Hamlet (1996-Kenneth Branagh)

My personal definitive version of Hamlet, and one of my favorite Shakespeare movies.  For one thing, there's the acting--not just Kenneth Branagh (Hamlet) but Kate Winslet (Ophelia), Derek Jacobi (Claudius), Robin Williams and Billy Crystal in cameos (Osric and the gravedigger, respectively), Michael Maloney (Laertes), Nicholas Farrell (Horatio), Julie Christie (Gertrude), who did a good job even though her delivery is a bit whiny sometimes...  And then there is the look--the sets, the locations, the costumes, all of it.  There are large chunks of this movie that I could watch with the sound off and just look at.  I haven't seen a movie look so beautiful and expensive since the recent Batman series (damn, do I need a life).  As a fan of the play of Hamlet in general, I love the fact that this uses the full text.  My only complaint with the length is finding enough time to see it all at once. 

This version does move around a few speeches, most notably three--Hamlet's "Angels and ministers of grace, defend us" and " 'Tis now the very witching-time of night" and one of Claudius' which includes the phrase "O Gertrude, Gertrude, when sorrows come, they come not in single spies but in battalions".  The first speech is given in the original version as Hamlet's immediate reaction upon first seeing the ghost of his father, and as such makes since.  In this film, it is given as a voiceover as Hamlet follows the ghost, a kind of transition between the scene it was written in and the next, so that the final "What should we do?" comes as Hamlet bursts into a clearing and says "Whither wilt thou lead me?"  This seems to work in a way that I cannot explain.  The next speech that was moved, however, does not work.  In the original text, Hamlet dismisses Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and Polonius with "Leave me, friends" and ends the scene with an impassioned speech beginning with "'Tis now the very witching time of night"  and including the memorable line "Now could I drink hot blood".  The scene this speech ends is the play-within-a-play scene when Hamlet discovers proof of Claudius' guilt, so that kind of emotion is understandable.  In this film version, however,  it is completely misplaced into the middle of the next scene, which almost inexcusably dilutes Hamlet's emotion.  As for Claudius' speech lamenting Ophelia's descent into madness and the circumstances surrounding it, the scene in which it takes place is the first scene after the intermission, so it is pushed to the beginning and used as a review of the first part's events.

The subject of speeches brings me to one of my few complaints about this movie.  Another one of Hamlet's less-known speeches, which ends with "my thoughts be bloody, or nothing worth", is so atrociously staged that it is almost painful to watch.  Kenneth Branagh basically stands against a mountain backdrop and rants for several minutes.  Now, I'll grant you that he rants quite well, but there is nothing to look at, and the mountains are so obviously fake that I half-expect to see the camera pull back too far and reveal the edge of the backdrop.  This is therefore known to me and my friends as the mountain soliloquy. 

More detail about the acting : Derek Jacobi is a genius, plain and simple.  His Claudius manages to toe the fine line between being ingratiating and being annoyingly smarmy.  He also seems genuinely scared of Hamlet.  And Kate Winslet is a revelation.  I could barely move watching her mad scene-it was one of the most incredible things I've ever seen..

At the very end, some soldiers are shown knocking down a statue of Hamlet's father.  While this has obvious symbolism, it also reminds me of part of the Eisenstein movie October when the revolting peasants tear down a statue of the czar.  Coincidence?  Well...probably.

back to the Kenneth Branagh Hamlet page

main / shakespeare / people / movies / books / random / jokes / star trek / x-files writing / quotes / poetry