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Comparison of Ethan Hawke's and Kenneth Branagh's Versions of Hamlet

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Comparison of Ethan Hawke's and Kenneth Branagh's Versions of Hamlet
Modern day directors use a variety of methods to hold ones interest. Ethan Hawke and Kenneth Branagh's created versions of Hamlet that shared some similarities, but ultimately had many differences in respects to an audience's appeal. An appealing movie is one that has an alluring ambiance and an intellectual stimulus. With these two movie versions, a setting and a mood forced an audience to acquire specific emotions, but Ethan Hawke's version generated emotions more strongly and effectively. Also, these movies had extremely different uses of music and visuals, but both movie versions incorporated them well for the ambiance it tried to obtain. Finally, both movie versions drew characters to captivate the audience; however in Ethan Hawke's version, the characters were used so effectively that it was easy to feel involved with them. While both these versions of Hamlet had a captivating ambiance, Ethan Hawke's version was more appealing due to the intellectual incentive that it offered.

Setting and mood are methods of direction that can change a film's ambiance and bring on an adundance of intelligent thoughts. Hawke and Branagh both reproduced Hamlet with a setting and mood that were both appealing for an audience. For instance, Hawke created a film much unlike Shakespeare's play with a modern day setting. At the start of the film, the mood was set using modern visuals and melodies. Then a soliloquy of Hamlet was seen stating his troubling inner emotions. These scenes created a mood of youth and despair which eventually would become very effective in the plot of the film and the development of Hamlet's character. Branagh's version created a setting and a mood similar to Shakespeare's original play. The beginning of the play opened with two guards waiting for the appearance of a ghost. Traditional music and dark visuals like a statue of Hamlet's father created a mood of darkness and anxiety. This gave the film suspense which was much needed for the story. Clearly,

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