Comparing Two Film Versions Of Mel Gibson's Hamlet

English students usually hate studying Hamlet due to its extremely hard language and its difficult concepts, my teacher taught us Hamlet using a condensed kid’s version along with two movies, one being a traditional version and the other being traditional and the other being a little more modern. She also included the 1964 Broadway play. Next year there will be a limited time for teachers to teach the unit and the teachers may not have the time to use all four to teach the seniors. If next year’s seniors can only study one version of Hamlet, It should be Mel Gibson’s Hamlet from 1990. One reason this is an excellent version to teach is the acting, it makes it easier to understand although they talk in Shakespearean English the acting will make it easier to interpret the story. For instance the scene where Hamlet goes to talk to his mother and accidently kills Polonius, that scene is filled with emotion and pain, the way Hamlet expresses anger to his mother is shockingly amazing. The acting will not only be intriguing to the students but it will give them a complete understand by also feeling the emotion shown in the movie.
The Medieval era is brought to life, you get to experience the lifestyle and the culture during that period of time. There are many scenes where the aesthetics just speak for themselves, the fencing match is the perfect example. The anger that both Hamlet and Laertes had at each other as they swung the swords at each other made me feel like I was actually there, and the bystanders cheering them on made it more realistic and exciting, I didn’t feel like I was watching movie. The action and acting will really keep students intrigued and keep their eyes glued to the