is adapted to the modern day empire of New York City. The street signs are imprinted of corporate uncertainty, and the company’s surfaces visually communicate human interaction in respect to technology (Cain 42). This relates the Kingdom of Denmark and its empire, to a modern day empire
Choosing to do something different and unparalleled to his predecessors, Almereyda adapts to the modern day putting the setting of the play in New York City in the year 2000. Instead of having nations fight territorial disputes, he replaces the monarchy with the world of big business and large corporations. Elsinore is a large corporation, and Claudius is the new CEO. This shows how Hamlet can be adapted to fit the modern audience because Almereyda decides to tap into the concerns of the Western audience at the time which were largely focused on economic and technological changes (Cain 41). Throughout the film there are constant interruptions from the television, signs, and radio; giving the narrative a deeper meaning and resulting in an unearthly alienation from sensory overload. Almereyda uses these fragments to increase the tension and urgency within the film and to help translate the concerns of royalty in Denmark to a modern audience. The corporations represent the aristocracy existing in the glass skyscrapers of privilege. This allows the modern audience to relate to Hamlet because at the time this movie was made, Kings and Queens were very rare to the American people, and big corporations such as Microsoft, Apple, and ExxonMobil were cementing themselves as leading public companies. Instead of an invading army, the threat of Norway is a hostile takeover of the company’s business. Almereyda adapted the characters of Hamlet and Ophelia to the modern world of 2000 by making Hamlet a film student and Ophelia a photographer. This gives the characters realistic jobs that the audience can relate to. The empire of Denmark is adapted to the modern day empire of New York City. The street signs are imprinted of corporate uncertainty, and the company’s surfaces visually communicate human interaction in respect to technology (Cain 42). This relates the Kingdom of Denmark and its empire, to a modern day empire