Comparison Of Ethan Hawke'S And Kenneth Branagh'S Versions Of Hamlet

Modern day directors use a variety of methods to hold ones interest. Ethan Hawke and Kenneth Branagh's created versions of Hamlet that shared some similarities, but ultimately had many differences in respects to an audience's appeal. An appealing movie is one that has an alluring ambiance and an intellectual stimulus. With these two movie versions, a setting and a mood forced an audience to acquire specific emotions, but Ethan Hawke's version generated emotions more strongly and effectively. Also, these movies had extremely different uses of music and visuals, but both movie versions incorporated them well for the ambiance it tried to obtain. Finally, both movie versions drew characters to captivate the audience; however in Ethan Hawke's version, the characters were used so effectively that it was easy to feel involved with them. While both these versions of Hamlet had a captivating ambiance, Ethan Hawke's version was more appealing due to the intellectual incentive that it offered.

Setting and mood are methods of direction that can change a film's ambiance and bring on an adundance of intelligent thoughts. Hawke and Branagh both reproduced Hamlet with a setting and mood that were both appealing for an audience. For instance, Hawke created a film much unlike Shakespeare's play with a modern day setting. At the start of the film, the mood was set using modern visuals and melodies. Then a soliloquy of Hamlet was seen stating his troubling inner emotions. These scenes created a mood of youth and despair which eventually would become very effective in the plot of the film and the development of Hamlet's character. Branagh's version created a setting and a mood similar to Shakespeare's original play. The beginning of the play opened with two guards waiting for the appearance of a ghost. Traditional music and dark visuals like a statue of Hamlet's father created a mood of darkness and anxiety. This gave the film suspense which was much needed for the story. Clearly, both directors used the setting and the mood to play with particular emotions of the audience. However, Hawke was more creative in his methods and he created a non-traditional setting and mood that related more to a modern day audience. For example, Hawke focused on the mood by choosing camera shots during Hamlet's soliloquy that brought on strong feelings of traums and despair. Branagh's version had a traditional setting in medieval Denmark that was more difficult to connect to. As well, the mood of darkness and fear in Branagh's version was often lost with the abundance of information shared between the guards in the first few scenes. Hawke's version of Hamlet was creative and artistic. His film had a setting and a mood that strongly influenced the ambiance and that created an abundance of thought for a modern audience. Therefore, Hawke's Hamlet was more appealing to an audience in respects to the setting and the mood.

In these two movies, the right music and visuals had to be chosen in order to get the ambiance Hawke and Branagh tried to obtain. Each director chose different music and images that were very visual and auditive for an audience's appeal. In Hawke's version, visuals of New York and Times Square were appealing to an audience. Modern music at the beginning of the film caught the interest of the younger generation. As well, close ups of Hamlet were revealing to an audience and it was easy to feel infatuated by the character's nihilistic despair. Branagh's version used supernatural and dark visuals of ghosts, statues, and castles to produce feelings of awe and fear. The scene of the ghost was quick and staggering, and it created an automatic feeling of anxiety and fear. As well, the traditional use of classical music did a skillful job of creating suspense. Both directors appealed to an audience by using music and visuals