For those of you who think that Clueless (1995) is low brow humor, I give you the following.  As supposedly ditzy protagonist Cher Horowitz (Alicia Silverstone) is driven home by her former stepbrother Josh Lucas (Paul Rudd) and his girlfriend Heather (Susan Mohun), Heather complains about their philosophy course.  Heather and Josh exchange some flowery language before she resorts to quoting the title character in William Shakespeare’s timeless play Hamlet, published in 1603.  It may have been almost 400 years old in 1995, but five years earlier in 1990 there came the film version starring Mel Gibson in the eponymous role.  In the late 1980s and into the 1990s, Gibson was considered to be fetching by woman-kind, so naturally the popular Cher would have seen his work.  Armed with this, er, knowledge(?), she is able to correct Heather, pointing out that it was Polonius (Ian Holm) who uttered the lines Heather spoke.  The sequence fascinates me because, like God using the most unlikely of people to correct humanity, someone like Cher is not the one you would expect to know such things.  Sadly, I am not here to review Clueless, which I have already done.  Instead, I will give you my impressions of the film she was familiar with, which is sad for other reasons.

Since Hamlet is one of the most famous tragedies of all time, it makes sense that it begins with the death of a king (Paul Scofield).  Among the mourners at his funeral are his wife, Queen Gertrude (Glenn Close), and son, Hamlet.  While Hamlet’s grief remains, it is Queen Gertrude who gets over her pain quickest.  Within weeks of her husband being dead she is married to her brother-in-law, who becomes King Claudius (Alan Bates) of Denmark.  Hamlet does not take this development well, sulking throughout the wedding celebrations.  As a feast takes place, Hamlet’s friend Horatio (Stephen Dillane) inform the prince of a strange phenomenon they have witnessed upon the castle walls.  For the past few nights, they have perceived a specter walking the battlements that appears as the late king.  With as much Hamlet misses his father, he is quick to leap at the chance to commune with the spirit.  Though he is cautioned otherwise, Hamlet speaks to his dead father, who informs his son that he had been poisoned by King Claudius.  Further, the previous ruler desires vengeance.  Hamlet promises to do so, and then makes his friends swear to not only keep silent about what they have seen and hear, but to follow him on his quest.  The problem, though, is that one does not simply go about saying the ghost of my dead father told me he was murdered.  Instead, Hamlet increasingly behaves in a strange manner that eventually cannot be ignored.  In order to prove for themselves how aberrant is the prince, King Claudius and Queen Gertrude arrange a test involving Ophelia (Helena Bonham Carter).  She is the daughter of Polonius, their trusted advisor, and a woman that Hamlet intends to marry.  The king and queen arrange for Polonius to meet Hamlet alone, then observe how he goes off on her, basically telling her that she must leave the Danish court because it has become fouled.  Not long after this, Hamlet devises a way in which he can better gauge his uncle’s complicity in the death of his father.  One day, a traveling band of performers come to the castle, and he arranges for them to put on a performance for the court.  During it, they are to put on a show wherein a king is poisoned in a manner similar to how his father died.  Hamlet believes that if King Claudius reacts peculiarly at this moment, it will prove the upstart monarch’s guilt.  It unfolds exactly how Hamlet predicts, which only increases his agitation.  Afterwards, he goes to Queen Gertrude, and in a really awkward scene, yells in her face about betraying the memory of her late husband and being complicit in the murder.  Her protestations of innocent ease his mind, a little.  Yet, he is piqued once more when he hears a rustling behind a tapestry.  Thinking it is King Claudius, he immediately puts his sword through it, but it turns out to be Polonius.  When King Claudius learns of the murder, he orders Hamlet to be banished to England, and hopes to have the prince killed in that country.  On the way, Hamlet intercepts the letters making these arrangements, and thus lives.  While he is away, Polonius has her own break with reality.  She begins speaking to people who are not there and believing that nails are daisies, among other ravings.  So far gone is she that she does not recognize her own dear brother, Laertes (Nathaniel Parker), when he returns from his travels.  She commits suicide not long thereafter by drowning herself.  Hamlet gets back to town on the day of her funeral, and Laertes blames him for every bad thing that has been happening of late, not the least for his father and sister.  As such, he challenges Hamlet to something like a duel.  It involves swords, but it takes place in public and I guess that death is not supposed to happen.  However, King Claudius comes to Hamlet with a plan to kill the prince.  King Claudius will have a cup of poisoned wine on hand for Hamlet to drink during the contest.  Just in case, Laertes is lacing one of his blades with venom.  As for the fight, Hamlet is winning, much to the delight of Queen Gertrude.  So pleased is she by her son’s performance that she takes a drink from the poisoned chalice.  The effects of the toxin start to show just as Laertes gets a cut Hamlet’s arm.  At this moment, Hamlet sees the treachery and takes the tampered blade and stabs Laertes.  As Laertes dies, he admits to the plot.  Before Hamlet keels over, he makes sure that King Claudius is dead.  With some last words to Horatio, the sweet prince, with “flights of angels” singing him to his rest.

I did not use the “thee” and “thy” in these last words of Hamlet because we are in the twenty-first century.  I sometimes have trouble with Shakespearean language in general unless I am reading it, so the less confusion the better.  What is more generally confusing is what to make of Hamlet as a character.  Is he a hero or a villain?  More to the point of The Legionnaire, does God look at any of us as a hero or villain?  The argument can be made that Hamlet’s actions are a bit extreme, and I have the scene that takes place with Queen Gertrude after the play in mind in making this assertion.  At the same time, when we are wronged, it is natural for any of us to want to see justice done.  Often, this is a kind of comeuppance of our own conception rather than being based on anything God would want of us.  If we would stick to God’s law, we would live in paradise, though thus will it be in Heaven.  Still, this warped notion of right and wrong, which can only come forth from the mind of us fallen people, has led people to behave as Hamlet or Laertes, or worse.  Entire countries, like Nazi Germany, have blamed entire races for their problems and gone about the business of mass murder.  At the same time, even the grossest of acts as motivated by these base impulses has a path to forgiveness.  We see this with King Claudius.  While he ultimately chooses evil in the end, after the infamous play he is clearly distraught in his apparent role in the death of his brother and the usurpation of the throne of Denmark.  There is a scene when Hamlet spots his uncle kneeling before an altar, with a Crucifix above it, praying for forgiveness.  Even Hamlet recognizes King Claudius’ desire for repentance in this moment and does not exact his vengeance at that opportune time.  This is because there is conflict in him, and most of his speeches are about what kind of person he is, whether he is good or bad.  God knows us and desires us, and wants us to be with Him so much that He grants us pardon for our sins.  I hope this helps you whenever you are feeling angst about a situation.

One small data point about which I had angst after watching Hamlet is how faithful is it to the source material.  I do not claim to be a Shakespeare effort, nor did I read the play.  Hence, I have no good frame of reference on the matter.  From what I can tell, the reviews are generally favorable on this aspect.  Otherwise, it is okay.  If that is not enough reason to view it, see it for all the common phrases that originate from it.  There are many, and thus the work deserves respect.