Act 3: Scene 1 (Kenneth Branagh)

The book Hamlet by William Shakespeare contains lots of famous lines, one of the most famous line should be the line “To be or not to be—that is the question” (line 64). The reason why the line “To be or not be—that is the question” so famous is that the line contains profound philosophy of the meaning of life. Whether is it nobler to suffer the misfortunes or to take arms against a sea of troubles? And also the line (64) strongly expresses the characterization of hamlet. The speech of hamlet deeply cogitate the meaning of life. In hamlet’s view, the death is the best way to get rid of misfortunes and heartache (line 65-70), but no one have the courage to die because no one knows about what dream would come in the sleep of death (line 76). Because of the fear of the unknown world, people would rather to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune than to choose the end the life. Over time, numerous actors tried to act the famous speech as hamlet himself, but only a few of the actors act successfully according to the book Hamlet. Some actors even change the background of place where hamlet should be in order to express the feeling of hamlet while he is speaking the famous speech. The changes totally change the connection of the play. Among the three actors Kenneth Branagh, Alexander Fodor, and Laurence Olivier, I think the performance by Kenneth Branagh is the best among the three performances. Because the performance by Kenneth Branagh is closest to the original contents of the book Hamlet and also the most accurately express the feeling of hamlet while he is speaking the line. According to the performance by Kenneth Branagh, hamlet is standing before a mirror, facing to the mirror and talking to himself. The look of hamlet should be sullen and desperate, Kenneth Branagh acts perfectly as Hamlet. The way of speaking of Kenneth is identical to the way of hamlet speaks. The tone of Kenneth is hoarse and sorrowful, that exactly express the feelings of hamlet. Standing before the mirror, hamlet is asking himself a profound philosophical question. He wants to end his life, because the misfortunes almost crash him down. The ruthless murder of his father, the incestuous marriage of his mom with his uncle, the unhappy love with Ophelia, these misfortunes pitilessly torment hamlet’s mind. Looking at him-self from the mirror, hamlet feels helpless, no one understands him. His mood is sad and sullen. Kenneth Branagh expresses the mood perfectly. Also, the setting of the performance by Kenneth Branagh is most accurate to the original setting according to the book. Kenneth Branagh shipped some sentences which I think is very important to the plot of the story. “And by a sleep to say we end the heartache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to” (line 69). The line is extremely important because hamlet think the death is flesh is heir to. No one could have eternal of life, which means all humans’ beings are mortal. He thinks death can help him to get rid of misfortunes. Next re-enactment is performed by Alexander Fodor. In my opinion, the performance is the worst among those three performances. The way of speaking of Alexander is tame and expressionless. Alexander plays as hamlet; the hamlet seems to be in a daze. Instead of holding a knife or standing before the mirror, hamlet is holding a microphone and recording his speech. The set up of this movie makes me no sense. At the beginning of the movie, hamlet kiss a corpse, the corpse seem to be hamlet’s father. The setting of this movie is inaccurate to the original setting of the play. The setting of the speech is occur in hamlet’s mind while he is asleep, which is also inaccurate to the setting of the play according to the book. The last movie is acted by Laurence Olivier. The movie is in black and white. The setting of the movie is quite different from others. In this movie, hamlet is sitting at the edge of a cliff, and looking down at the outrageous wave. The camera seems goes into hamlet’s mind from the top of hamlet’s head. And then the shape of brain occurs. This set up shows that hamlet is considering the philosophical question—“to be or not to be.” The way of speaking is a little sullen and a little tame. The hamlet in this movie seems to be impassive. Hamlet is not talking but pondering. Hamlet takes out a knife from his pocket and does a motion tried to commit suicide. This scene shows that hamlet is suicidal and wants to end his life. In my opinion, hamlet acts less expression and less emotion, which cannot deliver the true feelings of hamlet to the audiences and the viewers.
Among those three movies, I think the performance by Kenneth Branagh is the best representation of hamlet. Kenneth Branagh perfectly expresses the feelings of sullen and mad of hamlet. The setting of the plot also is the best among those three. The hoarse tone of Kenneth Branagh delivers the painful feelings to the audiences, which also shows the characterization of hamlet. The performance by Alexander Fodor is the worst among those three. The plot of the scene has changed a lot, which make the scene inaccurate to the original scene of the book. The way of hamlet speak the great speech is tame and expressionless, which makes the audiences feel bored. The last movie by Laurence Olivier is okay. Because the scene shows how hamlet feels and what he is thinking. But the way of the speaking is a little bit tame and impassive. This makes the audiences lose the curiosity to continue to watch the movie. In my opinion, I prefer the re-enactment by Kenneth Branagh because his performance is the most accurate to the original play and my imagination base on the reading of the book.