Which actor better portrays Hamlet: Kenneth Branagh or Mel Gibson? Why? Support your position with specific evidence from both movies.
OR
What actor SHOULD portray Hamlet? Why? Support your position with evidence from Hamlet (the play) and from your chosen actor's movies.
DO NOT repeat your classmates' ideas; if other people already posted ideas similar to yours, respond to a different question!
All responses are due by 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 21st.
Heath Andrew Ledger should have portrayed Hamlet if he was still alive today. His acting skill has been proved by many movies such as Knight's Tale, Brokeback Mountain, and The Dark Knight. In each of the movies in which he played a role, he showed us totally different characters, surprising how he could break out of personal characteristic and assimilate completely with the roles.
ReplyDeleteIn the play, probably the most important trait of Hamlet is insanity, or at least his faking of it. He is only focused on his goal, not caring about the others. He is almost lawless and ruthless when it comes to killing Claudius. Very similar to this, Joker from The Dark Knight is uncontrollable and becomes cruel to achieve his goal. In the movie, Joker embrangled the whole city and scare the people in it. It is almost the same as how Hamlet caused chaos in the palace and put people in horribleness. And of course they are both out of mind.
I think that Kenneth Branagh portrayed Hamlet better. I liked him more as Hamlet because throughout his movie his dialogue, even though it was spoken in Shakespearean time was easier to understand. When Gibson played Hamlet his dialogue was confusing and he didn’t really simplify his words for the audience. Branagh was a better Hamlet because I followed his actions and scenes as they were in the play, I could relate back to my book if I didn’t understand what was going on in that particular scene of the movie. Gibson’s acting was sometimes distort and emotionless and it made me lose interest, whereas Branagh was acting with emotion and very enthusiastic, he kept me interested and wanting to see more.
ReplyDeleteHugh Laurie, the star of the television show “House”, would portray Hamlet perfectly. A huge part of the play “Hamlet” is Hamlet’s insanity, and how well he goes about acting insane. Because the character that Hugh Laurie plays in the TV show (Dr. House) is practically insane, playing the role of Hamlet would be somewhat natural for
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The characters Dr. House and Hamlet are similar in many ways; they both make very extreme decisions without really thinking about the consequences, nor do they really care about the consequences that may result in their actions. Even though Hamlet’s insanity is supposed to all be in act I believe that if the act of insanity is stripped away, he is still somewhat insane. Just like Dr. House. Some of Dr. Houses actions could make anyone believe that he is a complete psycho, but almost every time his actions end up being logical in the end.
In my opinion Kenneth Branagh did a better job of portraying Hamlet than in comparison to Mel Gibson. My reasoning for this is because in the book Hamlet the character of Hamlet is acting as if he is crazy or insane. And in my opinion Branagh does a better job of this because he use’s great facial expressions throughout the movies which help him look crazy. Another reason I feel he was so good at this role was because he truly got into character and at certain parts actually passes for being crazy.
ReplyDeleteSo overall in both movies I think both actors did a wonderful job but Branagh was just slightly better. In my opinion I didn’t like Gibson as much because he did not get into the role as much and he did not seem crazy and as I stated earlier Hamlet is to act crazy or insane and Gibson just couldn’t pass as being crazy. Yet in my opinion I enjoyed each movie.
i think that Branagh better portrayed hamlet. gibson i feel didnt show hamlets actual turn to insanity as well as Branagh did. toward the end of the Branagh movie i actually thought he was insane and the acting i feel was much better and more emotional. gibson was a great actor but i feel like he was portrayed as sane when i feel that he was insane at that point.
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