Major film versions of the play have starred [[Laurence Olivier]], [[Mel Gibson]], [[Kenneth Branagh]] and [[Ethan Hawke]]. For years, Olivier's performance was considered an inapproachable ideal. The Gibson version used modernized English and portrayed a grittier, tougher Hamlet. The Branagh version, clocking in at 4 hours because it includes every line in the play, features [[Billy Crystal]] in a comic role as the gravedigger. The Ethan Hawke version is set in Manhattan with Denmark as a corporation and Julia Stiles as a girl friend driven to suicide by Hamlet's antics. | Major film versions of the play have starred [[Laurence Olivier]], [[Mel Gibson]], [[Kenneth Branagh]] and [[Ethan Hawke]]. For years, Olivier's performance was considered an inapproachable ideal. The Gibson version used modernized English and portrayed a grittier, tougher Hamlet. The Branagh version, clocking in at 4 hours because it includes every line in the play, features [[Billy Crystal]] in a comic role as the gravedigger. The Ethan Hawke version is set in Manhattan with Denmark as a corporation and Julia Stiles as a girl friend driven to suicide by Hamlet's antics. |