Cap'n Howdy's Handy Hamlet Handbook:
Date of Release: 1990
Directed By: Tom Stoppard
Dramatis Personae: Hamlet (Iain Glen), Claudius (Donald Sumpter), Gertrude (Joanna Miles), Horatio (Vili Matula), Polonius (Ian Richardson), Laertes (Sven Medvesek), Ophelia (Joanna Roth)
Other Notable Cast Members: Tim Roth (The Hit, Vincent & Theo) - Guildenstern, Gary Oldman (Sid and Nancy, Immortal Beloved) - Rosencrantz, Richard Dreyfuss (American Graffiti, Leaves of Grass) - The Player
Setting: Denmark, around and outside of Castle Elsinore. Roughly the same period as Olivier's Hamlet.
Run time: 117 minutes
What's Missing: Where to start... there's all sorts of things missing from the play. Nothing prior to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern arriving is anywhere to be found, and for the most part, scenes they're in are offered up in abbreviated or truncated forms. The end of the play is told in silent flashes, and periodically a snippet of dialogue is heard through a window or wall, but for the most part there's a lot of business involving Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and the Player King which occasionally intersects with Hamlet (typically between Act 3 and the end of The Mouse-Trap).
Things you won't see: Marcellus, Bernardo, almost all of Horatio's scenes, Fortinbras, the Ghost, Osric, Reynaldo, Cornelius, Voltimand, and pretty much all of Laertes' scenes. You do, however, see the English Ambassador, so that has to count for something...
Other Deviations: I suppose this qualifies as a deviation - the Players enact the remainder of Hamlet (from Polonius' death onward) in pantomime to the servants in Elsinore (and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern). The bulk of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead's narrative occurs between their arrival in the castle and the actual performance of The Mouse-Trap (of which we see snippets, broken up by editing and time distortion).
Also, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead posits a deviation that the duo are, in fact, responsible for Polonius crying out and subsequently meeting his end at Hamlet's hand. It's an interesting take on the play that really only seems to be played for a joke.
Like the Zeffirelli version of Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead sees it fit to show Hamlet aboard the boat, switching the letter out, followed shortly after by the deaths of R&G (this time by hanging).
What Works: Well, I suppose if you're all right with the abandonment of most of Hamlet in this, strangest of all adaptations, then there's plenty to enjoy. There's a lot of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern mulling over the meaning of life, death, fate, and free will, while the Player King seems to know all too well the answers they seek.
Rosencrantz has a habit of finding or making things that demonstrate various scientific principles or are anachronistic, like paper planes, water displacement, weights and pulleys, cheeseburgers, a proto-xylophone, and pinwheels. Invariably, when he tries to show them to Guildenstern, they fail or are destroyed in the process.
What Doesn't Work: It should seem fairly obvious that if you're coming to this play steeped in Hamlet (as the Cap'n is at the end of this week), then this is even more of a radical departure than the Almereyda version. Certainly, fans of Shakespeare are going to be rather at a loss with the departures this Tom Stoppard makes with his play (apparently based on some version that Stoppard wrote for the stage) and might take umbrage to the liberties he makes with Hamlet.
Then again, perhaps in the interest of avoiding two versions of Hamlet in the same year, such a radical change was necessary. Nevertheless, I'd imagine that many would be shocked at the flagrant anachronisms and existential quandaries on display in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.
Final Thoughts: I shouldn't have to explain this, but to avoid embarrassing someone in the comments, yes, I know that this isn't supposed to be an interpretation of Hamlet. I was having a bit of fun with you after a long week of watching variations on the same theme, and I hope you took it in the spirit intended. If you're familiar with Hamlet, there's certainly plenty to enjoy about Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, even if Stoppard was ultimately unhappy with his film version*.
* For this, I couldn't find the interview online, but I refer you to disc two of the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead DVD.
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