***1/2
Alright, I know I’m pushing the edges of the Horrorthon envelope with this review, but I’m going for it. If you all disagree with this as a horror film, please let your discontent be known, and I’ll ease up. But, I’ve been emboldened by “The Great Train Robbery” being included. So, here’s my case:
Hamlet comes back from school to find INCEST between his uncle and mother as they have married. His father’s GHOST tells Hamlet that he was in fact MURDERED. Hamlet thus spends the rest of the film seeking REVENGE. When Hamlet is too slow to act, his father’s ghost comes back HAUNTING him to remind him of his job. So, we have a film with incest, a ghost, murder, revenge, and a haunting. I say, if we allow Horror-comedy, horror-scifi, horror-porn, then perhaps this one falls into the category of horror-drama. If it was Macbeth, there would be no argument, but, I’ll wait to listen to “your better wisdoms”.
My wife and I are going to NYC in a couple weeks to see a production of Hamlet, so if this one doesn’t qualify, you’ve got to let me know, because I may just watch another film adaptation of Hamlet.
Back to the review: this was a Canadian televison version of the film starring Campbell Scott (from Singles). It’s unique in that it actually goes along with the theory that Hamlet is crazy, and takes the story from there. Great performance by Scott, but a weak Ophelia seriously diminish one of the main plot points of the story. Worthwhile, only if you’re doing an exhaustive study of Hamlet on film.
5 comments:
Ha ha! I think this totally qualifies. Even before you started capitalizing words I thought "Hmm, ghost! Okay." And you left out the part about the CRAZY PEOPLE. I myself have an entry coming up that was emboldened by The Great Train Robbery's running time.
I like Campbell Scott, even though he's got a first name for a last name and vice versa.
Nice review Trevor and kudos to you on this fine choice of films.
Funny, I was thinking about trying to sneak in a review of the Macbeth production I caught in Stratford, Canada this past weekend.
At least yours is an actual movie.
Nice review--I don't think I've seen this version.
We were much stricter in past years. The rules were that the movie's intention had to be to scare the audience. That's gone out the window and I can't say anything (as I reviewed High School Musical) but I still think we should adhere to the "no more than 5 movies under an hour" rule.
AC reviewed live theater last year and I thought that was great!
Cool! You made your case as far as I'm concerned.
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