The Full Hamlet
Added 2/12/2010
Whatever your views on different versions of Hamlet on film (and there are lots of them), this one is a must, a benchmark. In addition to its excellent, well-known actors (including Kate Winslet's debut), it gives us every line of Shakespeare's original. In other words, this is a great starting point and/or reference point for viewing other versions, and a major achievement by the directing team.
The commentary is also very good, and well-worth listening to as you go through the play. All in all, an excellent DVD.
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Best Hamlet
Added 1/21/2010
I've seen many versions of Hamlet and this one is the one that belongs in your home video library. It's beautifully acted, simple and easily understood. I highly recommend it!
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Notable effort, less accessible than other efforts. Mixed casting.
Added 12/14/2009
I have liked Kenneth Branagh's other Shakespeare films. I appreciate that he doesn't reduce the plays to sing-songy recitals. Having said that, he seems to have a weakness for some inappropriate casting. Let's start with Jack Lemmon. I like Jack Lemmon. He is a gifted comedic and dramatic actor, but he had no business whatsoever playing a guard in Shakespeare's Hamlet. Now, I know Ophelia's supposed to be mad, but Kate WInslett's Ophelia is simply incoherent most of the time. I'd have preferred Helena Bonham Carter, but with her you have to take Mel Gibson as Hamlet.
The choice of Julie Christie as Gertrude, on the other hand, is inspired. Her performance makes sense of a woman who would sleep with her murderous former brother-in-law.
All of the plot points are made clearly for once, but except for Hamlet's ambiguity about the status of humanity in the cosmos, most of the subtle stuff gets short shrift.
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Perfect Production!
Added 10/24/2009
Really this is an amazing version of Hamlet. Someone told me it was boring because it was full text, but I do not agree. When I watched it I was enraptured the entire time. I really loved it. I showed it to my high school senior English class and they loved it too. I recommend this version for school use. Kevin Branagh is amazing! Perfectly casted, amazing set!
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Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet
Added 10/2/2009
I recently used this video with my senior students. I teach in a low economic area of Los Angeles. The students responded well to it and were able to follow the plot except for the one section where the troupe of actors comes to perform at Elsinore. This whole section is a giant actor-manager-playwright in-joke that Shakespeare inserted but which my students were mystified by. Additionally, I had to explain to them that Hamlet is requesting the players to alter the play to look more like the scene of his father's murder.
The costume and staging of the play are subdued and not distracting. The acting...that is the movement of the characters and their facial expressions are well done enough that my students could interpret emotions even without understanding the words.
There are some surprise cameos: Robin Williams, Charleton Heston, etc.
Overall, Branagh has done a great job with the staging of this play and it works well with students.
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