Hamlet 2000- Workbook Questions

Hamlet 2000

Workbook Questions: 

1. How has the director been true to the text?

The director has been true to the text by using Shakespearean language in the adaptation as well as keeping the story line quite similar to the original text. Almereyda has also kept the same names for characters and incorporated the same themes and preoccupations as that of the original text. 

2. How have they not been true to the text?

There are many aspects of the film that do not stay true to the text. Firstly, the running theme of post modernism within the film. Almereyda suspends the idea of authorship and therefore exemplifies that meaning comes from the reader rather than the author. This highly evident throughout the film in regards to the setting and the construction of the film. 
The film is set in New York in 2000, opposed to a setting from Shakespearean times, and as a result the storyline of the adaptation is exceptionally different to that of the original text. The director has also incorporated popular culture of the time in order to modernise the text. This is evident through the blurring of reality and the blending of high and low culture; which  are additional constructions of the adaptation that differ from the original text.

3. Has the adaptation jeopardised the integrity or literary value of the text in your opinion?

I think that the adaptation does jeopardise the integrity and literary value of the text to a degree. By contemporising the adaptation I think that some literary value is lost and that there are changes to the original text, which in turn jeopardise the intergrity and literary value of the text. Although so I think that the adaptation is a great medium in which people can access literature and the themes and meaning of the adaptation are still relevant to the original text. 

4. How has the director made this literary text relevant to contemporary audiences?

Yes, the director has certainty made this literary text relevant to contemporary audiences. Almereyda has done so by including a range of techniques such as cinematography and visual elements to make the film more accessible to modern audiences. Almereyda's preoccupations and addition of popular culture such as paparazzi and consumerism also add to the overall charisma of the film. As well as, post modernism in terms of the suspension and distortion of reality and authorship and also the merging of high and low culture contribute to the accessibility of the film.

5. What other texts have done the same, either better or worse?

Other texts which have been adapted include ‘’The Lion King’’ which also happens to be a movie adaptation of ‘’Hamlet’’, ‘’10 Things I Hate About You’’ which is based on the ‘’Taming of the Shrew’’ and lastly ‘’She’s the Man’’: an adaptation of ‘’Twelfth Night’’. I that these texts have been done in the same type of way; they all appeal to contemporary audiences without substantially deviating from the original texts. The film adaptations listed above all use varied film techniques such as mise en scene, sound and character to modernise the original texts but also to generate meaning.

6. What is your opinion of the film overall in terms of entertainment and accessibility?

Overall I think that the adaptation is entertaining and accessible to contemporary audiences. Almereyda cleverly incorporates popular culture of the time and reinforces the preoccupations of revenge, deception, ambition, loyalty, madness and detachment through film technique to make the film more accessible to today’s audiences and to make it more entertaining. Although so, I think that some literary value is lost as it in contemporising the original text.