Review: Goodnight, sweet Player One, as the Bard comes to gaming in ‘Grand Theft Hamlet’
Is it worth becoming an artist, or not? That’s the dilemma faced in “Grand Theft Hamlet,” a humorous documentary about two unemployed British actors who used their COVID-19 lockdown to perform Shakespeare’s masterpiece on the violent streets of Grand Theft Auto V. This game is set in fictional Los Santos, a city where even the good guys carry weapons and have a cynical attitude – making the vengeful Prince of Denmark a perfect fit. However, when Sam Crane (Hamlet_thedane on social media) delivers one of Shakespeare’s soliloquies, he’s usually killed by another player within minutes. Everyone seems to be a critic.
In this movie, Crane collaborated with his wife Pinny Grylls on the direction. Pinny, who was new to gaming, essentially served as the film’s primary camera operator. The scenes she captured, where she positioned herself and what she chose to focus on, significantly contributed to the overall film. Despite the impressive editing work blending in other characters’ perspectives, we never leave the game until the final 30 seconds when real faces appear.
This isn’t a new concept; “Hamlet” has been reimagined as machinima before – a term that refers to films made using role-playing games (or machine-cinema/machine-animation, depending on who you ask). This is a genre where filmmakers use game platforms to tell different stories. For example, there’s a 2014 version created within “Guild Wars 2” available on YouTube.
What makes this project unique is that it was filmed live in one continuous take, even when virtual characters perished, as Pinny put it, “You can’t halt production just because someone dies.
Without knowing the sadness that forms the core of the movie, it’ll be challenging to understand its full depth. Characters like Ophelia and Gertrude are given minimal attention, while the main focus is on the story itself. Essentially, this film is a metaphor for the importance of crafting beauty in our world, even when it’s fraught with violence, as seen in the case of Crane, a family man, and Mark, a solitary figure, who find themselves navigating a pixilated landscape devoid of live theater due to closures. Their joyous exclamations, like “Wheeee,” reflect moments of escape during trying times; for instance, I too have found solace in an 8-bit bass fishing game during quarantine, merely to appreciate the soothing sounds of digital water.
One day, their journey leads them to the Hollywood Bowl in Los Santos (or Vinewood Bowl), and the sight of the deserted amphitheater strikes them as powerfully as the monolith astonished the chimpanzees in “2001: A Space Odyssey.” They have grown accustomed to a life of idleness and brutality. Now, it’s time for change. “Anything that undermines what I could happily label the inevitable futility of your existence,” Oosterveen says, cheerfully.
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Choosing “Hamlet” seems like grabbing the first thought that pops into your head, as natural as picking the Mona Lisa when asked to color a masterpiece. However, as the play and the pandemic progress, its themes of depression, pain, and stagnation become more relatable, even for the background characters who seem to possess a deeper soul. In an episode of “Grand Theft Auto,” Crane and Oosterveen’s avatars engage an online stranger about Hamlet’s suicidal soliloquy, only to find a delivery driver, injured and confined at home, unable to offer a response. With Shakespearean lines echoing the burden of life, even the non-playable characters in the game seem to carry a heavy heart.
The piano music in the score could be overly sentimental. Furthermore, parts of the storyline within the movie appear to be missing or incomplete. Crane worries if anyone from the National Theatre will attend his performance. Essentially, he is hoping for their attendance. Were they there at all?
In this game, a day is just 48 minutes long; a conversation could begin under the sun and end as night falls. It takes us some time to get used to it, but then the story itself starts messing with our perception of time. It begins in January 2020, and at one point, we find out that they have only four weeks to prepare for the final production. That seems fast, especially considering the final show didn’t happen until July 2021. Who or what is pushing things so quickly?
I’m describing the movie as a documentary for its benefit, but in reality, it appears more akin to orchestrated reality television. The dramatic scenes seem contrived, such as the heated debate between Crane and Grylls over his obsession with online games.
She asks, puffing slightly while dressed in a spandex skeleton suit for her online persona, ‘What about the children? And what about me?’
Fortunately, the plot structure consistently introduces unexpected elements, with one such element being Parteb, a hilarious character hailing from Tunisia who portrays a mischievous green extraterrestrial. Coaxed to try out for the series, Parteb offers a touching recital of verses from the Quran. However, he later reveals an unsettling preference for firing upon people from aircraft.
In summary,
In Los Santos, it seems that displaying a gun is more socially acceptable than reciting poetry. However, in actual L.A., this dynamic is reversed, but life as an artist remains challenging. The majority of creatives I’ve encountered here are struggling optimists, so it’s frustrating when a character from Ireland derides Los Angeles as being “completely and utterly capitalist.”
In this version, I tried to break the text into smaller, more manageable chunks while maintaining the original message. Additionally, I aimed to use clear and concise language that is easy for readers to comprehend.
It could be said that both Los Angeles and Los Santos serve as destinations where individuals can freely show their true selves or adopt new personas. They offer an environment that embraces individuality and encourages exploration, whether it’s a newly open trans woman who feels more comfortable in high heels in Los Santos than she does with her family, or a middle-aged female literary agent who experiments with different identities, such as a shirtless DJ avatar belonging to her nephew.
The most surprising and captivating revelation about the movie is that it manages to incorporate Shakespearean acting within the confines of ‘Grand Theft Auto.’ The characters’ stoic expressions are reminiscent of Noh theater rather than the Globe. However, when Dipo Ola, an Oxford-trained actor who plays Hamlet in this production, delivers a few lines, he becomes far more engaging than watching ParTeb perform his dance. It’s unfortunate that Ola must leave due to other commitments, and it adds a touch of humor that as he departs, he shoots Oosterveen goodbye.
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2025-01-18 04:31