Claire Bloom, David Robb, Derek Jacobi

Derek Jacobi, Patrick Stewart, Eric Porter and Claire Bloom star in Shakespeare's tragedy about Hamlet, a prince distraught by the hasty marriage of his Uncle Claudius to his newly widowed mother. The...( read more  read more... ) ghost of Hamlet's father visits his son, reveals that he was murdered by Claudius and entreats Hamlet to set things right. Shaken, Hamlet devises a complex plan to prove Claudius's guilt, but the choices he makes result in multiple tragedies.

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91 ratings

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Directed by: Rodney Bennett

Release Date: November 10, 1980

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DVD Release Date: November 9, 2004

Stats: 9 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (9)


  • December 11, 2008
    Hmmm, to dump or not to dump, that is the question. As my sister always says -- always -- Derek Jacobi is not a very good Hamlet. Oh BBC, could you not have found a better one?

    I saw an excellent Hamlet many moons ago at Kennedy Theatre, but the very best Hamlet

    ...( read more)> I ever did see was in Philadelphia, a Temple University production. Students all. Yes, students whom I will guess never made huge careers in show business, but were brilliant actors all.

    I must reiterate: If you find Shakespeare a little inaccessible, it is most likely the fault of the production. A good production, even if some of the words are obscure, will make the words, accompanied by the actions, crystal clear to you. Witness Mel Gibson's version. Very well done. Sadly, I can no longer watch Mel Gibson. On principle. My dear niece, who once owned every Gibson movie on tape and DVD, threw them all out. I have to agree with that as well.

    Fear not, however, as there are good film versions available. Branagh, wanting to get every word into the movie, did so. And goodly.

    Every word. You know, I have to agree with A.L. Rowse. This may be such an incredibly long play, if you stick to the text religiously, simply because Shakespeare had finally created a character that so mesmerized him, he could not let him leave the stage without wringing out every idea he could play through Hamlet's mind and mouth. Hamlet, then, is perhaps indecisive, but the primary reason for that is because Shakespeare did not want to let him go. Ever. Keep him out there on stage, thinking, talking.

    I've said how little I buy into the reverence for Olivier's Hamlet job -- for his Shakespeare work in general. I must reiterate that as well.

    Friends, what idiot would give Shakespeare's Hamlet fewer than three stars? Not I, even though for this one, I should. God's bodkins, man, this is Hamlet we're talking about. No other work of literature, western or eastern, has generated more critical debate than this, except, of course , for The Bible, in its entirety. Give Hamlet fewer than three stars? Why, I'd sooner entertain the idea of self-slaughter than do that.

    So, even though this is a weak, weak -- yes, I wrote "weak" twice, Patrick Stewart -- Hamlet, I cannot give it fewer than three stars.

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