The Bard’s Lethal Weapon : Merchandising: Warner Bros. is distributing a Mel Gibson video to classrooms to ‘sell Shakespeare to young people’ . . . and promote ‘Hamlet.’

To sell, or not to sell: That was never the question.

Warner Bros. executives knew the first time they saw director Franco Zeffirelli’s “Hamlet,” starring Mel Gibson and Glenn Close, that they wanted to market the new movie adapted from Shakespeare’s enduring tragedy. The question was: How?

There were the usual promotional opportunities--star interviews, an ad campaign exploiting critical praise, possibly some Oscar nominations to fuel interest. But, eventually, the studio’s marketing executives believed there was a nobler way to go.

“We knew that Mel has a tremendous appeal to young people with his starring roles in the ‘Mad Max’ and ‘Lethal Weapon’ movies,” said the studio’s advertising and publicity president Robert G. Friedman. “And we felt this was an opportunity to sell Shakespeare to young people.”

As long as the star was willing--and it turned out he was--”Hamlet” would be a rare example of commerce aligning with education. The Mad Max of the movies would meet the Mad Dane of Shakespeare in the classroom.

D. Barry Reardon, Warner Bros. president of distribution, is confident the match will work. Reardon had marketed Shakespeare successfully before, as a Paramount Pictures executive when Zeffirelli’s adaptation of “Romeo and Juliet” opened to strong business in 1968.

But that’s where the comparison ends, Reardon said. In his experience, the size and the particular aim of the current effort--which includes a widely distributed video study guide of Gibson with some Los Angeles students--has no parallel.

The campaign got under way with a screening and personal appearance by Gibson that tantalized the National Council of Teachers of English convention in Atlanta in November. Warner Bros. followed that by targeting 100,000 principals, English departments and teachers across the nation for a direct-mail campaign. The idea was to spread the word that this new “Hamlet” would open in December and receive wide national distribution in mid-January.

Reardon said a second mailing went to 33,000 teachers with copies of specially prepared “Hamlet” study guides and applications for discount coupons that students could use to see the movie for $3.50.

As of last week, Friedman said the studio had heard from more than 19,000 teachers who had requested more than 3 million of the student discount coupons and a video of Gibson in the classroom.

The executives also reported sending out 18,000 copies of “Mel Gibson Goes Back to School.” The 54-minute video is intended for use in the classroom and shows Gibson interacting with students at Los Angeles’ University High School. In it, they discuss the meaning, poetry and drama of “Hamlet” and act out several scenes.

“The greatest thing about the movie is taking someone like Gibson to to play ‘Hamlet,’ ” said senior English teacher Jennifer Romanowski of West Hills High School in suburban San Diego. In an interview with The Times, Romanowski said, “This could be the best thing he ever did for students.

“The kids are already fired up about seeing him (in the movie). If they can get the story of ‘Hamlet’ through the movie, that would be great,” Romanowski said. “It’s one of the hardest plays to teach. But they’re all in love with Mel Gibson. Even the boys. They won’t admit it, but they are.”

Romanowski, who had sent in a coupon to Warner Bros. for the “Hamlet” teaching materials, has no doubts about the method to Warner’s video madness: She said she is eager to use the video program in the classroom. “This is the age of the video, This is what the kids want . . . . They don’t want to read; they want to watch.”

Romanowski and other teachers interviewed said the 1972 version of “Romeo and Juliet” is used widely in school curricula. And the 1989 release of Kenneth Branagh’s “Henry V” also has been of some benefit, they said, but “Henry V” is a Shakespearean play that is seldom taught in high schools.

One has to go back to 1948, when Orson Welles’ “Macbeth” or Laurence Olivier’s “Hamlet” were released, for examples of filmed Shakespearean works that have been employed widely by educators.

“Look, why don’t I just tell you the story of Hamlet,” Gibson says at the outset of the video for the classroom. “I mean, it’s a great story. It’s got some great things in it. I mean, there’s something like eight violent deaths. There’s murder. There’s incest. There’s adultery, there’s a mad woman, poisoning, revenge, sword fights . . . .”

In the video, Gibson spends much time talking about the language of Shakespeare and his own interpretation of the role he played. He fields questions and he also prompts the students to enact scenes, using their own idiom, instead of Shakespeare’s.

“We saw the making of the Gibson video as an educational opportunity,” said Lynne Culp, who teaches the 10th-grade English/humanities class at University High, where Gibson shot the video.

Culp, who has taught for 18 years, said it is normally “very hard for students to read ‘Hamlet.’ But in this case they had a tremendous incentive, since they knew they would get to work with Gibson.”

She said the students read the play during their lunch hours, and Culp prepped them on certain scenes she knew would be included in the discussion when the video was finally made.

The studio approached the school through Mayor Tom Bradley’s office.

“The film makers handled the whole thing in such a way that we never once felt exploited,” Culp said. “It seemed more of a classroom experience than a marketing campaign.”

Part of the fun, she said, was keeping the name of the star from the students as long as possible.

“It was flabbergasting for the students when Mel walked into the classroom for an introductory meeting,” Culp said. “One girl turned to me and said, ‘I will never forgive you for this. I’m not wearing any lipstick.’ ”