Consideration 8 - Hamlet videos SD PDF

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A compare/contrast essay between videos of Hamlet....

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Dr. Kae Koger DRAM-2733-001 11/20/2017 Consideration 8: Hamlet Videos (Spectacle) Something that varied greatly between the videos was color. The Branagh version was full of bright primary colors, each one representing something in the plot. The red was Claudius, shown by the bedsheets and the curtain that Polonius hid behind; the yellow is Gertrude, shown by her dress, elements in the bedroom, and Polonius’ costume; the blue represents Hamlet’s father, as shown by his costume and the picture of him. Hamlet is shown in black, because he is a mix of all of them together, fighting it out. The Zeffirelli version, the colors are quite a bit darker, mostly in shades of red with gold accents. The bed and the tapestries are both crimson with gold embroidery. Gertrude and Polonius were dressed in black, and Hamlet work black with red stripes. The Doran version was bright, similar to the Branagh one, but the main colors were blue and cream. Elements of Gertrude’s room, as well as her pajamas, were blue, while Polonius and Hamlet wore black and white. The set of the rooms were very similar as far as the furniture inside them and their general quality. All versions contained a bed which was quite ornate and covered in lots of sheets and pillows. They varied by how many other dressings were used. The Branagh set was full of various pieces of furniture, vases, pictures on the walls, and other decorations. The Zeffirelli version was stripped pretty bare of furniture, but had elaborate wall hangings and a floor covered in furs. The Doran version was closer to the Branagh one, with quite elaborate decorations, though not as extravagant as the latter.

It was also interesting to look at how each version killed Polonius. Branagh shows Polonius’ dead body, leaking blood onto the carpet while still wrapped in the sheet, all the time in full view. The yellow of his costume, the pink of the curtain, and the red of the blood make a very interesting picture. Zeffirelli kept Polonius concealed behind a huge tapestry, stabbed through it with a sword, then left to the side, not really shown much more. There was no blood shown in this version. In Doran’s film, Hamlet shoots Polonius with a gun through a mirror, again with no blood shown. The broken mirror is quite symbolic, in the background of the rest of the scene and then later when Hamlet looks at himself in it. The lighting was harder for me to differentiate. It seemed that in both Branagh’s and Doran’s versions, the lighting was what you would expect from a lightbulb-lit room. This was rather odd for the Branagh one, since there were also candles in the background which didn’t seem to do much. In Doran’s version, however, the lighting was in red and yellow tones, and flickered with the firelight....