It
is the year 2000. The top executive of a New York corporation
is suddenly reported dead. His brother marries the widow and
takes over the helm at the firm. Coming home from school is
the son, who is suspicious of foul play. His suspicions are
confirmed when he encounters a ghost, a spirit of his father
who tells him of the murder by his uncle. The son is determined
on revenge, and the police are not called to investigate.
He tries to convince his former sweetheart, but she is unsure
of the events surrounding the CEO’s death and unhappy that
he does not love her any more. He confronts his mother, shoots
a pistol into a closet out of rage and kills his sweetheart’s
father, who was hiding. His erstwhile sweetheart commits suicide,
and her brother challenges the son to a duel. During the duel,
both men die, but not before the son’s mother dies of poison
that his uncle intended for his nephew, and the son guns down
his uncle. When the story is over, all seven protagonists
are dead. The "insolent" rich who thought that they were above
the law are buried below the earth, taking to their graves
three youthful idealists. The story, of course, is a modern
version of Hamlet, directed by Michael Almereyda,
juxtaposed against New York scenery, with much but not all
the original dialog, starring Ethen Hawke as Hamlet. Of the
more than thirty movie versions of Hamlet, this
one will probably top the list for many years to come. Only
a genius could have conceived of the idea of bringing Shakespeare’s
1602 classic into the modern era in this manner, though the
execution of the modern version has one flaw: Each actor delivers
lines in different styles, mostly in Shakespearean prose,
but some with modern inflections, notably Bill Murray as Polonius;
the voice-overs are also quite muffled. The film is a must
see for Shakespeare aficionados, who can be heard cooing and
purring during the clever way in which four-hundred-year lines
are sometimes integrated with high-tech communication devices.
Perhaps for audiences in the year 2000 the thought may occur
to some that in 400 years our civilization has developed to
the point where deaths are always investigated by police as
possible murders and the ease of acquiring guns is now suspect,
but the rich and powerful still prefer to believe that they
are above the law, and the unsettled emotions of youth remain.
MH
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