Modern Day Shakespeare #2

http://www.nytimes.com/1999/03/18/movies/all-world-s-stage-ruled-guess-who-why-shakespeare-resonates-with-modern-age.html?smid=pl-share

Dear Michiko Katutani,

In your "recently" published article "All the World's a Stage, Ruled by Guess Who; Why Shakespeare Resonates With the Modern Age" I found that you made some compelling points for the popular resurfacing of Shakespeare adapted entertainment, and for the most part I agree with your reasoning.

In one of your points you argue that Shakespeare today is able to accepted through all aspects of the literature spectrum. Classic literature in the modern world can many times be mowed over for more newer and relatable aspects of literature, but the modernization of the Shakespeare can be used to satisfy the left- and right-wings of literature theory.

Another one of your key ideas for Shakespeare's popularity, is the flexibility of his work. No one owns his work, so everyone is subject to reinterpret his ideas in their own fashion. Whether it be in a romantic, restorative, or modernistic approach, there is room for everyone to speak from their own visualization of Shakespeare.

Finally, your article is summed up with the influence modernized Shakespeare can have on todays teens. By turning Shakespeare into an upbeat intriguing movie, rather than a stuffy, boring script, it allows kids to have their interest sparked in Shakespeare. In some circumstances these teens can even relate to the romantic confusion portrayed in many of his plays.

All-in-all I very much enjoyed your article, and I found it refreshing to find out that Shakespeare is more than just high school “required literature.” While, I might not end up being too pleased to be reading Hamlet right now, I know that it will be around for a while, and hopefully I can draw from it some important things.

Hamlet Film Trailer #1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ff14DH5WOSM

Although there is no text track in this modern adaptation of Hamlet, the dialogue is taken directly from the text of Act 1. Scene 2, in which Hamlet says in a soliloquy:

O God, God,
How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
.....'Tis an unweeded garden
That grows to seed. Things rank and gross in nature
Posses it merely. That it should come to this:
But two months dead--nay, not so much, not two.
So excellent a king that was to this
Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother
That he might not beteem the winds of heaven
Visit her face too roughly.....
.....Why she would hang on him
As if increase of appetite had grown
By what it fed on. And yet within a month
Let me not think on 't; frailty, thy name is woman!

Throughout this portion of the soliloquy, we as viewer can see a man (most likely Hamlet) sitting at his computer, watching black and white videos of a man (most likely his father, the former king). We can tell that the watcher is obviously distraught because of the discontent played upon his face. It is assumed he is reminiscing about the man in the photos.

I believe the intended audience is for those who are familiar of the play Hamlet, because if I was not aware of what exactly the narration meant, I would have no clue as to what is going on. It was necessary to have some prior knowledge on this situation which makes me believe that the directed viewers are of those who are knowledgeable about Hamlet.