School is in session

I think that the story of Hamlet could be told through the perspective of a high school. I could see Claudius being the new principal who had just gotten his brother the former principal fired. Hamlet would still be Claudius's nephew and everything but he would be a teacher at the school. Polonius would be a teacher also but instead of being an academic teacher he would be a physical education teacher. I think Polonius would be a physical education teacher because I see Polonius being less educated and not as clever as Hamlet who is clearly a scholar. It also seems that being an academic teacher would be a higher rank or role in the school society, which gives Hamlet the authority to somewhat, sass Polonius and be irritated when Polonius thinks he knows everything. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern would be counselors at the school who were instructed by Claudius to investigate Hamlet. Gertrude would be the secretory of the school who is always greeting people at the front office.

As for the scene I would reimagine I think I would completely change the way act 3 scene 2 is told. I would imagine that scene where instead of Hamlet stabbing Polonius behind a tapestry Hamlet would get Polonius fired. Hamlet who submits some type of fake form to the school district planning to get Claudius fired but accidentally gets Polonius fired. Hamlet would confess to doing this to Polonius in front of Gertrude in her office. All of this would be happening after the school play was finished which displayed how a principal was fired because of a false accusation anonymously given by his own brother. 

To be or not to be.

In Branagh's version of the "To be or not to be" soliloquies Hamlet doesn't act how i would of expected him to act. He acts some what calm and seems like he is in the process of planning something dramatic. When he pulls out his knife while looking at himself in the mirror, he doesn't seem intimidating at all. It almost seems like he is pulling it out because he needs something to fiddle with at the time being. I was expecting an extremely dramatic scene where Hamlet was on the verge of killing himself before coming to a realization but instead it seemed he calmly discussed the serious subject of death.

I found that i enjoyed Olivier's portrayal of this scene from Hamlet far more than i did Branagh's. In this scene Hamlet is standing on the edge of a cliff high above sharp rocks and ruff ocean water. It seems like he is about to jump when we first see him which shows the more serious take on his proposal to killing himself. Hamlet is all around much more dramatic in this scene  and Olivier really nails it when it comes to Hamlet making realizations. When Hamlet pulls out his knife it displays one of Hamlet's realizations because he is looking at the knife in this scene as an easier way out than jumping off a cliff, unlike pulling it out just to fiddle with it like in Branagh's scene. Over all i like Olivier's scene the most because it displays the seriousness of the topic at hand with Hamlet.