Hamlet – Criterion Collection

Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet, at 153 minutes, is no popcorn flick. However, in order to collect the film down to this rather long length, Olivier had to build notable cuts to the renowned Shakespearean play. As a film that won four Oscars, this is (was) mainstream entertainment. Presenting Hamlet in its entirety (or even stop to its entirety) under these circumstances was therefore an impossibility. Olivier’s modifications advance in three forms: cramped deletions from speeches and conversations, “streamlining” of main narrative lines, and cuts of entire subplots. The first, least drastic change, leads to the second, and finally the third, and greatest, of the changes. The cutting of lines has the least carry out on the production’s ability to state the tale. The removed lines are usually unnecessary and repetitive, and the transitions are tranquil. Without a written version of the text in front of him, a viewer (unless he knows the play extraordinarily well) can rarely engage out where a line has been slit. A excellent example of this seamless cutting follows the ghost’s exit in the bedroom scene. Hamlet’s speech to the queen (Act III, scene iv, lines 144-159) is crop approximately in half, by cutting 2-3 lines from three different places. Such instances – cutting a line here, three lines there, etc. — can be found throughout the production, but in order to locate them one must follow along with a written text. Rearranging parts of play adds to the continuity of storylines and makes the epic itself easier to follow. Viewers familiar with Hamlet, however, will probably collect these modifications more jarring. Most of the time this “streamlining” is logical. For instance, the meeting of Hamlet and Ophelia in the nunnery scene directly follows the planning of this meeting by the King, Queen, and Polonius, and Hamlet’s “fishmonger” conversation with Polonius. In the play itself, this storyline is interrupted by the players’ arrival, but in the Olivier production this event takes status after the unfolding of the nunnery scene. Once again these modifications consume plot throughout the play. The third, and most clear modification that Olivier makes is the total removal of subplots, as well as other major events. These cuts have a gigantic impact on the telling of the play. Cutting the Player’s recitation of the descend of Troy causes Hamlet’s soliloquy, “What a rogue and peasant slave am I…” to be slit. Olivier’s decision to delete the character Fortinbras, has large consequences, because this necessitates cutting Hamlet’s final soliloquy, “How all occasions do grunt against me… .” The ending of the play is also altered by this choice. The deletion of two rather prominent characters, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, has the greatest attain on the play because the deletion or transplantation of several scenes results. The cuts of a line here and there can be viewed as creating a snowball enact that leads to the rearranging of scene, and the rearranging leads to the cuts of whole storylines and events. Most of the material that is slice by the minor deletions is repetitive, and these choices have microscopic immediate achieve. However, Shakespeare had a purpose in these repetitions, and that was to ensure that the audience could follow the play. By removing this repetition, one also makes the play considerably more difficult to understand. Olivier employs a logical solution — that is, increasing the continuity of the chronicle. This requires the rearranging that is so prevalent in his production. However, if one rearranges all of the significant scenes of Hamlet so that they unfold chronologically, then one is left with a distinguished amount of unnecessary scenes and even storylines themselves. Therefore, Olivier’s decision to lop these excess storylines again seems logical. A viewer familiar at Hamlet may at first glean these modifications very sorrowful, but when one analyzes what caused Olivier to develop the decisions he did, these rather sweeping changes become perfectly acceptable.

Consider this: Shakespearean films more than other films are dependent upon the director’s translation of the text. HAMLET in particular has been adapted roughly 43 times in film. I’ll say up front that this version is not my current interpretation, but I won’t negate that it certainly situation the standard befriend in its day.

For those weird with the play, Hamlet’s father, the king of Denmark, has recently passed away and he resents the accelerate with which his mother, Queen Gertrude, remarried. It doesn’t benefit that her fresh husband is the slow king’s brother, Claudius. Soon an apparition who is the spirit of his father, the dumb king, visits Hamlet. The ghost explains that Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle, murdered him in his sleep and tells Hamlet to avenge his death. The remainder of the sage primarily revolves around the Prince’s struggle to discontinuance thinking and begin doing (exemplified by the well-known “To be, or not to be” speech. Can Hamlet do what it takes to truly avenge his father’s death?

Olivier and his much-celebrated interpretation of HAMLET are considered by many to be the best of all Shakespeare film adaptations — it certainly bears the indelible effect of its director/star’s personality. Apparently, the Academy agreed rewarding it with Best Describe, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Costume Beget and among others. (Trivia: Olivier’s direction was also nominated losing to John Huston for “The Savor of the Sierra Madre” in 1948) .

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Olivier’s rob on Shakespeare’s anecdote of madness and execute most putrid is unmistakably cinematic — he takes paunchy advantage of the medium, avoiding the trap of merely filming a play as some Shakespeare adaptations do, with monologues delivered as internal thoughts heard in hushed voiceovers. He occasionally uses dizzying camerawork to indicate Hamlet’s inner turmoil, a trick that could never have worked on stage. The setting, lighting, and cinematography are wondrous setting the somber and Gothic tone.

Some critical scenes for me include the sequence where the Ghost appears. Olivier uses sound and philosophize to design the disorientation that Hamlet and others feel when in the presence of the supernatural for a substantial creepy achieve. Another intelligent scene is when Laertes and Claudius are planning the execute of Hamlet. It starts with a cessation shot of the duo but slowly backs away, as if it wants to separate itself, and the audience, from the bloody deeds being discussed.

But there are many disappointing choices made. Colossal cuts were made to the text (forgivable if you realize he needed to slit a 4-hour play into at least 2 hours. The omission of the characters of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (childhood friends of Hamlet who are ultimately killed because they were too precise to Claudius, and not to the Prince) is miserable as they bring so great difference and subtle texture to the play.

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While I am a tremendous fan of Olivier’s, I strongly enjoy there were clear roles that were out of his range, Hamlet topping the list. (And I’m not even going to talk about the fact that 41 year weak Olivier is playing a character who is in his mid to slow twenties.) Olivier also insists on taking the Freudian come with Hamlet and his mother Gertrude, an view not really supported by the text suggesting that the staunch reason Hamlet is upset is not so worthy due to his father’s kill, but that he should be with Gertrude, not Claudius. But the thing that nags at me most is that Hamlet is fundamentally a man of action, though a man of action who is aware that his actions have consequences. He is divided: distinct to act, destructive when he does act, and consequently disconnected from his actions. But while Olivier lives well in the language and his rendering of the lines is a kind of sad poetry, his overall portrayal is mannered and brooding and almost petulant. It’s a disappointing adaptation by an otherwise luminous actor.

Now as a DVD, this release of HAMLET is by the safe Criterion Collection. Criterion DVD’s are often considered to be state-of-the-art, and this one is no exception presenting a nicely restored film marvelous quality and sound. A clear must for a film collector. Having said all that, I’ll kill my review this way: again, this is not my popular version of HAMLET (go glance Branagh’s, Zeffirelli’s or even Mel Gibson’s versions) but as a fragment of cinematic history this is definitely a watchable film worth seeing for it’s accomplishments and cinematography.
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