Gregory Doran's Hamlet

In preparing for our first discussion on Hamlet, having already viewed Gregory Doran’s 2009 film adaptation, we deemed it necessary to devote time and focus on the film’s primary “set pieces,” its unique depictions of various characters, and its narrative techniques used to further enrich the onscreen storytelling process. Professor Clary helped bring to our attention how even such aesthetic choices which may appear seemingly trivial at first glance, such as the actors cast themselves, can go so far as to put an entirely new spin on things. To give an example, Patrick Stewart, who played both Claudius and the Ghost of Hamlet’s Father in the David Tennant version, also played Claudius alongside Derek Jacobi’s Hamlet in a made-for-TV movie broadcast thirty years prior. Jacobi himself
Made highly dependent on the wishes and whims of her father and brother alike, it is when Polonius dies that she begins slipping into madness, picking flowers and reciting lamentation poems as a direct result of being unable to rightly mourn her father’s death. Following a similar train of thought, there can be no doubt that Ophelia has succumbed to some form of insanity; the only question that matters is whether she could have been clinically diagnosed, or was even beyond treatment, before she took her own life.
Clearly depicting the secretive and gossiping atmosphere, underlying the play itself, we see the use of video surveillance cameras in the David Tennant version reflects Claudius’ doubtful and trustless state back on Hamlet himself. Through breaking the camera following him, Hamlet is further symbolized as a chaotic presence in Denmark. In taking such measures to establish freedom for himself from mortal eyes, one wonders if Hamlet is truly free from prying eyes, or if he is still being subjugated by forces out of his control, perhaps of a more supernatural