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A look at a new take on HAMLET...
First off this version takes place in New York.
And it stars: Ethan Hawke, Kyle MacLachlan, Sam Shepard, Diane Venora, BILL MURRAY, Casey Affleck, Liev Schreiber, Julia Stiles, Jeffrey Wright and STEVE ZAHN!
This time there is something rotten in Denmark Corporation, I'm serious... that's how they work in Denmark. The whole thing is changed from Royalty to Corporate power struggles, or so I think. All I know is Julia Stiles is a talent to be watching, and after WICKED she got my attention. And hey... any film with Casey Affleck and Steve Zahn and Bill Murray is something to squint your eyes and look at. Right?
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After R&J I suppose they had to do this. It will make the 3rd Hamlet in about 10 years which must be a record. (Well, the 4th if you count Lion King) I hope it manages the same creative spark as R&J without just ripping it off. You know?
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There are so many brilliant actors that have faded into obscurity or just get over looked by the studios, and then you have a smug, overrated little pisant like Hawke that gets a bunch of meaty roles.
I HATE YOU ETHAN HAWKE - YOU SUCK MAN.
GOD - I HOPE YOURE READING THIS -
and know that it has something to do with REALTIY BITES. I remember being so angry when that movie came out. I'd recently graduated from college in TX and was completely pissed off that the assholes in that movie were supposed to represent us. Ethan Hawke has always seemed like a pretentious, asshole, poseur. Generally, I like to give credit to people who really go after their dreams without really worrying about whether they are good at stuff or not (like singing or writing), but this guy just bugs.
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This 90's pump up job like they did on romeo and juliet a while back dont have anything on kenneth Branagh's masterpiece, for the first time in a while when i sat in that art house watching his 4 hour opus, time stood still. It was the single fastest 4 hours that went by in my entire life. Thank you ken for giving us a real hamlet, and to lawrence oliver too...P.s Harry, how about some info on kenneth Branagh's next film he's currently filming.."Love's Labors Lost". Ken back in the shakespeare saddle again.
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Hamlet has already been remade and remade perfectly - YOU CAN'T TOP PERFECTION!!!!!! That's right Strange Brew was the perfect take on Hamlet - and NOTHING will ever be any better. Period.
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I think that George Lucas said it best on 60 Minutes. The studios are run by people who have no interest in movies. They make films that they think will make money and to Hell with artistic merit. Unfortunately that stupid R&J remake from a few years ago set the ball rolling. The good news is that Branagh now has more leeway to make HIS Shakespeare films. Go see them. Forget the "90's" updates. The original visions have done just fine for over 400 years.
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You rock, man! Strange Brew was a way cool version of Hamlet, I thought no one remembered that classic. (BTW, Brannagh's version of Hamlet was like a gift from the god's if you are a Shakespeare fan, I can't wait for Love's Labour Lost)
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Apr 06, 1999 10:35:21 AM CDT
pop quiz: How many movie titles came from Hamlet's "to be or no
by l'auteur
yes, ethan hawke does suck. he's so genX wannabe...("ahhhhh, life sucks, my hair is greasy, i have a goatee, and im in my twenties")...just like wynona ryder...cant stand her either...that whole reality bites thing i guess. anyway, i see this movie anyway just cuz i love hamlet with a passion and i always wanted to do a modern corporate hamlet but now someone has beat me to it. dammit.
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I guess this means I should never see Reality Bites! Haven't you EH haters seen Gattaca? That's quite a nice little SciFi flick and, IMO, EH did a pretty fuckin' good job in that movie.
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today's my birthday!
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I'd have to say the definitive take on Hamlet (besides the Brannaugh version, which i love) was not Strange Brew, but rather Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. It captured the love, the dread, and the obsurdity of living that is so integral to the story, and did so in a way that was new, interesting, and meaningful. For this new version, are they keeping the language? And what's getting cut from the plot? The way it will probably done is to focus more on the relationship between Hamlet and Ophelia (something I'm definitely interested in). Once again, I'm afraid they're going to tear apart this story...I'm not sure I like Hawke in this role, but I'm looking forward to seeing Julia Stiles, who seriously impressed me in "10 Things I Hate About You". And to answer L'Auteur's question...well, I have no idea...I'm compiling a list (off and on) about all the titles of everythign that have come from Shakespeare (okay, it's not that geeky, it's just something I note from time to time), and his influence is too wide to really be counted quantitatively. From "What Dreams May Come" to "Remembrance of Things Past" to "The Stuff that Dreams are Made of"...Shakespeare's just everywhere. -Loki
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No more Hamlet remakes for another generation, at the very least. Enough!! Branagh's was okay but, and you Bard die-hards will rake me over the coals for this, it was boring. Yes, I said it. At 4 hours long, anything would be. And Branagh, like Gibson, was too old for it. You're a grown man -- get over it! Who do you care who your mother marries? You're forty -- get a life and move outta your mother's house! And, yeah, something about Ethan Hawke does bug me (and I have already resigned myself to the fact that either he or the abomination who is Keanu will be Cyclops in the X-Men film. Wonder if that means Uma will be Jean Grey?). I think it goes back to reality Bites for me, too. I thought she should've gone for Ben Stiller. Just because he works for a living and doesn't sulk 24-7 he's the unworthy one? By the way, a girl from my program at USC Film wrote that movie. I think she lives in a trailer now.
