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Charlton Heston, Derek Jacobi, Kenneth Branagh

Hamlet, son of the king of Denmark, is summoned home for his father's funeral and his mother's wedding to his uncle. In a supernatural episode, he discovers that his uncle, whom he hates anyway, murde...( read more  read more... )red his father. In an incredibly convoluted plot--the most complicated and most interesting in all literature--he manages to (impossible to put this in exact order) feign (or perhaps not to feign) madness, murder the "prime minister," love and then unlove an innocent whom he drives to madness, plot and then unplot against the uncle, direct a play within a play, successfully conspire against the lives of two well-meaning friends, and finally take his revenge on the uncle, but only at the cost of almost every life on stage, including his own and his mother's.

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26,946 ratings

PG-13, 3 hrs. 58 min.

Directed by: Kenneth Branagh

Release Date: January 1, 1996

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Flixster Reviews (1,602)

  • garebearsgirl
    May 17, 2008
    garebearsgirl
    A masterpiece!! Kenneth Branagh is amazing. I love all of his movies. He is such a great actor and director. His vision of Shakespeare is beautiful and wonderful. It would make anyone enjoy Shakespeare.
  • Jungian
    April 5, 2008
    Jungian
    Terrific costumes and sets. Acting is superb all around with some interesting cast choices(Billy Crystal, Jack Lemmon, and Robin Williams all have bit parts). The first time Hamlet has been brought to the silver screen in its entirety.
  • Stinger839
    February 2, 2008
    Stinger839
    this THE film version of Hamlet
  • stopitgoaway
    December 24, 2007
    stopitgoaway
    Part of the genius of Branagh's interpretation of Hamlet is in the use of the techniques of the cinema to enhance the production. Branagh has not condensed the acts like some mass market soup, as was done in Olivier's 1948 Oscar-winning production, or in, say, Zeffirelli's 1989 H...( read more)amlet lite starring Mel Gibson (both excellent, though, within their scope), but has kept every word while directing our understanding so that even those only casually familiar with the play might follow the intent and purpose with discernment. Recall that for Shakespeare--the ultimate actor's playwright who wrote with precious few stage directions--interpretation was left to the direction and the actors, an open invitation that Branagh rightly accepts.

    The use of flashback scenes of things implied, such as the amorous union of Ophelia and her Lord Hamlet abed, or of a vast expanse of snow darkened with distant soldiers to represent the threat of Fortinbras' army from without, and especially the vivid remembrance in the mind's eye of the new king's dastardly deed of murder most foul, helps us all to more keenly appreciate just what it is that torments Hamlet's soul. I also liked the intense closeups. How they would have bemused and delighted an Elizabethan audience.

    Branagh's ambitious Hamlet is also one of the most accessible and entertaining, yet without the faintest hint of any dumbing down or abbreviation. A play is to divert, to entertain, to allow us to identify with others who trials and tribulations are so like our own. And so first the playwright seeks to engage his audience, and only then, by happenstance and indirection, to inspire and to inform. Shakespeare did this unconsciously, we might say. He wrote for the popular audience of his time, a broad audience, it should be noted, that included kings and queens as well as knaves and beggars, and he reached them, one and all. We are much removed from those times, and yet, this play, this singular achievement in theatre, still has the power to transcend mere entertainment, to fuse poetry and story, as well as the high and the low, and speak once again to a new audience twenty generations removed.

    Branagh himself is a wonderful Hamlet, perhaps a bit of a ham at times (as I think was Shakespeare's intent), a prince who is the friend of itinerant players. He also lacks somewhat in statute (as we conceive our great heroes); nonetheless his interpretation of the great prince's torment and his singular obsession to avenge his father's murder speaks strongly to us all. Branagh, more than any other Hamlet, makes us understand the distracted, anguished and tortured prince, and guides us to not only an appreciation of his actions, wild and crazy as they sometimes are, but to an identification and an understanding of why (the eternal query) Hamlet is so long in assuming the name of action. In Branagh's production, this old quibble with Hamlet's character dissolves itself into a dew, and we realize that he was acting strongly, purposely all the while. He had to know the truth without doubt so that he might act in concert with it.

