Hamlet (2000)

User Rating:

6.0/10   

Director:

Michael Almereyda

Writers (WGA):

William Shakespeare (play)
Michael Almereyda (screen adaptation)

Release Date:

12 July 2000 (Belgium)

Genre:

Drama | Romance | Thriller

Plot:

Modern day adaptation of Shakespeare's immortal story about Hamlet's plight to avenge his father's murder in New York City.

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Modern Day Adaptation | Corporation | Madness | Revenge

Awards:

1 win & 2 nominations

Cast

Ethan Hawke	...	Hamlet
Kyle MacLachlan	...	Claudius
Diane Venora	...	Gertrude
Sam Shepard	...	Ghost
Bill Murray	...	Polonius
Liev Schreiber	...	Laertes
Julia Stiles	...	Ophelia
Karl Geary	...	Horatio
Paula Malcomson	...	Marcella
Steve Zahn	...	Rosencrantz
Dechen Thurman	...	Guildenstern
Rome Neal	...	Barnardo
Jeffrey Wright	...	Gravedigger
Paul Bartel	...	Osric
Casey Affleck	...	Fortinbras

MPAA:

Rated R for some violence.

Runtime:

112 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Iceland:14 | Iceland:16 (video rating) | Canada:14+ (Ontario) | South Korea:15 | Netherlands:12 | Argentina:13 | Australia:MA (cable rating) | Chile:14 | France:U | Germany:12 | Singapore:PG | UK:12 | USA:R | Austria:12 (DVD rating)

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company:

double A Films

Trivia:

Both Diane Venora and Liev Schreiber have previously acted in productions of 'Hamlet' on the New York stage. In fact, Venora had actually played the title character in a famous and iconoclastic production of the play.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): In his soliloquy, Hamlet says "The undiscovered country to whose bourn /No traveler returns." Shakespeare wrote, "The undiscovered country *from* whose bourn /No traveler returns," i.e. no one comes back from the next life to tell us what it's like.

Quotes:

Polonius: We are oft to blame in this, tis too much proved that with devotions pious we do sugar o'er the devil himself

Movie Connections:

References Message in a Bottle (1999)

Soundtrack:

Symphony No. 1: First Movement

Innovative film

Shakespeare has arrived in the moneyed world of New York, and I think he likes it. What particularly struck me about this film was some of the imagery and devices. Reflections are everywhere, not just in Hamlet's soliloquies: glass windows, mirrors, water, even the video screen. If we exist only in the eyes of others (J-P Sartre), then everything in this film is granted existence, even Hamlet's madness, because we see it through so many media and reflections. Hamlet's "play within a play" becomes a film, not something ephemeral, but a strip of celluloid that will last past his death, just as this play has survived so many centuries after Shakespeare's time.