Monday, September 9, 2013

The Truman Show: Another Retelling of Hamlet

While this was not exactly intended to be an appropriation of Shakespeare's work, this blog post details the similarities between Hamlet and Jim Carrey's film The Truman Show. While I have yet to read Hamlet, I loved The Truman Show and the article's author highlights the similarities between the two story structures. Both feature a charismatic protagonist troubled by questions regarding his life, and both are 'haunted' by the spirit of their father. Comparisons can also be drawn to the minor characters in each.

Even though the director did not set out to make an adaptation of Shakespeare, I found it interesting that the themes in Hamlet can be found in modern pieces of cinema that do not intend to reference Shakespeare at all. The author also mentions Cars and Sweeny Todd as more examples of films sharing many of the same themes with Hamlet. These are all examples of how Shakespeare's stories are largely universal and can be applied to an incredible amount of time periods and locations.

Source: http://gregoryfeeley.blogspot.com/2008/11/truman-show-another-retelling-of-hamlet.html

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