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Basil Sydney, Eileen Herlie, Felix Aylmer

Tortured Prince of Denmark who must avenge his father's murder. He swears to his father's ghost that he will wreak revenge by killing Claudius, his uncle and now King. He fakes madness, and in the pro...( read more  read more... )cess of completing his delayed revenge, loses Ophelia to madness and suicide, but finally restores a new order in Denmark.

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81% liked it

5,922 ratings

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92% liked it

26 critics

Unrated, 2 hrs. 33 min.

Directed by: Laurence Olivier

Release Date: May 4, 1948

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DVD Release Date: September 19, 2000

Stats: 307 reviews

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Laurence Olivier and Jean Simmons Hamlet Hamlet Laurence Olivier and Eileen Herlie Laurence Olivier in Hamlet Jane Wyman and Laurence Olivier with Oscar Jean Simmons in Hamlet Laurence Olivier in Hamlet Laurence Olivier in Hamlet Hamlet
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Flixster Reviews (307)

  • AgentLexi2132
    January 1, 2008
    AgentLexi2132
    A twisty version of hamlet shakespeares classic play!
  • wellmeetagain
    August 27, 2007
    wellmeetagain
    not great , not bad, just good.
  • MidnightMadwoman
    February 20, 2007
    MidnightMadwoman
    I really like Laurence Olivier and I think he did a great job but still: I BLEEPING HATE HAMLET! Stupid emo kid. The character is just such an inept stuttering moron that I just want to slap him. You could pour your heart and soul into the role (as Olivier clearly did) and you st...( read more)ill wouldn't be able to save him. Ugh. I can't stop imagining Hamlet wearing eyeliner and a bad haircut and delivering that 'to be or not to be' soliloquy over the phone to a yawning, unconvinced friend. "I'm really gonna do it this time! Really!" Truth be told though, I did like the scenes where he was being jovial and witty, but I only two come to mind. This film wasn't bad, but I just hate this damn play.
  • Collegekid
    October 26, 2006
    Collegekid
    This is based off of a very unique reading of the play, and therefore is much differant than all of the other versions.
  • smith44
    May 29, 2006
    smith44
    The definitive cinematic rendition of Hamlet. However, Kenneth Branagh's film version of the complete Hamlet does bring out the faults of the Olivier Hamlet by including everything that Olivier had omitted. But still despite all this, the performances, the photography, the art di...( read more)rection and the musical score of the Olivier Hamlet are perfect. I still consider Olivier's performance to be the best performance of Hamlet I have ever seen. Winner of my Top Shakespeare Films.
  • garymacuk
    November 21, 2009
    garymacuk
    The greatest ever actor.
  • ElCochran90
    November 20, 2009
    ElCochran90
    "To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep; No more; and by a sleep to say we end The heart-ache and th...( read more)e thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep; To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause: there's the respect That makes calamity of so long life; For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The pangs of despised love, the law's delay, The insolence of office and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death, The undiscover'd country from whose bourn No traveller returns, puzzles the will And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of? Thus conscience does make cowards of us all; And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought, And enterprises of great pith and moment With this regard their currents turn awry, And lose the name of action."

    HAMLET (1948)


    Director: Laurence Olivier
    Country: United Kingdom
    Genre: Drama
    Length: 155 minutes

    Hamlet,Laurence Olivier,Jean Simmons


    The Chronicle History of King Henry the Fift with His Battell Fought at Agincourt in France (1944), Hamlet and Richard III (1955) compose the trilogy of Shakespeare adaptations that British icon Sir Laurence Olivier brought to the screen, indicating his outstanding talent as a poetical director and his delicate treatment of the plays by the greatest literary dramatist of all times. Arguably, Hamlet is his best and most ambitious Shakespeare cinematographic for releasing it through the Seventh Art. Adaptations had already been made, short films quickly depicted the nature of betrayal that always characterized one of Shakespeare's most famous fables, but Olivier's version is the one that was daring enough to establish a landmark in theatrical filmmaking, obtaining international attention and becoming the very first non-American production in history to win the big prize of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, not to mention it is one of the few correct decisions taken by the Academy. With the passage of time, the importance of this masterpiece has been diminished and unjustly overshadowed by the qualities present in Olivier's two remaining stories, confusing its ambition with pretentiousness. However, seen with the right eyes, this film has maintained its epic scope since the 40s and has gained a status of brilliant gloominess and theatrical parallelism, and is one of the best Shakespeare adaptations of all times.

