My initiation to the world of Shakespeare

I was at a very impressionable age of 15 or 16 when I first saw HAMLET at the theater. It came out just months after Kevin Costner's ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE OF THIEVES. I missed it and glad that I did; one reason because of Costner's accent in medieval England.

Anyway, when HAMLET was released I could not miss the chance of letting go a film that depicted medieval times, castles and such; for I love such things. And so walking into the movie I had no clue whatsoever what the movie was about. Even when the titles rolled at the beginning and it showed "Adapted from the play by William Shakespeare" I still had no idea about it. Although I did heard of the name "Shakespeare" before but was not aware of it.

And then whilst the movie was playing boredom got the better of me. For one thing, I had absolutely no idea what the heck they were talking about. But then when the principal characters died at the end I was rather intrigued by what the hell happened. I mean I couldn't understand what they were talking about throughout the movie and in the end everyone died?

So the inquisitive part of me began going to the library and reading about Hamlet and Shakespeare; and thus I began to fall in love not only with the play but the entire works of Shakespeare himself.

Although his words were poetically complicated yet there was beauty in the way that he told his stories.

Thus, I started to read on King Lear, Macbeth; and now I've became obsessed with Shakespeare more obscure works like Titus Andronicus, Cymbeline and Timon of Athens.

Not to sound dramatic (no pun intended) I even had a bust of Shakespeare and an unopened volume of his plays and sonnets as my home decor.

Soon, I'll be going for a vacation to Shakespeare's home of Stratford-upon-Avon as a homage to the greatest [in my mind] playwright that had ever lived.

So it was with Mel Gibson's HAMLET that opened up the world of Shakespeare to me.