Comparison of Hamlet move to Hamlet original play - Movie Review Example

In this review paper, the film Hamlet is compared to the play Hamlet for their similarities and differences. Comparison of Plot Between the film Hamlet and the play Hamlet, the overall meaning behind the plot can be said to be intact with the only form of changes coming with how scenes were arranged, the length of time given to each scene, assignment of speeches, and the lengths of speeches. Unlike the play which can be said to have been a complete representation of events, the 2000 film edition of Hamlet that was made had several scenes and parts of scenes that were rearranged.

A typical example of this is when in the film, Hamlet sprinkled dust over his father after the coffin that was carrying the remains of his father was covered with Claudius putting his sword over the coffin (FDU Magazine Online). In the play however, Shakespeare did not follow this style of arranging the scenes as in we see that in the play, Hamlet arrived after his father’s funeral and so would not have been there to do the sprinkling. There were other times also in the film that speeches were cut that were long in the original play.

Several of the speeches of Ophelia are typical examples of this. In short, the film was not as detailed in its plot as the play was. However, the director of the film can be pardoned as doing this as a way of ensuring that the actions were intensified and plot generally shortened (Casey). Use of Theme As far as theme is concerned, not much changes were noticed between the film Hamlet and the play Hamlet. In one commentary, Casey stressed that should the theme in the 2000 film by Michael Almereyda had changed, then we could not have been talking about the same piece of work remolded in a different platform.

This is because Shakespeare has a unique popularity with his themes, most of which could account for the influence that his works has (Shakespeare Remains, 17). In the play Hamlet, it could be noted that the writer had devised a strategy of presenting cardinal themes that were all weaved around a single theme of madness. These cardinal themes included grief, rage, revenge, treachery, incest, and moral corruption. In the film also, all these cardinal themes were seen and even with much exemplification.

The theme of the love between Hamlet and Ophelia was given more glamour and spice when Hamlet was made to arrive at Ophelia’s funeral at a time that she was yet to be put in the grave as was the case in the play. Coming to meet Ophelia lying on a white bed gave Hamlet much room to express and testify his love to her. A difference in the way that central theme was carried out in the film was that we did not see the director focusing on the dependent themes in a separated manner as was done with the play where various sections of the writing were used to represent one dependent theme or the other (FDU Magazine Online).

The film sees no such divisional representation of themes because of the way some plots were rearranged as has been mentioned earlier. Effect of Characterization Characterization is another important aspect of the two texts, which are the film and the play. Generally, whereas the play can be said to have used characters in a manner that was seemingly difficult to understand the plot, the film attempted to solve this by making characters play more simplified versions of their roles in the play (Shakespeare Remains, 33).

One typical way by which the director did this was when giving characters shorter versions of lines which made the