    The immortal William Shakespeare tale of revenge and murder set in medieval Denmark tells the story of Prince Hamlet who, one night, has an encounter with the ghost of his father, the King of Denmark who was assassinated. He tells his son how Claudius, brother to the King, poisoned him in order to seize the throne and marry his mother the Queen. This epiphany increases Hamlet's mournfulness and regret of the fate of his parents and decides to seek revenge hiring a group of travelling players and recreating the evil deed of his uncle Claudius in order to torment his conscience. After expressing his personal anger with his mother the Queen, an unbelievable web of tragic events leads to a catastrophic destiny and, latterly, murder. The film received 7 Academy Award nominations for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture, Best Director (an award that lost against John Huston for the film The Treasure of Sierra Madre (1946), Best Actor in a Leading Role, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White, Best Costume Design, Black-and-White and Best Picture, winning the last 4 Oscars. It also won a Volpi Cup for Best Actress and a Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival of 1948, and received the Italian Film Critics Award two years later.

    The main complaint that may be executed towards Olivier's masterful Hamlet is the very quality of its overall adaptation. Famous soliloquies have been exterminated, the appearance of several characters has been sacrificed and the original grandiose nature of the play has been trimmed to the surprising length of two-and-a-half hours. However, Olivier has reportedly stated that more than being a faithful adaptation, the film serves the purpose of a "study on Hamlet". Naturally, the main question that arises is: "What conclusions can be derived if we took a Hamlet and adapted to a modern era?" And thus begins the extensive examination of the main psychological characteristics of Hamlet. How much similarity exists between the negative implications of a classic tragedy, such as betrayal, deceit and murder, and the modern code of ethics? Hamlet is the character whose patriotism and defense of honor pushes him to a sentimental extreme. We know the motivations behind his actions and we notice the exact moment in which his emotional fuse is triggered, allowing him to reflect on the meaninglessness of his existence and his dependence towards imperialistic authorities and planning an elaborate play of revenge in order to upset the King's tranquility.

    If we take merely the visual and photographic style of Hamlet, the result is extraordinarily astonishing. Hamlet's actions and incipient perversity is propelled by the nature and intentions of the surrounding characters, but a balance is achieved through the most gorgeous Ophelia ever portrayed thanks to the stellar performance by Jean Simmons. However, it is the very macabre atmosphere and a glorious black-and-white cinematography the one that transforms the viewer into an omniscient judge. The huge sets that represent royal halls are deliciously constructed and decorated with a dashing costume design, but it is the expert and passionate performances the ones that enlighten the dramatic proportions of such a philosophical tale. The biggest highlight is the apparition of the dead king making the confession to Hamlet, an aspect that may seem clichéd nowadays, but incredibly dark by those times, like if the film tried to explicitly mirror the heart's color of Claudius and the tormented soul of the Prince. A correct equilibrium between character development, third-person voiceovers, visual poetry, long takes exploring the vastness of the castle (and the psychology of its members) and action is built, culminating in the very-well known swordplay held between the Prince of Denmark and Laertes, Polonius's son because of the accidental assassination of his father.

    To categorize Hamlet as a misleading adaptation is a mistake. The very definition of cinema was completely offered to worldwide masses and never before had a Shakespeare adaptation been so complete and precise. Courage, bravery, loyalty, passion, love and romance are still contrasted with deception, horror, fear and death. Nevertheless, Olivier's direction and breathtaking leading role also assign a particular meaning to the importance of the environment, the credibility of the multilayered dialogues, the perfectly captured angles, the famous scene with the skull, the richness in character and the powerful final outcome. The technical aspects, from the sound to the royal musical score also received the proper attention, and the screenplay text editor Alan Dent transformed Hamlet into a unique essay on the human condition and the elegance that past generations possessed but that is already lost. The camera work allows us to adopt an omniscient power, travelling through empty spaces and finally finding the troubled souls that, willingly or not, were drawn in a painful tragedy. Decorative objects play an artistic role and Olivier emphasizes the weakness of the soul, as if it were dependent of God's intervention. Bringing Hamlet up to a point where it even seems that death has seduced him after completely losing any notion of ethical priorities and emotional connections, Hamlet is undeniably one of the best films of the decade, a difficult cinematic triumph that could only have been achieved my the mind of a master that pays the enough respect towards transcendent tales that, ultimately, are formed by human beings... and nothing more...

    100/100
  • truthofspirit
    September 26, 2009
    truthofspirit
    another one of my all-time favourites
  • ristrawn
    August 27, 2009
    ristrawn
    great story of betrayal & murder - who do you trust?
  • SageSlowdive
    August 15, 2009
    SageSlowdive
    Very excellent movie!

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Hamlet Trivia

  • Which Disney movie was loosely based off of Shakespeare's "Hamlet" ?  Answer »
  • Which "Hamlet" movie featured Kate Winslet as "Ophelia"?  Answer »
  • In which film did a small town historian (Vincent Price) spin a quartet of horror tales about his hamlet?  Answer »
  • What movie did this quote come from? " To be, or not to be."  Answer »
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