VCCS Litonline Introduction to Literature
English 112 (English Composition II)

The Hamlet Site

The Hamlet Players on Hamlet:

Notes from The Making of HAMLET (HBO 1989)

Objective for this Page: To provide the actors’ and the director’s interpretations of their roles and the movie.

Mel Gibson on Hamlet

His main problem was that no one understood him, yet throughout the play his is the sole voice of reason.

Hamlet is over the edge with his mother.

He's a very pure spirit poisoned by his father's death, his mother's quick marriage, and his father's revelation [that his brother killed him].

Hamlet suppresses his frustrations by beating up on himself.

He's disgusted at his mother; he's lost his girl.

People identify with Hamlet's exploration of life's meanings.

Hamlet's not killing Claudius while he prays sets up all the other deaths in the play.

Hamlet doesn't understand death: "To be or not to be...," but sees it as "the undiscovered country" [the afterlife].

Humor precedes tragedy. Find the humor [and you can find] the tragedy.

Playing Hamlet is an assault on your personality.

Glenn Close on Gertrude

My Gertrude is very alive, sensual, athletic, vital; in a sense, they [Hamlet and Gertrude] "grew up together." She’s the sort of woman who has the lives of three men revolving around her.

The scene between Hamlet and Gertrude in her bedroom is "disturbingly physical, the emotional core of the play."

Franco Zeffirelli

Hamlet is "mad for this creature [Gertrude], jealous of" her relationship with Claudius, but this jealousy is not of the flesh [not sexually incestuous].

He feels abandoned by Gertrude in his grief.

Gertrude's perfume "permeates the halls of the castle."

Tell the story in accessible words [explains partly why he rearranged the order of some scenes and cut others entirely and cut down longer speeches].

other observations from The Making of HAMLET

Gibson's intent practice of the line (which he later Australizes anyway) "pith and marrow of our attribute" demonstrates his study of pitch, intonation, diction, and rhythm to suggest the emotion of a line.

The battlements set was built (using styrofoam surfacing to give it the right look); other filming was done at Black Ness castle, at Dover, or in the studio.

Hamlet is internationally read and performed because it is the story of a new father, a murdered brother, an attractive wife; that is, because of the family conflict, the murder mystery, and the revenge story.

See: Joseph Campbell's The Power of Myth: Hamlet's quest

Assessment: Choose a comment and look for evidence within the movie to evaluate its merit.

KON Warner Bros. Film, "The Making of Hamlet, " is © 1989 by HBO.

ICON Majestic Hamlet (1989) © Warner Bros., A Time Warner Entertainment Company