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How can you all not love Ethan Hawke? Don't you remember Explorers? Didn't you all want to be his character in that movie?
Ha! Ha! This take on Hamlet smells like piss in a toilet full of shit. Branagh's Hamlet is definitve celluloid Shakespeare. Fuck this new concept, I hope the filmmakers who associate themselves with this project choke on each other's BO. I cannot stand self righteous let's reinvent for the 90's wannabe intellectuals. Film what you will but don't tack on the name "Hamlet". There's nothing wrong with being derivative. But I guess these people lack even that much originality. -
But it could be very good. One of my favorite Shakespeare movies is Men of Respect with John Tuturro. It's absolutely excellent. It's an updated version of MacBeth (my favorite). If this is anywhere near as good, I'll be pleased. And I agree - Julia Stiles is doing impressive work so far. Here's hoping. I'd like for it to be good.
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Isn't his stuff in public domain, or is there a Willie estate? Either way, these studios are paying nickles and dimes for his work, and remaking it for millions. Sounds like a good deal to me! It's all about the benjamins, so let's not pretend there's actual artistic integrity involved here. Branagh annoys me, but he does it out of love at least. I did enjoy Romeo+Juliet, and the new twist on it. I'd like to see a new version of Hamlet, but do something different with it for christsake! Set it in a different era, a different country would even be nice. New York? Wow, that's fresh, huh? It already looks like it's got that Great Expectations feel. Wasn't THAT a dissapointment. Ethan Hawke is just kind of "there" for me. Not good, not bad, just present. I'd prefer a lead with more charisma.
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Not that anyone cares, but I'd have to go for 'R&G are Dead' as my favorite adaption. If you ever want to see Gary Oldman play Keanu Reeves, that's where it's at!
All this talk of the Bard reminds me of an awesome scene in a great movie... " I've been working on a one man adaption of Hamlet. You see, in my version, all of the actions occur in Hamlets head; you don't think that's crazy, do you?" " No, that actually clears alot of things up for me..."
Happy birthday, L'Auteur. -
i actually enjoyed his part in gattica. it kind of fits him. quiet, cold, boring, and oddly enough intriguing. i agree with many of your views on this project though. seems a bit played out to me.
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I've heard about this one for about two months now, and I honestly cannot wait to see it. HAMLET is my all-time favorite play. I've seen many versions over the years (Olivier, Burton, Williamson, Gibson, Kline, Branagh), and have always wondered when the film people would do a modern spin on this great story. While I'm not really a fan of the 1996 ROMEO + JULIET (too much shouting, amateurish acting for the most part, etc.) I AM looking forward to this one. Bill Murray as Polonius. Sam Shepard (my favorite playwright) as the Ghost. Too cool. I'm there opening day. Also: I am waiting for the DVD issue of the Branagh film. C'mon, guys! The video tape version SUCKS!! Too much pan, scan, and cropping. I saw this baby in the theater, and believe me, WIDESCREEN is the only way to go. Branagh didn't shoot it in 70mm for nothing, ya know.
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First, the guy is just about the least interesting actor working right now with the possFirst, the guys is just about the least interesting actor working right now with the possible exception of Mr. Reeves (witness his wooden work in Much Ado About Nothing). I thought Gattaca suffered mightily at Hawke's hands. Second, like that's his real name! I'm sure! My geuss is he was brought into this world as Sidney Finkelstein, or Herschel Mendelbaum, or any other Jerry Lewis character name. Ethan Hawke. Give me a fucking break. To weigh in on the recent crop of Shakespeare stuff, I liked Branagh's Henry V best (although his Hamlet was awesome) followed by McKellen's Richard III.
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...as the ghost, that's a great piece of casting! Please tell me that's not just a rumour! (BTW, R&G was a great take on Hamlet as well!)
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Can Ethan Hawke possibly contribute any more films as evidence to his being the Crown Prince of Brood? His main action in every film is brooding. It's time for the kid to get a few happy roles, eh?
Btw, I personally think Gattaca is the best film he's been in -- killer soundtrack and art direction.
NoMyths -
Well, I for one, H-A-T-E-D, Branagh's hammy ham-chewin' HAMLET. Not that it didn't have a few great ideas (mostly stolen from Olivier's version and Stoppard's ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD and THE FIFTEEN-MINUTE HAMLET), but there were just so many stinkers, it might as well have been set in high school. I especially did not buy the
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Who's this Hamlet guy anyway?
