Overall, the scene in general is pretty cool. Sir Olivier doesn’t make Hamlet the most expressive character, but he does a good job. Sir Olivier’s depiction of Hamlet was alright – I like the transition he made not only with the knife during the early part of the speech, but with the actual speech itself (when he says “perchance to dream” in a way that seemed like he was saying, “however!”). Plus, I like the idea that the sequence is done through both Hamlet’s internal and external monologue – another advantage of having Hamlet in a film format. There are certain parts that seem to visually represent the soliloquy as it is being done, like the aforementioned knife sequence (which is done in tandem with Hamlet’s reflection on whether to die or not), or the part where Sir Olivier’s Hamlet looks over the cliff, over the roaring waves, and mentions “the currents running awry”, which I feel helps to capture to meaning of the oration. The tension that is built up by the music is great, and the atmospheric sounds of the environment are nicely done, as they seem to be representative of living, whereas in the other two clips, there is dead silence (which is good in its own right, as it reminds the audience of death), barring the sound effects of Mel Gibson’s movement. I love that he also uses props – the knife – to help emphasize the idea of “to be, or not to be”, and nearly kills himself with it, but doesn’t, which creates a smooth transition into what the catch is as to why many people don’t commit suicide (although I don’t think it was done in an entirely smooth manner, I really like the concept). The idea of Hamlet literally standing over a cliff-like place or at the top of a tower (perhaps a tower on the side of a cliff?), near the edge and close to the ravaging waters, between the throes of life and death – that’s kind of awesome. Sir Olivier takes advantage of the opportunities that a film version of Hamlet provides, and creates a setting that effectively conveys the speech, which I really like. I think Sir Laurence Olivier’s rendition of Hamlet’s soliloquy was the one that best captured the meaning of the speech.