Orlando Bloom as Hamlet in Crowe's Elizabethtown

Funeral Feasts, Girlfriends, Mothers, Something is Rotten, and Life

Jul 4, 2009

Though William Shakespeare wrote Hamlet in Elizabethan times, Hamlet seems to appear as Orlando Bloom in the little Kentucky hamlet, Elizabethtown.

The Graveyard and the Funeral Feast

Hamlet never sees his father’s dead body. When Hamlet arrives from his school in Wittenberg, the funeral is over, his mother’s overhasty marriage has already taken place. Hamlet sarcastically notes the reason being money, “Thrift, thrift Horatio!” Hamlet tells his loyal friend. “The funeral baked meats Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.” Yet, Hamlet believes that he sees his father’s ghost decrying the “murder most foul.”

Hamlet walks through the castle graveyard, where unknown to him, the gravedigger is preparing a grave for Ophelia. With Denmark being sparse of soil, the grave digger must first dig up the bones of the previous inhabitant. Before Hamlet hears of Ophila's death by suicide, he examines a skull, which he discovers belongs to Yorrick, the court jester, who used to make the entire court laugh with mirth at his antics. Hamlet wonders where all the jokes went, leaving only an empty skull.

This theme is inverted in Elizabethtown. Drew pays his respects to his father, Mitch [Tim Devitt] lying in a coffin in the funeral home. Dressed in black, Drew looks like Hamlet in his “inky cloak” and “trappings and suits of woe.” Unlike Hamlet, there is no “murder most foul” Drew overcomes fear and sorrow, and sees his father as he was in life, smiling and making other people happy. The Kentucky funeral feast is a celebration of the father’s life, with relatives and friends swarming around Drew, to offer their love and support.

Mothers and GirlfriendsHamlet finds neither solace from his mother nor love from Ophelia. Gertrude is blind to her new husband’s treachery, leading to her death. Ophelia is aware of the treachery surrounding her, and drowns herself.

The women in Elizabethtown are survivors. Drew’s mother, Hollie [Susan Sarandon], turns her grief into a determination to live, to dance, to laugh. At the same time, Hollie observes the ritual of losing a husband. Though she describes a neighbor trying to seduce her after her husband’s death, Hollie is faithful to Mitch.

Claire [Kirsten Dunst] the flight attendant "helper" who falls for Drew and follows him to Elizabethtown, carries sorrow, in the form of loneliness. Yet, she manages to be enduringly cheerful, even philosophical about being one of the “substitute people.” Whereas Ophelia adds to the death in Hamlet, Claire adds to the life of Drew, helping to guide him through the funeral, and then on a road trip.

Something is Rotten

Both Hamlet and Elizabethtown allude to corruption. Hamlet’s friends, upon seeing the dead King Hamlet note famously “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.” With the new king being the murderer, the play emphasizes an unlawful ascent to power.

In Elizabethtown, the road trip planned by Claire includes examples of American corruption and tragedy: The site where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. died for equality and the site of the Oklahoma City bombing, where Claire tells Drew that the Survivor Tree is her favorite tree in the world.

Yet, these sad reminders of corruption in America are balanced by a soothing happy ending at a country fair, where sweetheart Claire is faithfully waiting for her man.

Because of all the troubles, Hamlet ends in death. Despite all the troubles, Elizabethtown ends in life.

The copyright of the article Orlando Bloom as Hamlet in Crowe's Elizabethtown in Film/TV Industry is owned by Teresa Knudsen. Permission to republish Orlando Bloom as Hamlet in Crowe's Elizabethtown in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.