Hamlet 1996
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, returns home to find his father murdered and his mother now marrying the murderer. Meanwhile, war is brewing. Hamlet (1996) directed by Kenneth Branagh. Reviews, film + cast. Letterboxd.
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His 'Hamlet' is long but not slow, deep but not difficult, and it vibrates with the relief of actors who have great things to say, and the right ways to say them. And in the 70-mm. version, it has a visual clarity that is breathtaking. It is the first uncut film version of Shakespeare's most challenging tragedy, the first 70-mm. film since 'Far and Away' in 1992, and at 238 minutes the second-longest major Hollywood production (one minute shorter than 'Cleopatra'). Branagh's Hamlet lacks the narcissistic intensity of Laurence Olivier's (in the 1948 Academy Award winner), but the film as a whole is better, placing Hamlet in the larger context of royal politics, and making him less a subject for pity.
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- Hamlet Act 1 Scene 2 Soliloquy (1996) Bibi Benjamin. Hamlet 1996 Kenneth Branagh Act 4 Scene 1. Hamlet Act III scene iv.
- 1996, Drama, 4h 2m. 56 Reviews 25,000+ Ratings. Critics consensus. Kenneth Branagh's sprawling, finely textured adaptation of Shakespeare's masterpiece lives up to its source.
The story provides a melodramatic stage for inner agonies. Hamlet (Branagh), the prince of Denmark, mourns the untimely death of his father. His mother, Gertrude, rushes with unseemly speed into marriage with Claudius, her husband's brother. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. And then the ghost of Hamlet's father appears and says he was poisoned by Claudius What must Hamlet do? He desires the death of Claudius but lacks the impulse to act out. He despises himself for his passivity. In tormenting himself he drives his mother to despair, kills Polonius by accident, speeds the kingdom toward chaos and his love, Ophelia, toward madness.
What is intriguing about 'Hamlet' is the ambiguity of everyone's motives. Tom Stoppard's 'Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead' famously filtered all the action through the eyes of Hamlet's treacherous school friends. But how does it all look to Gertrude? To Claudius? To the heartbroken Ophelia? The great benefit of this full-length version is that these other characters become more understandable.
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The role of Claudius (Derek Jacobi) is especially enriched: In shorter versions, he is the scowling usurper who functions only as villain. Here, with lines and scenes restored, he seems more balanced and powerful. He might have made a plausible king of Denmark, had things turned out differently. Yes, he killed his brother, but regicide was not unknown in medieval times, and perhaps the old king was ripe for replacement; this production shows Gertrude (Julie Christie) as lustfully in love with Claudius. By restoring the original scope of Claudius' role, Branagh emphasizes court and political intrigue instead of enclosing the material in a Freudian hothouse.