Heh...
Wait! Wait! We're forgetting something in all this sqwuaking (sp?) about Ethaniel Hawke and the young nightengale playing Ophelia.
Ask yourself... Why is Bill Murray going to be in this?
Is he jealous of Robin Williams? Everyone knows that there is a *huge Bill Murray fan-base in America, and he has an ability to make everything funny... in the exact opposite way that Robin Williams does. Subtleness instead of "zanieness." He's intelligent... you could see in his eyes that he knew those SNL bits from a couple months ago were completely uninspired. Why does he want to be in a film as... ...well, uninspired... as this *new Hamlet.
Mmmmm... He was upset about Rushmore not getting nominated for anything. (by jove, Rushmore was just as good as the dissappointing and clumsily penned Shakespeare in Love) But regardless, in his "comeback" he's selected more serious rolls (still fitting in his *style). And it seems obvious that he WANTS that Oscar.
That's my take at least. Maybe there's some backwater stuff that I don't know about. But from my standpoint... If I were Bill Murray... and the chance to do a Shakespeare flick came my way... and I knew I was one of the greatest comedic actors of all time... ...and I wanted more recognition for being a good actor not just a wacky guy... well... I know what I would do.
Just a thought to see what's thinking...
heh. after a 8 month hiatus from Ain't It Cool, this youngin' has a user id. The Cow Says, Kickin. -
First of all, many of you don't seem to realize that Stoppard's R & G ARE DEAD is not an adaptation of HAMLET. It is an adaptation of his own brilliant stage play of the same name. The only thing the two have in common is that one is the play, and the other uses the play as its backdrop for an absurd masterpiece. Secondly, to Whitey: if you knew much about HAMLET, you would know that the titular character is supposed to be around the age of 33, so suggesting that Branagh and Gibson are too old for the part is ludicrous. Thirdly, to BraveNewSquirrel: clumsily-penned SIL? Are you insane? Or are all the members of the Academy lunatics for giving it the naked golden boy for Best Original Screenplay? Guys. Regroup, take remedial English, then we'll talk. Lastly, these updated movie-versions of Shakespeare's plays are laughable. I'm talking about 10 THINGS... (THE TAMING OF THE SHREW), A THOUSAND ACRES (KING LEAR), and the like. You see, what is so magnificent about Shakespeare is his language, not his plot devices. He stole most of those anyway. What makes these plays timeless is not plot, but the beauty of the words he used, the way he told the story. When Hollywood tries to make a quick buck, they try to tap into this timelessness, but they find the language is not accessible to an American audience with the average eighth-grade education. So, they say, let's just cut out that talking bullshit and leave the story. Sans language, you have dung.
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Since we're on Shakespeare, why haven't we heard anything about the new A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, starring Michelle Pfeifer, Kevin Kline, Calista Flockhart, Stanley Tucci, etc.?
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Have any of you KB fans seen "A Midwinter's Tale" (Released in the UK as "In the Bleak Midwinter."It's a little unpretentious movie that Kenneth made in-between "Frankenstein"and "Hamlet." It's a b&w number about a dozen actors putting "Hamlet"together in 10 days. Branagh wrote and directed but does not appear. He used Michael Maloney, Richard Briers and Joan Collins of all people. It's very funny and a great curtain raiser for his magnificent Hamlet. (Although I didn't like Jack Lemmon, Robin Williams or the chandelier swinging, I still LOVED that movie.)
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Not that I want to solicit a big, heated discussion on the subject, but... yes, I do realize the Academy does not agree with my opinions of Shakespeare in Love. But somehow, I don't think writers judge the "Best Original Screenplay" category... at least evidenced by the last two years, which have been brilliant ideas, but not brilliantly executed.
Perhaps Shakespeare in Love's biggest fault was its "deus ex machina." (or Machine of the Gods. I'm not trying to sound important, it's just the term that I was taught.) It refers to a plot device which brings some phenomenal occurence or god to solve the problems laid out in the story. In SiL, it was Queen Elizabeth appearing, out of thin air, at the oppurtune time, and solving EVERYTHING.
