“To Be Or Not To Be? That is the question.” Now we see this in three different scenes. The scene that we are the most familiar with is with Mel Gibson. Here when Gibson is giving his speech, he is in the basement of his castle where his father's casket is laying. As he is speaking, he is looking around at all of the different things almost wondering what the after life is like and trying to find clues from these different artifacts.
In another scene of “To Be Or Not To Be” we see Lawrence Olivier. The scene starts out with him, sitting on what looks like a cliff surrounded by water. There is also a lot of fog. The camera shot almost the entire time is just of Olivier talking and not moving from that one position. He also has a knife that he takes out of his pocket and rolls around in his hand.
In the final scene, we see Kenneth Branagh contemplating suicide while looking in a mirror. In fact, the entire room has mirrors. There are people watching him through the other side of the mirror and are trying to understand what he is talking about. This camera shot is also of him looking in the mirror almost the entire time he is making his speech. Branagh also has a knife that he is rolling around in his hand while speaking.
There are some similar things in the three different speeches of “To Be Or Not To Be”. When Olivier and Branagh are speaking, there is mainly only one camera shot on just the actor not moving. The two of them also pull out a knife that they had in their jackets. In all three of the scenes, every actor has a blank stare. It is understandable that they are thinking, and everyone gets that “day dreaming” look on their faces, but these three men almost look crazy. It is also seen that the actors are playing characters that are wealthy. You can tell by the way they are dressed and where they are that they are not some people who wear rags and barely get by.
Now I know that in Shakespeare's Hamlet, Hamlet is depressed with his fathers death, his mothers quick marriage to his uncle, and seeing a ghost and that these reasons make him feel so crazy as to end his life. But just something to think about... Hamlet is royalty and can have anything his heart desires, yet he still is contemplating suicide. So does being wealthy really make you happy? (just a thought, I know it might be completely off topic, but it connects in some way I think)
