Hamlet

Rating:
Summary: Gibson Great... Zeffirelli Not so Much
Review: Gibson brings a wonderful dynamic to the role... but the rest of the film's direction by Zeffirelli is a travesty. The Freudian Oedipus complex? ... oh, please... done to death. The complete removal of the opening scene of the play (the ghost appears to the guards)? Well, that just about stops any forward momentum the play is meant to have at its start. And the almost complete removal of the Fortinbras subplot? Uh, that pretty much guts the parallel structure of the play.

Stick to the Branagh version instead!

Rating:
Summary: Hamlet
Review: Mel is at his best in this movie.He is Hamlet.I never thought I could understand the way the talking is done,but I understood everything thanks to Mel and his eyes that change color with his moods.

Rating:
Summary: Superb
Review: If you want to see Hamlet in a teathical version, go to the Theater, period. Laurence Oliver's Hamlet was boring as hell for a movie.
Mel Gibson in his best here, got me completely by surprise giving us a human, sensitive, passioned Hamlet, not somekind of vegetal from the middle ages locked in a tower mubling to himself.
This is a very good adaptation of the classic, told in a very subtle, attractive and inspiring way.
Mel Gybson shows us his potential and prooves that he's a top notch actor capable of doing both action movies as well as more deep-dificult roles.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty Good Bard
Review: All Shakespeare productions elicit mixed reactions, and what impresses one will fail to touch another. This "Hamlet" is no exception. Repeat Shakespeare director Franco Zeffirelli creates a comprehensible, straightforward presentation that is excellent for newcomers to the Tragedy, but will lack a great deal for purists.

Many object to the casting of professional heartthrob Mel Gibson as the doomed Dane, yet he acquits himself very well. In a remarkably difficult role, he creates an accessible character without sacrificing the depth of inner turmoil we've come to expect from our Hamlet. He also plays well against his two female leads. Glenn Close as Gertrude creates a character who paradoxically is the opposite of and a complement to her star-making role in "Fatal Attraction." Helena Bonham Carter, princess of the costume dramas, carries off the varied subtlety of Ophelia, a difficult role on which many very skillful actresses have fallen down.

Some of the other characters simply fail to make an impression. It's hard to even place anything done by Alan Bates' Claudius. Iam Holm as Polonius seems like it ought to be a casting master stroke, but the potential of the master actor in the role just isn't exploited as it should be. Rozencrantz and Guildenstern are abridged to the point of inconsequence, as are Horatio, Bernardo, and Pete Postelthwaite's intriguing but uninvestigated Player King.

Screenwriters Zeffirelli and Christopher De Vore recut the scenes and action to make use of the potential of the camera. Moving locations allow private speeches to be more private and the public events to be more public. The flow isn't necessarily improved, but it is much more compatible with the nature of film, which is wildly different than the stage. Not everyone will like the way the classic scenes have been resequenced, but the structure will satisfy those weaned on movies over theatre much better than a straight line-for-line reading would do.

All in all, like any other Shakespeare film, this will thrill some and bore others. Purists are warned that this is a movie, not a film of a staging; neophytes are warned that this is not light fare, and will require more than one viewing to gloss. Take everything with a grain of salt, and enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: Shakespeare Would Have Died
Review: Casting Mel Gibson as the complicated Hamlet was a huge mistake. I felt as if he didn't even understand the words coming out of his mouth. Also, the long play was cut in half, leaving a lot missing. Glenn Close was way too young to be cast as Mel's mother; she's not even 10 years older than him, and Zefferelli didn't even bother to put ageing makeup on her. I think Glenn Close is a fine actress, but she only did a mediocre job in this mediocre movie. The messy and grainy cinematography never let me forget that I was watching a movie, instead of sucking me into the story. The Kenneth Branagh version is infinitely better.

Rating:
Summary: Ouch, Movie would've been good if not named "Hamlet"
Review: If you go along with the actual script, this interpreation of the movie is a VERY big letdown. They take the script and play it completely how they want it, things like Act I, Scene I is not even apparent in the movie itself. Then large soliloqueys (Spelt that wrong) are really torn up and mixed about, for example he goes into the "To be or not to be" and somehow ends up in "Get the to a nunnery" which are two distinctly different parts in the original text. As for the play Hamlet, this movie is a tad under par in my opinion.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting, but too black and white
Review: I found this movie extreamly well acted and presented. I realize that Hamlet is a long play and thus it is commonly cut down to make it shorter. But, sections which were removed such as the way Claudius handels Fortanbras, Rozencranse and Gildenstern, and Laerties accepting Hamlet's appology assuming he can do so and maintain his honor, removed a lot of the depth from it. It made the good people seem all good, and the bad all bad. It also left some rough edges at parts.

