Wednesday, May 20, 2015

How would you create a summary for an imagined adaptation for Shakespeare's Hamlet, keeping one of the themes of it? For example, you can make changes to the characters, their roles, the setting, and the like. Then, how would you summarize your justification for these changes?

Proposal for a new film adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet: a modern-dress interpretation called Ambivalence. In this riff on the classic tragedy, a young millennial, Ham (short for "Hamilton"), becomes convinced, during an LSD trip alongside his best friend Homer, that his stepfather, whom he loathes, has murdered his adored father. During the altered state, he sees and converses with his father, a heroic vet, whom Ham does not think he can ever live up to. His father asks him to seek revenge on his stepfather, Claud, while at the same time, not committing any violence against his mother, Gert.
During the rest of the film, Ham wrestles with deciding if his "vision" was real and told the truth or if it was a drug-induced version of a conspiracy theory. His LSD flashbacks cause erratic and even violent behavior, in which he hurls misogynistic insults at the girl he claims to love, O'fela, and challenges his mother to admit her sexual indiscretions. Yet at one point, he has an opportunity to kill Claud without being detected, but decides against it, as Claud claims he is going to Bible study.
By the film's end, Ham has reached a state of stasis, apparently almost at peace with his inaction, when a final confrontation with O'fela's brother, Larry, who blames Ham for his sister's suicide, ends with both of their deaths—but not before Larry has revealed that Ham's suspicions were right all along. Claud and Gert end as collateral damage in the fight, and Homer is left to upload the video showing the world what the truth was.
Changes to characters: Virtually none, except to update names and setting to modern era.
Number of characters: Reduced to core group, several subplots cut; although, "Gravediggers scene" is kept and presented as Goth kids digging up graves.
Script: Original dialogue is kept, but script (original runs five hours uncut), is trimmed down to two hours running time, with some scenes shown as simply action and no dialogue.

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