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  • 1 year ago
Claudius (Alan Bates) confesses his sins in the chapel, and Hamlet (Mel Gibson) debates whether or not to kill him.

FILM DESCRIPTION:
Franco Zeffirelli directs his third Shakespeare adaptation (after Romeo and Juliet and Otello) with this film version of the tragedy Hamlet. The titular prince of Denmark (Mel Gibson), returns home to his family's castle of Elsinore after years of attending school in Germany to find out his father has died and his uncle Claudius (Alan Bates) is the new king. To make matters worse, Claudius has married Hamlet's mother, Queen Gertrude (Glenn Close), whom he has unusually strong feelings for. Hamlet is visited by his father's ghost (Paul Scofield), who asks him to seek revenge for his murder. In order to find out who the real killer is, Hamlet stages a theatrical scene resembling his father's death. Claudius is upset by the production and leaves to arrange for Hamlet's murder. In the ensuing confusion, Hamlet accidentally kills Polonious (Ian Holm) instead of Claudius; Hamlet's lover, Ophelia (Helena Bonham Carter), goes mad and commits suicide; and eventually Hamlet and Claudius both meet their fate.

CREDITS:
TM & © Warner Bros. (1990)
Cast: Alan Bates, Mel Gibson
Director: Franco Zeffirelli
Producers: Dyson Lovell, Bruce Davey
Screenwriters: Christopher De Vore, William Shakespeare, Franco Zeffirelli

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Transcript
00:00Tis now the very witching time of night, when churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out contagion to this world.
00:16Now could I drink hot blood and do such bitter business as the day would quake to look on.
00:30Soft now to my mother.
00:33All my offence is rank, it smells to heaven.
00:37It hath the primal eldest curse upon it, a brother's murder.
01:00Now might I do it, Pat, now he's a praying, and now I'll do it.
01:05And so he goes to heaven, and so am I revenged.
01:09That would be scant.
01:12A villain kills my father, and for that I, his sole son, do this same villain send to heaven.
01:17When he is fit and seasoned for his passage.
01:22Why, this is hire and salary, not revenge.
01:26Oh!
01:27Oh!
01:29Oh!
01:31Wretched state!
01:34Oh!
01:35Possum glad as death!
01:39No, when he is drunk asleep, or in his rage, or in the incestuous pleasure of his bed.
01:45Then trip him that his heels may kick at heaven, and that his soul may be as damned and black as hell whereto it goes.
01:53Now to my mother.
01:54And now to my mother.
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