Hamlet

9 Pages 2324 Words

osen for this fight. Branagh chooses Hamlet and Laertes to be in all white outfits with masks on. This helps with the more modern type of theme that he is going for, while at the same time emphasizes and sort of singles out the two doing battle on that bright red carpet. Zeffirelli takes a different approach, putting the actors in very heavy metal older fashion types of armor in which it too helps his outlook on the long fought battle. Another intriguing part that Zeffirelli does is he has each character take off a different piece of armor after one strikes another. This shows the guard that is let down by these characters toward one another. Branagh chooses not to do this, he chose to keep them fully armed trying to show again as a friendly struggle instead of the deception which it really is. Not only are Hamlet and Laertes dressed in different ways, but also the audience around the duel. Branagh puts these people in well dressed clothing to add to his rich sense of the movie, and to again show it as more of a social gathering more than a brutal battle. So when the mayhem begins it really broadens the feel of betrayal, by having these well dressed elegant people running around in reckless abandon. “Panic among the audience as Hamlet and Laertes go up the stairs to the balcony to continue the fight”(Editors)778. As where Zeffirelli has the bystanders wearing clothes of castles servants and as the dual breaks out of control the people are more trying to help break it up instead of running in fear, bringing more strength to the scene.

The choice of props used in these films brings up another big difference between these two. On the one hand you have Zeffirelli. In going along with his more medieval type of setting he uses props to help. In his view of Hamlet he gives Hamlet and Laertes extremely heavy swords with sharp tips to fight with. Zeffirelli even exaggerates a little to show the ...