Winner of four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor, Sir Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet continues to be the most compelling version of Shakespeare’s beloved tragedy. Olivier is at his most inspired—both as director and as the melancholy Dane himself—as he breathes new life into the words of one of the world’s greatest dramatists.
Laurence Olivier Jean Simmons John Laurie Esmond Knight Anthony Quayle Niall MacGinnis Harcourt Williams Patrick Troughton Tony Tarver Peter Cushing Stanley Holloway Russell Thorndike Basil Sydney Eileen Herlie Norman Wooland Felix Aylmer Terence Morgan Anthony Bushell Patricia Davidson Doreen Lawrence Christopher Lee Desmond Llewelyn Victor Lucas Patrick Macnee
王子复仇记, Хамлет, Άμλετ, Amleto, ハムレット, Гамлет, 哈姆雷特, המלט, 햄릿, 王子復仇記
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Lawrence Olivier is totally deserving of his Shakespearean reputation. Not only is his performance spectacular but his choices as a director are quite avant garde, especially for the 40s. His sets are barren and angular, reminding me at times of German Expressionism.
If you are not familiar with Shakespeare, I highly recommend reading the story before watching, or at least reading a summary before watching. As it has been awhile since I studied Shakespeare and the language is quite dense, I don’t think I got as much from this watch as I could have.
I look forward to more of his adaptations!
Criterion Collection Spine #82
Everything you would expect from the definitive classic film adaptation of the tragedy of Hamlet, and a little more.
"Murder most foul, as in the best it is, but this most foul, strange and unnatural."
As a big fan of this Shakespearean play, I can't believe it has taken me this long to see the Best Picture-winning version of it. But knowing it so well did make it a challenge to stay invested the whole time, especially since I just saw the epic Kenneth Branagh one just last year. But I was surprised by how well this version of the story shined during a few key moments.
1. The excellent black and white photography works great…
While truncated, this Hamlet is also a visually dynamic one. I love the gliding camera that haunts the halls of Elsinore, and the shifts in focus that signal the arrival of the Ghost (not to mention his spooky, breathy voice). For me, though, the definitive cinematic version of this material remains Schwarzenegger’s.
The almost German expressionist sets, the cast, the pseudo horror scenes, all truly magnificent.
time and the prince — they are bound to each other in fate and death. causality is the battlefield on which lonely men cross swords of metal and the mind.
the language of william shakespeare, something i treasure dearly, becomes the main character for many scenes; actors and sets become vessels for these cascades and waterfalls of colourful, beautiful, imaginative words and phrases, and i'm completely fine with it. in fact, i welcome the dominance of language in film — especially when a filmmaker is completely in control of his craft & confident in using such a language to create irresistable beauty. there are a plethora of shots here that would define and overwhelm lesser movies, and all of these have…
Well that certainly was Hamlet.
There is nothing wrong with Oliviers version of Hamlet at all. It is essentially a straight from the theater version with apparently some scenes cut out. The sets are essentially that of a play, I’m sure filled in some soundstage somewhere.
If you love pure Shakespeare, than you will love this. Otherwise it is difficult to watch. Shakespeare is not my thing at all, but I can’t say the film was bad either.
I. I didn't realize until watching this adaptation the degree to which Hamlet is Claudius' story as much as it is that of the titular melancholy Dane. Trapped by his own ill-fated ambition and lust, Claudius is unexpectedly sympathetic, a man unequal to the situation to which he has condemned himself, but also unable to dismount and cut his losses. In the end, he's more victim than actor, drawn ever-forward by his flight from the judgment that dogs his steps, fleeing Hamlet through the mechanism of further violence and deception, beyond hope that it will end in anything like the serene victory of which he's long dreamed.
II. The important shit: "Olivier wore his hair in a short fringe in…
William Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616. He was baptized on April 26, 1564 (albeit on the old Julian calendar), so his birthday is traditionally celebrated on the 23rd, too. I decided to observe the 460th anniversary of the Bard’s birth by rewatching this version of Hamlet, the only adaptation of a Shakespeare play to win an Oscar for either Best Picture or Best Actor. As I noted in my comments for the 1944 adaptation of Henry V, Laurence Olivier more or less singlehandedly proved that Shakespeare’s work could be reimagined successfully for the screen. That earlier film, however, got made as part of the war effort. With Hamlet, Olivier proved it could be done in peacetime as well. Orson…
This is Hamlet as a Horror Movie, as a late entry in Universal Studio's classics. A ghost stalks the halls of the dark, nightmarish, expressionist castle, and people go mad, kill themselves and each other, in an orgy of blood and murder, and the only one who sees things plain is a gravedigger. In what other movie can you find Doctor Who, John Steed, Q, Victor Frankenstein and Dracula? And they are all just in the background, though Patrick Troughton is at least recognizable as the player king, and Peter Cushing has a joyous role toward the end as Osiric, a foppish courtier. The way the camera fluidly movies from one room into another, down corridors, up stairs to the…
Film #33 of Project 40
”Take up the bodies: such a sight as this / Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss. / Go, bid the soldiers shoot!”
This time it is Laurence Olivier who takes the distinguished play of William Shakespeare and explores the universal themes which have made Hamlet such a timeless and renowned piece of literature. Olivier carefully approaches the original material and successfully manages to transfer that doomed nature of Hamlet’s situation to the screen and captures the spirit of the play with great commitment. He plays the central character himself and handles his devastating doubts and fears and his bitter fate exceptionally well. The atmosphere of the film and its hopeless mood is captured…
Went in expecting a stiff, lifeless adaptation. Boy was I wrong. Olivier is a fascinating director. He hits all the notes that the play lines up, and boy does he nail them. I might actually prefer it to the Branagh version.
