Hamlet

Franco Zeffirelli's Shakespeare adaptation, and the most argued-over casting of its moment: Mel Gibson. Gibson was known at the time for the Lethal Weapon films and the choice was met with disbelief. The result is far better than expected: Zeffirelli cuts and accelerates the text, and Gibson's Hamlet is not a man thinking but a man in constant motion, barely holding his anger. Zeffirelli removed a great deal of the play; the film runs a little over two hours and uses roughly half of Shakespeare's text. The Fortinbras strand is gone entirely. That choice annoyed anyone looking for fidelity and made the film watchable. It was shot in real castles, Dunnottar in Scotland above all, with stone, mud and cold standing in for set design. Glenn Close plays Gertrude and is only nine years older than Gibson, which became another point of argument. Alan Bates plays Claudius, Helena Bonham Carter plays Ophelia and Paul Scofield the ghost. A good way in for anyone who wants to approach Shakespeare through film. For a viewer who wants the whole text, it is seriously cut.