    I was also very much impressed with Derek Jacobi's Claudius. One recalls that Jacobi played Hamlet in the only other full cinematic production of the play that I know of, produced in 1980 by the BBC with Claire Bloom as Gertrude; and he was an excellent Hamlet, although perhaps like Branagh something less than a massive presence. His Claudius combines second son ambition with a Machiavellian heart, whose words go up but whose thoughts remind below, as is the way of villains everywhere.

    Kate Winslet is a remarkable Ophelia, lending an unusual strength to the role (strength of character is part of what Kate Winslet brings to any role), but with the poor, sweet girl's vulnerability intact. She does the mad scene with Claudius as well as I have seen it done, and of course her personal charisma and beauty embellishes the production.

    Richard Briers as Polonius, proves that that officious fool is indeed that, and yet something more so that we can see why he was a counselor to the king. The famous speech he gives to Laertes as his son departs for France, is really ancient wisdom even though it comes from a fool.

    Julie Christie was a delight as the besmirched and wretched queen. In the bedroom scene with Hamlet she becomes transparent to not only her son, but to us all, and we feel that the camera is reaching into her soul. She is outstanding.

    The bit players had their time upon the stage and did middling well to very good. I liked Charlton Heston's player king (although I think he and John Gielgud might have switched roles to good effect) and Billy Crystal's gravedigger was finely etched. Only Jack Lemon's Marcellus really disappointed, but I think that was mainly because he was so poorly cast in such a role. Not once was he able to flash the Jack Lemon grin that we have come to know so well.

    The idea of doing a Shakespearean play with nineteenth century dress in the late twentieth century worked wonderfully well, but I know not why. Perhaps the place and dress are just enough removed from our lives that they are somewhat strange but recognizable in a pleasing way. And perhaps it is just another tribute to the timeless nature of Shakespeare's play. The mirrors in the great hall added to the effect of a vast and indifferent castle environment, and in the scene with Ophelia and Laertes returned tended to magnify the focus.

    There is so much more to say about this wonderful cinematic production. It is, all things considered, one of the best Hamlets ever done. Perhaps it is the best. See it, by all means, see it for yourself.
  • YLOWBSTARDreturns
    September 20, 2007
    YLOWBSTARDreturns
    One of the greatest of Shakespeare adaptations.
  • clairebear44
    November 19, 2009
    clairebear44
    Really wonderful. Kenneth Brannagh is the undisputed king of Shakespeare on the screen. He plays Hamlet wonderfully, and the other members of the cast are equally brilliant. Jacobi, Attenbborough, Williams, Christie.. All are wonderful. Especially Kate Winslet who does a stunning...( read more) Ophelia. If you can sit through the full 4 hours, it's worth it.
  • timonthemeerkat
    November 8, 2009
    timonthemeerkat
    In my opinion this is Branagh's best Shakespeare adaptation.
  • ristrawn
    August 27, 2009
    ristrawn
    great story of betrayal & murder - who do you trust?
  • onlyme6000
    August 23, 2009
    onlyme6000
    Much as I would have wanted to read Shakespeare?s Hamlet for which the library has a copy of, I did not have the concentration to absorb anything other than the words that say ?Enter? such and such nor was I able read any soft copy of the summary of the play or at least, a movie ...( read more)review. For the lack of time, guided only by a faint memory of a comic book on Hamlet which I read at leisure in high school and all these excuses, this reaction, I contend, is free from the biases of others? opinions. I hope not too absurd an opinion. =D

