The play mesmerized me, however. I read the many different soliliquies Hamlet gives throughout the play. I discovered that his "Rogue and peasant slave", "Too, too solid flesh", and "Now might I do it" speeches are even more powerful than his most famous soliliquy. I laughed at how Shakespeare played with language. And I marveled at the scope of the work.
I have read the play probably about twenty times since then. I still find it to be the greatest work ever written in English. Thus, any film adaptation is bound to disappoint more or less.
The 1980 BBC production was very good, I know, but it suffers from being produced on a shoestring budget. It does feature marvelous acting from Derek Jacobi as the prince and Claire Bloom and Patrick Stewart as the royal couple, but one can never forget that the whole play takes place in a cramped television studio. Like nearly all adaptations, this one was cut, but the cuts were fairly unobstrusive.
A 1990 film version directed by Franco Zeffirelli suffered in comparison to the 1980 version. For Hamlet, we get Mel Gibson, a first-time Shakespearean. Mel actually does a credible job, but there are about a million actors who could have done better. Glenn Close makes a very good queen and Paul Scofield is a knockout ghost, but the whole affair suffers from Zeffirelli's idiotic direction. The Italian does have a great eye for locations and designs, but he doesn't have a dramatic bone in his body: the huge cuts include the "Rogue and peasant slave" speech, virtually all of Fortinbras, and on and on. To exacerbate the cutting, he adds extraneous material, such as the funeral of old Hamlet, and young Hamlet's disturbing encounter with Ophelia which she later tells her father about. Zeffirelli makes such egregious errors as having Ophelia sing bawdy songs before she goes mad. Pah. This movie is to be avoided.
A couple of years ago, it was announced that Kenneth Branagh was going to make an uncut Hamlet, and I must say that it turned out very well. Far from a simple performance of the work, this represents an adaptation: filmed on location at historic Blenheim Palace (home to Winston Churchill), this version is set in the 19th century, in a sort of eternal winter. The old Hamlet (Brian Blessed), a strong and vigorous leader, has been replaced by his brother Claudius (Derek Jacobi, a casting coup), a cheap and minor tyrant.
The film is impressively cast: there are few films with so many great names from both sides of the Atlantic. One has to go back to, perhaps, Michael Todd's Around the World in 80 Days to find its equal. Featured in brief parts are Jack Lemmon, Gerard Depardieu, Robin Williams, Billy Crystal (as the first gravedigger), and Charlton Heston (as the first player). In non-speaking roles, we briefly see the faces of such great British thespians as John Gielgud, Judi Dench, and the great John Mills. On the distaff side, Gertrude is Julie Christie, Ophelia is Kate Winslet. And it goes without saying that Branagh himself is the gloomy prince.
And gloomy he is. His is the first Hamlet I ahve seen who actually mourns for his father rather than simply prances about in black garb. He is deeply troubled at the appearance of his father's ghost, a uniquely realized scene, far from the traditional blue light and dry-ice clouds. Hamlet's weakness is finally tempered during the play scene, and when he sees the army of Fortinbras.
Most of the performers work just fine in their roles. Heston is sensational as the leader of the players. Never has he been so magnetic or so literate a performer. Billy Crystal is quite funny and does not camp up the role of the gravedigger, nor does Robin Williams that of Osric. Unfortunately, Williams' Osric is both unfunny and too old. Perhaps a restrained Jim Carrey might have filled the role more ably? The most unfortunate bit of international casting is Lemmon as Marcellus. He is far too old to play the role of a guard, and his accent makes him stick out even more. Although Lemmon is America's finest actor, he just doesn't fit into this movie.
The actors who most matter are all British: Jacobi is very fine as a king with no moral center. Julie Christie rather unfortunately fades into the background, perhaps because the Queen has few, if any lines restored when all the cuts are opened up. Kate Winslet is very passionate and beautiful as Ophelia, and totally unhinged for her mad scene. Brian Blessed is a frightening ghost, and as mentioned earlier, Branagh's Hamlet marks a slow arc from wallowing in grief to vengeful action.
In summary: a fascinating portrait of Shakespeare, and an important document for those who wish an uncut version, but not definitive. Goodness, no. There cannot ever be a movie as fine as the original play. All the movies, even the frightful Zeffirelli, show us a facet of Shakespeare's greatest work. Still, a magnificent, if difficult, translation of the Bard, and one of the best films of 1996.
Four stars
Copyright 1997 by Dale G. Abersold
