Project 6: Hamlet 2 Review.

The movie Hamlet 2, is about high school director Dana Marschz, a man who definitely has a love for the art, even though he might not actually have any talent in it. After a shock of brilliance from teaching his “inner city children”(which also just so happen to be all Hispanic.) I have decided to use this film teamed with the perspective of deconstructive criticism, to further analyze this film.
In order for us, the audience, to understand the ideology behind Hamlet 2, I believe it is fundamentally important to dissect the play down to it’s most basic forms. When we break Hamlet 2 down, we find that it not only an insanely humorous comedy, but a social commentary of the theatre world. To begin with, I feel the Shakespearean title is appropriate for a variety of reasons. First, the movie is an extremely comical take on the theatre world so I feel that it is only appropriate that the title chosen for his new play is a sequel to probably one of the most well known text in theatre history. There is a good amount of comedy in the fact that almost everyone knows and understands that everyone dies at the end of Hamlet, but this also shows us an insight into how ridiculous the rehashing of film and stage sequels has become in our modern age. Third, there is a bit of irony for those who know Shakespeare well, in that the play Hamlet 2 is itself, a play with in a play, mirroring such famous Shakespeare plays as a Midsummer Night’s Dream. At the end of the movie we even get a speech which is very reminiscent of Puck’s if we shadows have offended speck at the end of Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Now to pull away a little bit from the Shakespeare congruencies, I would like to move to the subject of the Hispanic kids in what appears to be a predominantly white society. Racial stereotypes are definitely being used and over exaggerated which cannot only be seen in the Hispanic kids but also in the characters of Rand Postin and Epiphany Sellars, who are meant to represent the typical, white theatre student. I found this to be one of the most intriguing themes to be presented because it is a very untouched subject in film. I do believe it is the standard stereotype that not only are most theatre students predominantly white but also they are extremely needy as far as attention is concerned, as can be shown by the way Rand is constantly trying to seek the approval of director Dana Marschz. Another interesting theme is brought up when Epiphany starts trying to mimic the Hispanic girl’s mannerisms and vocal patterns. This is an interesting social commentary because this theme of the white girl trying to sound like another race can even be seen in the halls of our own college. There is also the theme of dissention in the white race between social groups in Hamlet 2. This can be seen in the tension between the coach and Dana Marschz. I must remind readers that this movie is set in Tuscon, AZ, which is in the Midwestern United States. Themes like football rules all in highschool ring true there, very similar to the way they do here in Texas. This underlying theme of the general, unlearned community not really caring about theatre is very prominent in this movie. Yet another theme is approached however, when people begin to become offended with Marschz’ self-wrote piece. This gives us our final theme of people not caring about the arts until it becomes offensive, and then they react both positively and negatively. This gives us the presumption that art does not become important until it stirs the thoughts of the people it is presented to.
I feel that Hamlet 2 is not only a clever, satirical comedy, but also an interesting social commentary of the modern theatre lifestyle. I would suggest this movie to any person who is involved in the theatre world.