Comparison of Zeffereli and Branagh version of essay Hamlet

scene, then in the chamber scene and lastly in the final scene.

Another scene that could be compared between the two productions is the madness scene. In this scene, Ophelia completely looses her mind as the love of her life turns out to be the murderer of her beloved father. In Zeffirelli’s version, Helena Bonham-Carter plays the part of Ophelia, while Kate Winslet for Branagh’s version. Kate Winslet did not fit well in the role of Ophelia. Ophelia is a character that is small, timid, and fragile. She is controlled by all that surround her, be it her father, Claudius, Laertes or even Hamlet. Her role should be played by a young looking character like Bonham-Carter, in the Zeffirelli production. Winslet may be an excellent actress but she did not seem the type that could be easily manipulated by anyone. The choice of actors determined the outcome of both movies, and Zeffirelli made the right choices. In fact, even the acting of the two actresses was quite different. Winslet was shown as completely lunatic in her movie. She starts running around in circles when the King arrives and has to wear a rag for her clothing. She is shown to be a mentally retarded individual that has no control of her emotions. In the Zeffirelli version, Bonham-Carter is less violent and more shocked—like she should be in a situation as Ophelia was in. Bonham-Carter tried to show that Ophelia was mentally unsound due to her situations, and not simply crazy. This makes sense since Ophelia must have been conscious of her surroundings that she decided to kill herself and relieve herself of her miseries. If Ophelia was completely lunatic then the possibilities of suicide must not have occurred to her. In addition, an interesting difference between the two films was that one showed that Ophelia and Hamlet had intercourse while the other just indicated the possibilities of this happening. In Zeffirelli’s version Bonham-Carter emphasizes the line, “An thou hadst not come to my bed” (4.5.64), by repeating it. This quote is part of the song that Ophelia sings to the King and the Queen in her mad state. This quote means that Hamlet and Ophelia could not meet because they already had sexual intercourse and that Hamlet did not want Ophelia any more since her ‘treasure’ was lost. In Zeffirelli’s version, Ophelia just emphasizes the line to indicate the probability of something of the sort happening. Just like Shakespeare, in his play, Zeffirelli did not give away the whole story to the audience and left the line for interpretation. In Branagh’s version, there is a rather vulgar clip of Winslet and Branagh having sex. This does not follow Shakespeare and does not capture the true meaning that Shakespeare was trying to deliver through his writing. Thus, the Madness scenes in the two versions were quite different due to the choice of actors and their acting and the direction. Zeffirelli’s production used these techniques to his advantage in order to bring out what Shakespeare was actually trying to tell his audience. Branagh’s version needed some work.

In the final and the most important scene of the play, the Zeffirelli version overpowers the Branagh version due to its magnificent use of media techniques. "Mel Gibson's 1990 version strives for realism, with remarkably accurate medieval sets and costumes, and little in t

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