![]() She runs to Hamlet to wipe his brow, pushing Claudius and his poison cup aside, and turning, grabs the cup herself and on impulse, drinks deep from it. This is a Queen who knows her husband well, and his nervousness coupled with the perhaps unusual tradition of offering a cup of wine to the victor (an anachronism, surely), makes her suspect the worst. Gertrude has a certain smug pride in her son, and then decides Claudius is acting strangely. The audience may well think Laertes wants to try his hand at actually defeating the Prince without the poison, though the truth, as we will see, is something else entirely.Īs the fighting begins - and Hamlet 2000 doesn't really do anything too impressive with the swordplay - the King looks uncommonly haggard, his kingdom slipping away. Claudius looks dismayed, wondering if his plan is already going awry. Interestingly, when Laertes says his foil is too heavy and he wants another, he's actually refusing the poisoned one. He doesn't even answer, just goes for the foils. Hamlet is sincere and teary-eyed as he gives his apology, but Laertes cannot be thawed. It looks windy and precarious, but there's still an assembly of courtiers and news photographers to witness the event. If viewers start getting distracted, feel free to take a break then come back for the exciting conclusion.The setting for the duel is the Elsinore building's rooftop, the duelists dressed in fencing uniforms wired for electronic detection of hits. That's important because Hamlet is not only one of Shakespeare's most famous stories, it's also one of his longest, and this production clocks in at just over three hours. His goofy faces are tinged with despair, revealing the depths of Hamlet's misery. ![]() Tennant is especially fun to watch as he mugs for the camera and alarms other characters while seemingly in the throes of madness. ![]() Some viewers may have struggled with Shakespeare's beautiful poetry in school, but it leaps off the screen when delivered by these powerful performers. These modern touches make the scenes look familiar, but the language remains the same. Here, the complicated revenge plots and counterplots employ swords and daggers as well as pistols. ![]() In what was originally a TV movie, this classic tale is transported to modern times by the Royal Shakespeare Company. This lengthy film is worth watching all the way to terrible tragic finale. ![]()
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