Hamlet: The Ghost Scene

        The ghost scene of Hamlet is portrayed in multiple different ways by multiple different directors. Some more modern than others, and some with more mystery than the rest. We have seen the same scene from three different movies. The first was Zeffirelli's take on the scene. He left far more room for mystery as he only showed a portion of the ghost's face. In this version, the actors show a great deal of emotion. Both the ghost and Hamlet show a combination of great sorrow and great anger. This contributes to the overall message of the scene.
        In Zeffirelli 's take, he did include music, but you couldn't really hear it until after the ghost had finished his monologue. If we could have heard it during the speech however, I think it would have diluted its impact. In the Branagh version, it was very music intensive. However in that take, the music sort of aided the overall message. In the Almereyda take, there was no music at all. This led to the scene being somewhat plain.
        The Zeffirelli version utilized very little lighting, and was therefore able to create more mystery and suspense. With Branagh, there was enough light that we could clearly see the entire ghost, and that made it slightly less ominous. The most modern version, the Almereyda, was very well lit. Everything that happened could be seen very clearly. Since the director did this, the scene was not as impressive as it could have been.
        The oldest version of this movie was the Zeffirelli. Because of that, he didn't have many special effects at his disposal. Branagh used almost nothing but special effects. In the chase scene, he kept flashing us to images of smoke and explosions and many other things. And during the flashbacks, he showed many details of everything that happened using all of these effects. And despite Almereyda having the most modern version, he used no special effects. He decided to leave the scene plain and allow us to interpret it in our own way.
        As I already mentioned, Branagh depends on flashbacks to provide insight into what actually happened. This makes our jobs, as the viewers, easier as we can understand the backstory much better. In the other two takes on the scene, no flashbacks were used. This didn't provide us with as much information as we couldn't as easily envision what had happened and how.
        Zeffirelli also used a prop in his scene, but all it was was a single sword held by Hamlet. This led to the assumption that he may not have been certain that following the ghost was a good idea, and that he was possibly a little afraid. Branagh uses only the armor on the ghost to show the mood. This leads us to the thinking that the ghost may have been preparing for an unknown war. As for Almereyda, he has the ghost dab a cloth on his ear continually to make a connection to how he was murdered. This had a great impact on the people who watched the scene.
        Although all three of the movies are very different, I thought that they all did a very good job as to portraying the main ideas. I agree with the choices that all of the directors made in their movies. However, I have to say that the version that I liked the most was the Zeffirelli because it was very pure and it was the one I could relate to the most. The emotions semmed the most genuine in that production.
        If I was to approach this in my own way, I would have only the eyes of the ghost visible at all times until he faded away. The ghost would be simply sorrowful, while Hamlet felt extremely angry towards his uncle, and towards his mother for her lust towards the man who killed her former husband. I would also have ominous music playing just audible enough to hear during the ghosts monologue. And when the ghost finally left, I would make a mysterious wind blow through the scene.