    Although the intro to the movie is positively biased to its creator, I was expectant of its promises as a viewer. True enough, it?s a well lit cinematography and very crisp are the lines delivered by the actors. Well lit even during the love scenes. The movie, as Shakespeare had wanted his plays to be?delivered and listened to, rather than silently read by the public, is a success as it rekindled in me an admiration of the language of long ago with all its hath?s and thou?s. Kenneth Branagh, director and actor, is some sort of a reincarnation of Shakespeare?playwright and actor to his own plays. As the poet extols his poetry and the playwright glorifies his play, the director lauds his movie as something that will be remembered for centuries. It is a wonder why so many forms emerge from the classics. Well, great is a person or a poet or a director if he can make another great person?out of you, eh? The movie is not just ?another dull record,? I agree with him. It is so beautiful that I fear this kind of technology so pleasing to the senses may render the teacher less competitive to sustain the same attention of his students. On second thought, our traditional classroom and required outside readings, no matter how minimal, of say Edgar Allan Poe?s prose and Alexander Pope?s Rape of the Lock were vital not just towards being amazed of the sonority but nevertheless thankful to be able to comprehend the most if not all of it. If not for all those who loved and wrote analyses of the classics or made movies such as this, we are guided to make Shakespeare not anymore too difficult a reading material.

    With extra Robin Williams articulating the word carriage both with a ruling colonizer?s /carry-YAHZH/ accent and its American variant, /CARE-ridge/, the major cast tried to present it with a touch of England (mentioned as a place where Hamlet will be exiled) which Shakespeare hails from though different a setting, Denmark.


    The best advice I hear is from Laertes? father: Be quick to lend your ears but not as quick to judge anyone. Have I heard of this advice, last week would not have been disastrous. I just learned?how?s that?, even if asked for the truth, some people would prefer it to be with the sugar coat or they cuss you for being so blunt.

    The best of the ?hired actors? for me is the one who delivers a piece that has Hamlet thinking what?s so moving of the character he portrays that he has to shed tears. I admired his direction (and probably being the traveling actors they are, they have been used to it) seeing the costumed king and queen engrossed with their lines as if it?s a real event with only the two of them speaking sans an audience. That must be why they give specs during a play for us to better appreciate them up close and Hamlet must climb up the stage to see King Claudius? reaction to the play that aimed to capture his conscience. As for Queen Gertrude reaction ?speak no more? for Hamlet?s words have pierced her for falling to her carnal appetite?an incestuous remarrying of the brother, of her husband two months only after the latter?s death, now unmasked as a murderer. Here we see the love of people, in the past, of re-watching anything they may have already seen or heard or read. Hamlet is questioned the title of the play and he names the adaptation The Murder of Gonzago. It holds true to this day.

    The soft blue eyes of Hamlet?s uncle do not make a convincing antagonist, too sincere a face to be revealed in bad light. He is effectively casted in to create a doubt?because he is also a Christian, as to whether the attacks against his character are real, mere delusions of a son who lost a father or an interplay with a devil in disguise, for those who have no awareness of the plot. He makes himself fully developed as a villain in part two.

    I envy Hamlet for the faithful friends he has. He asks two if they, not to their own bidding, are sent by his mother on account of helping out what seemed to be an insanity of his to the public and they let him hear the truth. Horatio as he advices Hamlet that if there is any inner hesitation about the king?s invitation, he should not go, is also ready to consume the poison but Hamlet stops him so their tragedy can be told. For those friends who have sworn, re-sworn and kept their oath by virtue of a ghost they see but will speak only to Hamlet. For Laertes though expressively apprehensive of Hamlet?s sincerity towards his sister, without that prior bond, he will not realize that Hamlet is not totally to blame for his father?s death. As for me I prefer now to introspect in order to evaluate if I can trust myself then I will do or if not then I will not?for even a brother can kill his own brother like what Hamlet?s uncle has done. The movie unfolds this beautiful tragedy that evokes many thoughts.

