Hamlet and Elizabethtown begin with the dispossession of a prince. In Hamlet, King Hamlet has died. By rights, Prince Hamlet should inherit the throne. However, Hamlet’s mother, Queen Gertrude, has quickly remarried, selecting the King’s brother Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle, as her new king. Cheated of his rightful ascension to the throne, Hamlet endures watching his father’s brother and killer wearing the crown.
In Elizabethtown, Drew Baylor [Orlando Bloom] is a sports shoe designer, whose shoe design was selected by the CEO of a prospering company [Alex Baldwin]. Drew is treated like a prince at the office Christmas party, complete with the attractive female doting on him. However, the shoes are a dud with the public, costing the company almost one billion dollars, leading to Drew’s loss of position.
The Downfall of Women
Hamlet and Elizabethtown begin with the downfall of women. Hamlet becomes doubly disillusioned with women. His mother married too quickly after the death of his father, and shows no grief at all.
Hamlet’s love interest, Ophelia, fails him. Ophelia is only a pawn in the court, set up by her own father and the king to test Hamlet. Seeing through the ruse, Hamlet is blind to Ophelia’s love, and insults her, implying that all women are untrustworthy.
In Elizabethtown, when Drew is fired, his girlfriend Ellen [Jessica Biel] drops him cold, as if he’s dead. Instead of comforting and supporting him in time of trouble, Ellen is hastily making plans for dinner with the new hot-shot shoe designer hired to replace Drew. This idea that his girlfriend is already eating dinner with a new guy when Drew's career has just died will also allude to the Hamlet's speech about his father's funeral feast also providing the food for his mother's immediate marriage to her dead husband's brother.
The Suicidal Tragic Hero
Both Hamlet and Drew become suicidal. Hamlet’s depression is captured in the famous “To be or not to be” speech. He has lost faith and pleasure in life. Yet, in a classic moment of indecision, Hamlet avoids suicide only because he fears death might be worse than life.
Like Hamlet, Drew is also suicidal, but is more determined and active in designing his death. He transforms his exercise bike, ironically designed to keep people healthy, into a death machine by duct-taping a butcher knife onto the bike, so that when he pedals, he will stab himself.
Death of the Father Affecting the Life of the Son
The death of King Hamlet puts into motion the death of Prince Hamlet. When the ghost of King Hamlet meets with his son, Hamlet hears his father's ghost saying, "The serpent that did sting your father’s life now wears his crown."
Hamlet is finding himself in a situation where his mother has married his father’s killer. Ultimately, Prince Hamlet fights a duel instigated by his uncle Claudius. During the duel, the truth of King Hamlet’s murder is revealed. Mortally wounded, Hamlet manages to kill his uncle, but cannot save his mother who dies by drinking poison that Claudius intended for Hamlet.
However, in Elizabethtown, the father’s death literally saves Drew’s life. The phone call from his sister [Judy Greer] about his father’s heart attack comes just as Drew is ready to kill himself. Despite despair, Drew steps up to family expectations that he fly to Kentucky to arrange for his father’s funeral.
Thus, like Hamlet, Drew Baylor will fulfill his family's requests, however unwillingly he does so.
References
Cameron Crowe. Elizabethtown. 2005.
"Drew Baylor, Elizabethtown." The Orlando Bloom Files.
Elizabethtown Production Notes.
Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.
Sobzynski, Peter. "Interview: A Tour of Elizabethtown with Cameron Crowe." eFilmCritic
Teresa Knudsen - Teresa's writing appears in the British Library, Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. Online she has written for USA Today and E How.
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