Hamlet

Starring: Laurence Olivier, Jean Simmons, John Laurie, Esmond Knight, Anthony Quayle, Peter Cushing, Eileen Herlie, Felix Aylmer, Christopher Lee (uncredited), Desmond Llewelyn (uncredited)
Directed by: Laurence Olivier
Rating: Not rated
Genre: Drama
1948

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Prince Hamlet (Laurence Olivier) struggles with sanity while plotting his revenge against his murderous uncle, the new King of Denmark.

Review:

Tim: I am a huge, huge Shakespeare fan, so I was really looking forward to Hamlet. This was the first English-language "talkie" version of "Hamlet", and it was directed by and starred Laurence Olivier. It's a challenging, fascinating movie. While the film was more work to get through than I expected, it's still a very good movie.

What's interesting about the filmed versions of "Hamlet" is that each has its own identity. Olivier's version has been called the "film-noir" version of Hamlet, which is a pretty fitting description. The movie is dark yet stark in black and white. It features stripped down, simple settings, and frightening imagery. It's a very dark version of an already-dark tragedy. It's pretty fascinating to watch it all unfold, although it does tend to get a bit heavy. Most of the scenes of levity from the play have been cut, leaving only the emotional, melancholy blackness that we see on screen.

For the most part, I enjoyed how this film looked. Everything just jumps out in black and white. The film did wonders with the ghost of Hamlet's father- these scenes are atmospheric and creepy. I won't soon forget the image of his ghost, or his haunting, whispering voice. That was a great aspect of the film. I also loved the scene at the graveyard- especially with Yorrick's skull. That scene was so well shot, the image will remain with me for a long time. However, there were other aspects I didn't love. I felt like the film was almost too stripped down. It occasionally felt like a glorified stage production, which hurts the movie. My eyes wanted a little more to look at. I also thought the sword-fight at the end came across as a little too staged. I didn't love how that looked on screen.

Olivier himself does a very, very good job as the titular prince. He's never been my favorite actor, but I enjoyed him in this role. He certainly has the acting chops to make Shakespearean dialogue believable. I do wish that he displayed a bit more emotion on his face, but he delivers his lines quite impeccably. It was interesting to have some of the lines thought (displayed through a voice-over), while others were spoken out loud. It made the whole thing feel a bit more realistic.

Perhaps my favorite (and obviously, the most famous) scene in the film and the play is Hamlet's soliloquy. I thought it was good here, but not exactly great. I appreciate the placement of Hamlet, overlooking the rocks and the waves below, but I never felt any sort of real danger in that scene. Hamlet is musing on suicide, of ending it all, and yet, that didn't translate to the scene. I can't forget Olivier just lounging around while delivering it. I wanted to see more anguish, more turmoil from him. This is the most famous soliloquy in the English language, but it didn't come across as that on screen. It was good, but definitely not great.

Olivier faced some real challenges with this story. For one, "Hamlet" is such a long play that there's almost no way to do the whole thing on film. He was forced to make cuts throughout the movie. I understand this, and I also understand how difficult it must have been. It's easy to be overly critical of him cutting Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, but I understand that cuts had to be made. I'm slightly more conflicted on the dialogue changes Olivier made to "modernize" some of the phrases. I don't like the idea of messing with the original, but it helps make the movie more accessible.

While I love Shakespeare, this movie was a little difficult for me to sit through. The dialogue in any Shakespeare movie is challenging, so it wasn't that. There were just too many stretches were the audience could drift off because they weren't being engaged enough. I liked the movie, but I did find myself wandering from time to time. Olivier needed to pay more attention to holding the audience enraptured by the events of the film.

So, I can't say that I loved Laurence Olivier's Hamlet, but I was impressed with it. The film was only the second directorial effort by Olivier, and while he does a good job, I've never been convinced that Olivier was truly a great director. I thought he did an admirable job with this difficult film, but he could have done better. There's a reason he won Best Actor at the Academy Awards, and not Best Director. Still, this is a well-liked, fascinating film that managed to capture the Academy Award for Best Picture. It's absolutely worth seeing.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 7.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Henry V, Richard III