The Cumberland Post

The Cumberland Post
My Backyard, Six Miles from the Cumberland River

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Ahnuld's Hamlet

I was thinking some about Hamlet today. Yeah. Hamlet. I'm a retired English teacher, so what didja expect, that I'd be sitting around pondering the Libyan crisis?

I started surfing on Lake YouTube to see if I could find anything regarding what some call Shakespeare's greatest play. (Some would say Lear is the greatest. Others would say Romeo and Juliet. Still others would say, WGAS?)

Anyway. Guess what I found.

Remember Ahnuld's movie, The Last Action Hero?

This movie is one of his action flicks that didn't do super great at the box office (wiki says it officially lost $25 million), but it's since become something of a cult hit--at least partially because it parodies various action films.

There's this scene in it where the kid is watching the famous Lawrence Olivier version of Hamlet and suddenly on screen, Olivier morphs into Jack Slater (the Ahnuld character in the movie). So it's Ahnuld playing Hamlet.

Here's the clip...


I don't know about you, but that is some great stuff right there. Hamlet with a seegar! And that line... "To be or not to be. [Ahnuld lights cigar] Not to be [bomb goes off]."

Shakespeare, who knew how to work the audiences of his time, would love it.

1 comment:

  1. Heh. I have a quibble, tho. NO ONE lights a cigar with a Zippo. NO-FREAKIN'-ONE. Lighter fluid spoils the taste of a cigar, period, full stop. Putting benzene and related chemicals in the mouth is simply not recommended.

    Other than that? Loved it!

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