Rating:
Summary: Such Variety
Review: This is an interesting and serviceable Hamlet both different and the same as other Hamlets done in the past. Its abbreviated by half. And unfortunately by necessity characters are altered pretty drastically and you'll never get a feel for the really fascinating and motivations of the lesser characters that are really make the play a great experience when seen in full. But if you haven't seen the entire version I doubt you will feel deprived. I guess what makes this version distinctive is Mel Gibson plays Hamlet driven with a measure of rage and aggressiveness that is probably refreshing to people who are used to seeing him as the "melancholy Dane". So this is a pretty good version that tries to retell Hamlet in an original way. This is directed by Franco Zefferelli who in my opinion did the "definitive" version of Romeo and Juliet that I doubt will ever be topped. I think he also directed the best of the Jesus movies. I can't say this is the best Hamlet, the new modern version is pretty good and the Kenneth Branaugh version is really awesome because he really understands every minute of the play. He plays Hamlet as incredibly intelligent and cunning. Hopefully this version will whet your appetite for his full version coming to DVD later this year. Unfortunately B's Hamlet is a very (panoramic) widescreen title that must be just awful in pan and scan and is going to look quite small on a 27 inch tv screen. This version of Hamlet plays alright on the tv screen because it pretty much stays focused on Hamlet himself and the periphral characters are not nearly as important to this retelling as they are in the full version. The only negative thing I have to say about this version is that everyone is a little bit too crazy. Ophelia becomes totally mad in this version. Hamlet is supposed to be feigning madness and in the real play he plays mad when it serves his purposes. Gibson's Hamlet actually is a little crazy. Sometimes I think this waters down the motivations a little too much. I always have to remind myself watching this that there is only half the time to tell the story so its a pretty competant job.
If you like this, definitely check out Zefferelli's Romeo and Juliet. And if you have a big big screen TV, Branaugh's Hamlet later in the year when it comes out.

Rating:
Summary: A Vanity Production
Review: When Franco Zefferelli directed his 1968 film of "Romeo and Juliet," the first person he approached to play the male lead was Paul McCartney. The Beatle turned down the offer, but Zefferelli enjoyed a phenomenal success by casting two unknowns with no Shakespearean experience in the title roles. The director doubtless hoped lightning would strike twice by casting the screen's reigning action star in one of the most demanding roles in the Shakespearean canon. The result is a staggeringly ordinary production, but a serviceable primer for those who want to familiarize themselves with the text.

The virtues of the film are many, with fine performances turned in by Helena Bonham Carter as Ophelia, Paul Scofield as the Ghost, and an especially memorable one by Glenn Close as an unusually dense Gertrude. Zefferelli also serves himself well by providing a brilliant and concisely edited screenplay; paring down the length and complications of the text for the masses, while retaining all the key characters and points of the story with the precision of a surgeon.

But the name of the play is "Hamlet," and this production is bogged down by Mel Gibson's lack of imagination or sustained sensitivity in the role. Gibson does not embarrass himself in the manner of Keanu Reeves or Michael Keaton in Kenneth Branaugh's "Much Ado About Nothing"; indeed in some scenes such as Hamlet's aborted attempt to return to Wittenberg or in his surprisingly touching reading of the "Alas, Poor Yorick" speech he is very effective. But this is the first film Hamlet not played by an actor who had already distinguished himself in the role on stage. If Gibson had been serious about wanting to invest himself in the part, he would have challenged himself in a theater production where his movie star clout might have been more easily cast aside. But by throwing himself into a big budget film of the play without any real idea of how to play the role is simply an act of arrogance, and by the time Gibson is seen in the Act V duel grotesquely whooping and stomping like in one of the "Lethal Weapon" movies, the film has degenerated into a tiresome Vanity Production.

Zefferelli obviously wanted Gibson because his presence in the role meant that he could raise the money to satisfy his affinity for lavishly ornate sets and costumes. But while this sumptuous rendering served his films of "Romeo and Juliet" and the memorable Burton/Taylor "Taming of the Shrew" well, "Hamlet" is another matter. The most effective films of "Hamlet" had simple settings, such as the stark and cold stone Elsinore of Olivier's film or the generic castle set of the magnificent BBC Television production starring Derek Jacobi and Patrick Stewart; unpretentious surroundings that makes the viewer focus on the very human drama that is unfolding in front of them. By overdressing his production, Zefferelli tries to draw attention away from his less than compelling leading man. But, like Cyrano de Bergerac, Hamlet wears his adornments on his soul; and in this production the soul is sadly lacking.

Rating:
Summary: Needs to be on DVD
Review: More and more older movies are being released on DVD. Hamlet is an all time classic and needs to be seen on DVD, along with the behind the scenes footage. I am a DVD owner, and miss watching this classic. I have two copies on VHS but I know would enjoy the DVD too.