1. Youtube can be an incredible resource. (It can also tempt you into wasting hours on end, but I digress!) There are several clips on youtube highlighting famous parts of Hamlet, some of his more famous soliloques and such, but it also shows different interpretations of the play. One movie version featuring Kenneth Branagh had some dramatic scenes showing Hamlet’s torture in his situation, while the Mel Gibson version is more true to the costumes and scenery one would imagine from a Shakespeare play. You have to take a moment, though, to watch the Arnold Schwartzenegger version. Yes, even the grate Austrian has played Hamlet on the screen. It is good to get the sense that there is no “ONE” way to interpret Hamlet or any of Shakespeare’s works.
2. The students seemed to enjoy (or tolerate, hard to say) a modern version of the play produced and posted on Youtube as a school project. It is very professionally filmed, though. It is humorous, modern in that it intertwines modern dialogue in with actually lines from the play, and puts a current-day spin on the surroundings. It was good to give the students some background to the play.

See some of the video clips below…

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A short biography of Shakespeare. What starts out slow becomes quite entertaining. Trust me. :D

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Mel Gibson's version.

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Kenneth Branagh's version.

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Arnold's take on it.[kml_flashembed movie="http://youtube.com/v/ZmY8Q-kVH5A" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
The modern version of Hamlet. (It's just over forty minutes long, if you can make it through the whole thing. Good to help you comprehend the plot, though.)