Pretending to be mad, Hamlet plots and plans, but seems unable to bring himself to actually take action. When the ghost of Hamlet's father visits him, Hamlet learns that his father was murdered by his uncle and Hamlet swears revenge. Instead of Hamlet ascending to the throne, his uncle has taken the crown and Hamlet's mother for his own. He is the prince of Denmark whose father, the king, has died. Surely everyone is familiar with the story of Hamlet. Those comics acted as an introduction to those stories and this movie does the same.

I view this version almost like one of those old classic comics where great works of literature were turned into comic books. Everyone is familiar with that sentence and most would recognize dozens of others even if they've never actually seen the play performed.Ĭertainly more people saw this version of Hamlet because of Gibson's presence than would normally have seen it and that can only be a good thing. It certainly contains the six most famous written words in the English language with 'To be, or not to be'. It is nothing but a bunch of quotations strung together.' It's an amusing anecdote, but the play does indeed contain so many famous lines that have been quoted endlessly that you can almost excuse her. Isaac Asimov told a story of a woman who read Hamlet for the first time and said, 'I don't see why people admire that play so. Not only does he deserve credit for taking on the role, he actually does a surprisingly good job in the part. It certainly wasn't an obvious choice either by the filmmakers or by Gibson himself. As popular as he was at the time though, the idea of his portraying Hamlet was a bold one. In 1985 he was People Magazine's original Sexiest Man Alive. He was the star of the Lethal Weapon and Mad Max series of films along with many others, some, like The Year of Living Dangerously, even critically respected. In 1990 Mel Gibson was on top of the world. Alas, poor Mel Gibson! I knew him when he was on top of the world.

Zeffirelli hamlet full movie