    There is catharsis from the thought of murdering someone to its commission. Hamlet stops himself from running a sword through the ear of the new king to avenge his father?s death with a beautiful question?why let an unworthy king merit the purging of his soul if Hamlet justifies to take an ear for an ear, or a life for a life, when the king is to be damned for his crime; but Hamlet kills Polonius instead, thinking it is the same king. The plot has a Christian theme in this sense?conscience, afterlife, punishment, hell. Polonius death, I assume, is also brought about by his speculation, over protectiveness of his children and loyalty to his employer, the legitimate ruler.

    The movie concludes with death begetting death. It is a happy death for me because the issue will rest both on the souls of those worthy to die and those who have forgiven each other before their final breaths. I find no better music than the Latin requiem chosen to be the background as the movie runs down all the acknowledgment behind its creation. I feel for Ophelia?s brother who cannot demand additional burial respects because the drowning of his sister, who though has lost her wits, is believed to have been willfully committed by her.

    I like the skepticism which seems to be the revolving theme of the movie. Hamlet thinks either the apparition is hellish or real. A father thinks it is either for Hamlet?s love of his daughter or the death of his father that has caused his melancholia. Gertrude gives room for doubt if the murder of her king is real when she asks who Hamlet?s invisible friend is. The lovers both love and doubt if either of them is true to each other. And so on?Funny, I can relate to the command ?go to a nunnery.?

    I like the title of respect ?my lord? one affords to a king, a parent, a senior or an honorable man as well as the respect and disrespect for the dead. I see the adoration of a sweet prince who remembers his jester as he holds her skull. Yet, I see the concealment of royal odor. Hamlet kills his girlfriend?s father, a chamberlain, but the entire kingdom does not know anything of it including the immediate family of the bereaved.

    In his sporty duel with Laertes, he begs forgiveness before the swordfight. The prince is philosophical and sincere in his manner, not just at that moment he chooses to be than not to be. That is to be honest to his actions, its effect and his expression of remorse.

    Then you have the premonition and the readiness for death as Hamlet says there is ?special providence in the fall of the sparrow.? If not now, it will come. Death is not a new and surprising topic in Shakespeare?s works. I hope that I too will be ready and not be in a situation like old King Hamlet who has to suffer for sins committed and not given the time to atone for them because of his murder.

    There is humor when Young Fortinbras, prince of Norway, sieges to reclaim a kingdom without effort ?sorrowfully? claiming all that is to be his because the crown-bearer and bloodline to the throne are all extinguished.

    If I have to rate the movie reducing my words of a thousand and six hundred which I find falling short to fully critique a three-hour movie in this paper; from one to five, I definitely give this a high five. The first time in history for me to do so and I am not taking it back.
  • samanthaseaotter
    August 6, 2009
    samanthaseaotter
    I saw the 4-hour version and thought it fascinating. What a cast! It does drag on a bit but how can you beat the cast you've got?

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Comments

  • kafkavis
    October 7, 2007
    kafkavis
    incredible,fantastic.words are not enough to tell my my feelings about this amazing hamlet verison.
  • s2Melissa
    June 12, 2006
    s2Melissa
    I have seen quite a few performances of Hamlet and both Zeffirelli's and Olivier’s adaptations and while both are brilliant within their own right Branagh’s Hamlet is strong, resourceful, thoughtful and yet rightly restrained. Its the first unabridged screen version of the play, running for over four hours but it is a four hours very well spent.

    Branagh purposely rejects the psychological stereotypes of Hamlet that other actors find so hard to resist and makes the character his own, while of course keeping to the original text.

    For unknown reasons I found the 19th century setting wonderful, maybe it far enough removed without being to detached.

    Branagh himself is a perfect Branagh, more than any other Hamlet, makes us understand the conflicted, warm yet anguished prince he makes us appreciate Hamlet’s actions and shows us the real method in his apparent madness.

    Never enough can be said about this amazing production and is IMHO the best Hamlet done, see it for yourself.
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