Buy it... if you lean towards the 1990 Ennio Morricone way of thinking when it comes to the modern sounds of Hamlet, for Carter Burwell offers a highly repetitive and sparsely mundane representation of the concept.

Avoid it... if you lean towards the 1996 Patrick Doyle method of scoring the classic tale with resounding emotional depth and a robust symphony orchestra.

Burwell

Hamlet (2000): (Carter Burwell) In classic Hollywood, the film versions of Shakespearean plays were often presented in their original time and location, and actor/director Kenneth Branagh was endeavoring to do the same throughout the 1990's. But a younger generation of audiences and filmmakers then began embracing and producing adaptations of the original Shakespeare stories in contemporary, urban settings. From Romeo & Juliet to Othello, sparkling, modern representations of these classic tales played to split audiences, with some adoring the new visions and others believing that Shakespeare himself was rolling in his grave. Perhaps none of these stories has been translated onto the big screen as many times as "Hamlet," with several entries in the 1990's alone. After the 1990 and 1996 versions remained somewhat true to a historical setting, the 2000 version directed by Michael Almereyda throws the story into modern-day New York, suffering in the environment of the Guggenheim Museum and fax machines. If you could accept Bill Murray as Polonius, then you may agree with a base of critics that found the film to be generally pretty intriguing. It would have been an interesting job for composer Patrick Doyle, who was the resident expert in Shakespearian scores during the 1990's and had modernized his sound for Great Expectations, another contemporary adaptation of a classic tale, in 1998. But an existing collaboration with Almereyda led to composer Carter Burwell receiving the assignment for the Ethan Hawke-led Hamlet. Almereyda had been impressed with Burwell's work with a large symphony orchestra and now called upon the composer to utilize only a chamber orchestra for this effort due to a restrictive budget. Burwell's scoring schedule was tight at the time, but the composer responded to the assignment by carving the traditional Shakespearian sound down to an intimate scale for a small ensemble. The lack of contemporary instrumentation to accompany this group, however, is a curious choice due to the circumstances.

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Whether you enjoy or accept the minimalistic result from Burwell depends on how you believe your Shakespearean films should sound. Traditional film score collectors are fond of Doyle's 1996 music for Hamlet and fans of postmodern music often gravitate towards Ennio Morricone's score for the 1990 Mel Gibson version. Burwell definitely leans towards Morricone's approach, allowing the story to speak for itself and leaving the pomp and outward drama inherent in the story completely out of the musical equation. This decision could probably have been expected, given Burwell's tendency to produce brooding, off-center music. Unfortunately, Burwell strays too far from the emotional heart of the classic story, allowing his music to be the victim of its own mediocre size and repetitive structures. The shallow score plays as though it was written with constraint in mind, rather than attempting to produce the most emotion possible out of the small performing group. If anything, Doyle's Great Expectations proved that you can insert modern rhythms, vocals, and traditional elements into a blend worthy of a classic tale. What Burwell wrote for Hamlet is repetitively monotonous, simplistic, and devoid of emotion. Moments meant to convey extreme action lack punch and vary very little from the mass of uninteresting, rumbling cues of slight stature. Burwell does succeed in moments of troubled contemplation, though, with a cello performing an alternating, churning motif that extends throughout the score as its overarching identity. But some of his use of what seems like a string quartet is a bit cliche, with the slow chopping of a bass string attempting to carry the duel scene. When the ensemble is put together in all of its force, such as in the opening and final cues, the score begins to exhibit the kind of attitude that could have guided it to success with more creative instrumentation. An acoustic guitar performance in "Laertes and Ophelia at the Guggenheim" barely touches upon this possibility. In this case, Burwell's loyalty to traditional symphonic instrumentation ultimately breaks the back of this version of Hamlet. It leaves you wondering if your stereo was ever on while you were listening to it, tumbling along in the deep regions where it's difficult to notice and even harder to care about. **   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Carter Burwell reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.84 (in 19 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 2.76 (in 9,936 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.