There are a lot of other weak aspects of the screenplay-- when weighed out they outnumber the good-- but I won't get into them here. (lol Maybe if they decide to write a sequel to SiL-- which, in current trends, certainly seems possible) Just realize that my argument is well-founded, whether you personally agree with it or not. -
Raoul Duke, I don't know about the rest of us, but I sure realized R&G are Dead is an adaptation of his stageplay, since that's where I was first exposed to it (as the part of Guildenstern). But the stageplay itself is an incredible distillation of the values of Hamlet. It's not the exact plot of Hamlet, but instead a play that uses Hamlet as a springboard to express the values of Hamlet and to say something else instead. Hamlet really was the first existential play. And your charge that, by cutting the language, the story becomes "dung", may be true for most of the movies made off Willie's stuff...at least the ones that didn't do anything new with the story. Movies/plays like R&G are Dead take the themes of Hamlet and thrust them into our post-Nietzsche world where nothing is definite anymore, where our self-determining nature is denied by the world, and where our existence might in fact seem meaningless. A movie like R&G does this, which is why I named in the best adaptation of Hamlet that I've seen so far. Respond how you will. -Loki
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Sorry, it's because I"m drunk right now, but I forgot two things I was meaning to say. R&G are Dead (the movie) IS an adaptation of Hamlet, because the movie cuts virtually nothign out of the play, which WAS an adaptation of Hamlet...I kind of stated that before, but I want it to be clear. And more importantly, happy birthday L'Auteur...how old are you? (In old times, it was how many b'day spankings you got...now what replaces that on the internet? How many viruses we send you?) That's it...and I'm passing out now. -Loki
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fie on ethan hawk
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Here is a list of who is playing what role in the new HAMLET, according to the Internet Movie Database: Hawke as Hamlet, Kyle MacLachlan as Claudius, Sam Shepard as the Ghost, Diane Venora as Gertrude (she played Hamlet on stage in '82), Bill Murray as Polonius, Casey Affleck as Fortinbras, Karl Geary (?) as Horatio, Liev Schreiber as Laertes, Julia Stiles as Ophelia, Jeffrey Wright (BASQUIAT) as the Gravedigger, and Steve Zahn as Rosencrantz.
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1) I liked Brannagh's "Hamlet" in general, though I wish hadn't bothered with as many cameos that turned out to be weak: Lemmon, Crystal, Williams--Bleah. It was gutsy to bring all four hours to the screen and show the play as Shakespeare intended it, rather than feeling a need to chop it down for today's MTV-shortened attention spans.
2) "WS's R+J" was brilliant from a cinematic standpoint, and had a raw guts to it that the classic version never comes close to. Granted, DiCaprio never sounded like he had a clue what he was saying, but any Shakespeare movie that can fill a theater with teenagers is OK by me.
3) "R&G Are Dead" is way beyond just an adaptation of Hamlet, because it has a completely different point. Hamlet isn't about existential absurdism any more than "Othello" is about race relations.
4) How the hell can you set "Hamlet" in corporate America without completely rewriting the script? "R+J" worked well enough, but what--are they going to set the players' performance as a presentation in the board room? Ecch...
5) Ethan "Oh God I'm So Depressed" Hawke as Hamlet? You egg! Young fry of treachery! (sorry, wrong play...) Actually, he was OK in "A Midnight Clear". -
Could we give Hamlet a rest? How many different versions do we really need to see? Julius Caesar is just dying for an update. Even Brando admits he didn't do a good job in the role.
I'd have to say that Kurosawa's Ran is my favorite Shakespeare adaptation (and one of my all-time favorite movies). I don't think you need to use The Bard's language to make a great Shakespeare movie. -
hi this is kinda weird...we were just sitting here tonight me and Ethan...yeah yeah i know yeah right me and Ethan Hawk, but its true. were are in Vancouver B.C. and we were just checking the net to see what promotions they have for his new flick "Hamlet" and we kind of stumbled onto your comment about him representing Texans improperly and that you dont like him because of reality bites! we thought it was quite humorous and had a good laugh...but we want to know what it was exactly about Ethans performance that you didnt like? Ethans in the bathroom right now and doesnt know im writing this but i just had to know for myself....write back if you want....remember there are all types of people in the world the characters in Reality Bites did not represent all of Texas's young youth, just a small part of mid twenty year old young adults who not nesesarily know what they wanted to do with there life yet. if you did truly graduate from college in Texas then you missed the whole point of the experience of college if you are that close minded about people and others interpretations on a subject...sorry man but you sound like you didnt learn a damn thing in school except facts and dates and useless imformation(money well spent)....it was after all just a movie.......
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Ethan Hawke is a great actor. Maybe if you hated his character in Reality Bites so much, perhaps that means he's a really great actor. Just watch Gattaca, A
Midnight Clear, and his best film Before Sunrise. All you Ethan haters are idiots. You hate his character. Listen to yourselves, morons. If there is an actor to hate its Nic Cage. That sell-outs friends even hate him. Well I'm getting off topic, but I only brought him up cause I bet all you guys just love Nic Cage. You idiots got me reved up, I need a smoke. -
YOU GUYS ARE ALL FUCKING ASSHOLES
WHO COULDN"T RECOGNISE TALENT IF IT BUTT FUCKED YOU!!!
ETHAN HAWKE IS AN AWESOME ACTOR AND WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU TO SAY OTHERWISE YOU MOTHER FUCKERS!!!
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