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James Soderholm's avatar

I think it's the huge range of voices one needs to reflect both the complexity of the character and the difficulty of his ethical situation: to kill or not to kill (Claudius). Hamlet is a great puzzle to Hamlet and that's not at all easy to play for four hours on stage or in a movie.

I thought Mel Gibson's version was barely adequate precisely because Gibson does not remotely have the range it takes to carry off the role. But the sets were wonderful, the castle plausible, and the minor parts laudable. Paul Scofield is always brilliant and was a lovely, sad, weathered ghost. What did you think of that movie?

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Emma Silverthorn's avatar

Very similar, Gibson was not a natural Hamlet for me. The castle was very cool! I found Bonham Carter quite amusing as Ophelia - not sure that's the apt reaction!

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James Soderholm's avatar

I've started Wallace's mammoth novel three or fours times and gave up each time. Too tricksy for my tastes. But there's quite a bit of stuff on Google and YouTube about the connections you mention, most of it amateurish but clearly a few pedants have done their parallelism and intertextual homework.

Here's another one: apparently in Joyce's Ulysses, the text most alluded to is not Homer's Odyssey but Hamlet!

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Emma Silverthorn's avatar

A question not related to this post but related to Hamlet in a Meta way: have you read David Foster Wallace's 'Infinite Jest'? If so what did you think and how far would you say it can be related to Hamlet/Yorrick beyond the title? 🙏

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Emma Silverthorn's avatar

Two questions: 1. What do you think it is about Hamlet that makes him so notoriously difficult to play? 2. What did you think of Mel Gibson's version?!

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Emma Silverthorn's avatar

Two questions: 1. What do you think it is about Hamlet that makes him so notoriously difficult to play? 2. What did you think of Mel Gibson's version?!

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