First Act of Hamlet, Then and Now

I found a disturbing contemporary version of Hamlet that I posted late at night without considering the graphic nature of the movie. I will be more careful in the future, but I did want to explore a few different routes this version took. I did enjoy one part of this piece because it brought to home Marcellus Quote in Act 1, Scene 4: "Something is rotten in Denmark" (and no, I did not steal this idea from Sarah Brown, though she has good taste and used this quote in her last blog update). Though murder is a timeless crime, especially the murder of a brother, the disgust of a woman marrying her brother-in-law is not seen as incestuous today, just a bit strange. This act defined Gertrude's character to the Elizabethan audience, tainting her further than a modern audience would. The feel of this modern Gertrude, marrying a man whom she suspects will not be faithful, gives a bit more for the audience to accuse her of, therefore a bit more justification for her fate (that for some reason is not shown in this movie, unless I missed a part 2 notification).


Other than this little help, I found the entire surrealistic take a waste of time. The Asian boy horrified me, and Horatio should NOT have been changed to a female character. This is one modern illusion I believe the movie exploits: there are no more straight Horatios.  A friend that close to Hamlet, who stands by his side despite his supposed madness, would have to have a dominantly feminine demeanor. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are both still men, Hamlet's less faithful friends, of course. I believe that the differences between the original productions and the modern ones speak volumes about our society. Honor among brothers is weakening, and the importance of human relationships is forgotten.