Out of the three versions of Hamlet, the one that appealed to me the most is the Franco Zeffirelli version with Mel Gibson as Hamlet. The movie starts with music that sets a very dark and revengeful tone which was intriguing and made me curious of what the first scene would be.
The first scene starts with the death of Hamlet senior which was appropriate to the introduction music. The lighting and the camera angles captured the meanings of the lines in the movie as well. At one point, Hamlet's face was half under the shadows and the other half in light, showing his evil side that will probably later occur in the movie. Another scene with an interesting camera angle was the close-up between Gertrude and Claudius. It made me doubt whether Gertrude actually had taken part in the killing of the king. Her expression did not give the story away yet was thought-provoking which I liked.
The actors in this version were also the best in my opinion. They looked more of how I pictured them to look. I felt their accents were more realistic than the other versions too. The whole setting and taking place in the 12th century made the movie precise in comparison to the book which was the aspect that captivated me and made me appreciate this version as the best one.
This film version did not really appeal to me. I was slightly disappointed when the first scene with the ghost was cut of from the movie. For me, that eerie part ultimately set the tone for the play. Also, I expected Hamlet to be younger. It felt awkward when Gertrude and Hamlet looked similar in age. Their slight penchant to each other seemed distracting and misleading.If I were to randomly walked in on the scene (without knowing the any of the characters) where Gertrude caressed Hamlet, I would probably assume that they had something between them.
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