A terrific rendering of Shakespeare on film Tony Richardson has not received ample praise for successfully transferring a Shakespeare play to cinema in this marvelous film. Watch how Olivier grapples with the problem in films such as Henry V and then see how simply Richardson dissolves the question of whether what we see is on a stage or is supposed to be in a real-world setting by filming the actors in closeup predominantly and keeping the setting genuinely "in the background"--and a shadowy one at that. It helps that he filmed Hamlet, of course, set in the moody castle at Elsinore. Williamson is, to me, unforgettable in the title role. Anthony Hopkins is the best Claudius I have seen; precisely the nasty sty Hamlet calls him, and the highlight of the film is Hamlet's doing him in at last. The rendering of the duel is truly exciting and cathartic, as it should be. Hooray! (Compare it to Branagh's ludicrous, pumped up version with the levitating rapier!) I love the rest of the cast also right down to the gravedigger, and I only give the film four instead of five stars because of the twist given to the Laertes-Ophelia farewell scene--an unfortunate move by the director to attract comment or attention. He need not have, given all the merits of this Hamlet.
Williamson 10 - Branagh 0 Reading the lines above : No matter of how easy may be to scorn gifted genius, folks, you should first think and then act before trying to trench infamously this delightful dainty in a couple of poorly woven sentences, for this is one of the best Hamlets EVER seen and heared. Williamson's Hamlet crashes Branagh's right and left and overshadows the rest of the ensemble -but Hopkins'-. Yes, he looks like 50, though he was just 30, and so what?. So did also Orson Welles when he played the Claudius with Micheál MacLíammoír in the Hamlet role though this last one was over ten years his senior...Williamson could be for my sake 120, then his contribution to the character (edgy, defiant, sour, superb!) is probably the best one. And even if the backdrops were kind of unsofisticated and the whole production sparse -Richardson was lacking of the buck, hence the humble get-up- its darkness rather enhances the characters on stage, getting more eye-catching and preventing the spectator from any superfluous item that would disturb his attention. It's beautiful the way characters emerge from and slink and into the darkness. Williamson doesn't fall in the trap of giving the audience what they expect, nor needs to dye his hair or hide behind a million dollar scenery for a self complacent showing off, then what he's offering the respectable is a raw and intensely truculent Hamlet full of sarcasm and dangerously strong emotions, provided you can take them... Yes, folks, this guy is unreachable, the KILIMANJARO of all Hamlets, if not the Everest. Not to be missed in anything -check the Merlin in Boorman's "Excalibur" or as the coke-snoring Sherlock Holmes in "The Seven-Per-Cent Solution"-. And where is he hiding now?. Is he still playing theater in London or elsewhere?. Richardson was brilliant as well and did a good producer work, risky and controversial, it's just a pity that the play had to suffer from the many cuts in the screening version. This fact merms the whole thing a bit. I wouldn't recommend this to the Kenneth Branagh's Estrogen Brigades, but for the rest of the respectable is just indispensable, if you can renounce to overloaded parades of firework in Shakespeare's adaptions. Yes, mamma, give me more of this!
A Different Hamlet This video is an adaptation of the stage production that was produced in London's Roundhouse (a former train roundhouse converted into a theatre). The film makes use of the entire theatre, not just the stage. It makes for a very claustrophobic, but effective setting.
I have mixed feelings about this film. I am glad someone tried something different with Hamlet. I was glad to see a 30 year old Hamlet for a change. Hamlet is not the young undergrad college student we always picture him to be, but a 30 year old grad student. Shakespeare's play tells us that Yorick's skull has been in the ground for 24 years and Hamlet tells us how he knew Yorick as a childhood friend. Nicol Williamson (while not the common image of Hamlet)was a 30 year old actor playing a 30 year old character.
stuck in its time they don't show the ghost, for one, but rather there's this sort of trippyish light, as if they're at a psychedelic rock concert. Ophelia is the most gorgeous Ophelia I've seen, and she acts well, too. While Anthony Hopkins looks spectacular as Claudius, he's not as good as Derek Jacobi in the Branagh version. But he is quite good. Overall, kind of weak. The costumes are lame. The player king is good.
BRAVO! An Actor's Hamlet! Tony Richardson's production of Hamlet is perhaps too subtle for those used to more ostentatious renderings of the play, but do not let that discourage you from enjoying the depth and clarity of this fine stage/film version, which reads very well on the television screen. Celebrated Nicol Williamson plays an infinitely human and palpable Hamlet. There is no bombast nor bloat to the intelligent tone and pithy rhythm of his soliloquies. Williamson is one of a handful of actors who can phrase the complex *long bow* of Shakespeare's verse into the meaningful and memorable images that the author so skillfully aimed. With Williamson (as with Branaugh 25+ years later), this Hamlet's increasingly cynical dispair fuels his rage--not the simpering *moral confusion* of more formalized drama school portrayals. Gordon Jackson, best known to American film buffs as THE GREAT ESCAPE's MacDonald (*Intelligence*), plays a wonderfully intimate and faithful Horatio--indeed, here IS a friend! Marianne Faithful is in her element as Ophelia. And one can only wonder how Anthony Hopkins would play Claudius today? He seems to overdraw his character in this 1969 stage to film version--but then again, why wouldn't a King breakfast on baked fowl in the comfort of his own bed while tenderizing fair Rosencrantz and good Guilenstern for their fouled English mission? Let others scoff at the humanity and subtlety of this performance. This lovely version is shown frequently on the BRAVO channel (*The Actor's Channel*) for good reason. *Ah, the point and the venom, too....*
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