Screen Adaptations: Shakespeare?s Hamlet: The Relationship between Text and Film

Hamlet is the most often produced play in the western literary canon, and a fertile global source for film adaptation. Samuel Crowl, a noted scholar of Shakespeare on film, unpacks the process of adapting from text to screen through concentrating on two sharply contrasting film versions of Hamlet by Laurence Olivier (1948) and Kenneth Branagh (1996). The films' socio-political contexts are explored, and the importance of their screenplay, film score, setting, cinematography and editing examined.

Offering an analysis of two of the most important figures in the history of film adaptations of Shakespeare, this study seeks to understand a variety of cinematic approaches to translating Shakespeare's “words, words, words” into film's particular grammar and rhetoric

Samuel Crowl is Professor of English at Ohio University where he has taught since 1970. He has twice been honoured for distinguished teaching and served as Dean of University College from 1981-92. Crowl has held an Observership with the Royal Shakespeare Company and has published and lectured widely on performance aspects of Shakespeare. Crowl is the author of Screen Adaptations: Shakespeare's Hamlet (due for publication 2014) and many articles on performance aspects of Shakespeare in such journals as: Shakespeare Quarterly, Shakespeare Survey and Shakespeare Bulletin.

Samuel Crowl is Trustee Professor of English at Ohio University where he has taught since 1970. He is the author of two books on Shakespeare, as well as numerous essays, articles, reviews, and interviews on all aspects of Shakespeare in performance. He has been honored many times for outstanding teaching and has lectured widely on Shakespeare at universities and conferences here and abroad, including the Shakespeare Institute and the International Globe Center.


Samuel Crowl is Trustee Professor of English at Ohio University where he has taught since 1970. He is the author of two books on Shakespeare, as well as numerous essays, articles, reviews, and interviews on all aspects of Shakespeare in performance. He has been honored many times for outstanding teaching and has lectured widely on Shakespeare at universities and conferences here and abroad, including the Shakespeare Institute and the International Globe Center.