Hamlet: Introduction

As originally performed in the early 1600’s, William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, since then has been open to multiple directors’ ideas and their own interpretation of the play to change them into their own. Kenneth Branagh who directed the 1996 version staring himself as Hamlet and Franco Zeffirelli who directed the 1990 version staring Mel Gibson as Hamlet both show us how drastically they can alter the meaning of the script without even changing a single word of it. In Act 1, Scene 2 both directors are aware of the importance of portraying the family relationship between Hamlet, Gertrude, and Claudius but both strive for a different take on how that is exactly established.  

It is can be understood of how crucial of a role the director plays in in directing the setting, costume, lighting, actors, camera angles etc. that although the two more recent versions were based off of the same script, they resemble almost two completely different films.