Hamlet, 1948

Set in 15th century Denmark we all know the story of Hamlet, the prince who learns of his fathers murder while his uncle has now married his mother. I am not a Shakespeare fan, to be honest if not translated Shakespeare is tough to read and understand. However, we all know Shakespeare has set the bar for many classic overused stories, like Romeo and Juliet. Sir Laurence Olivier brought to the screen for the first time an adaptation of a Shakespeare play here with Hamlet.

Olivier is widely regarded as the finest actor of his time, and maybe more importantly the greatest Shakespearean actor. In this movie his acting was wonderful, but it was in directing that makes this movie the masterpiece that it has become. Translating a play to the screen is always difficult, but Olivier did it in fine fashion.

Like the play, the movie opens with the guards on watch brining Horatio to the castle walls to witness the ghost of King Hamlet. Horatio doesn’t believe it until he witnesses it himself. We then descend into the new Kings chambers where Claudius is holding court with his new wife Gertrude. Hamlet is still mourning, believing that his father met an untimely death.

This is where the movie direction by Olivier begins to shine through. He is able to accentuate the mood perfectly. As the line goes, “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.” Olivier uses a lot of moving cameras here, tracking shots, and brooding music to give us the foul stench that is hanging over the castle. Instead of using straight cuts between scenes the camera often follows a character from one room into another for the new scene.

We now get into the heart of the story. Hamlet himself goes up to the castle wall at Horatio’s request to see the ghost of his late father. When he sees the apparition the King reveals to him that he was indeed murdered and wants Hamlet to seek revenge. This is where Olivier begins to show his prowess as a great Shakespearian actor.

Hamlet now has that inner conflict, knowing his father was murdered by Claudius and wanting to do something about it, but somehow not upsetting his mother the queen (for those who don’t know story of Hamlet it is like the Lion King, where Scar kills Mufassa). The famed “To be of not to be” speech is brought to life by Olivier. He anguishes over taking his own life, or avenging his father. It seems to many at this point that Hamlet is beginning to lose his mind, and after he accidentally kills Polonius his mother is sure he has gone mad. Polonius was the father of Ophelia, the object of Hamlets affection, but she indeed goes mad after her fathers death. Wandering around the castle in a daze she finally takes her own life. Laertes, the brother of Ophelia and son of Polonius, returns to take revenge against Hamlet. And at the urging of Claudius, Laertes helps to plot to murder Hamlet during their duel.

Yes this all sounds a bit confusing, but having read the play at a younger age it makes some sense to me. As I said Olivier’s superb directing keeps the pace of this movie and the details never get lost or stale.

According to many who are way more familiar with the length and intimate detail of the play, the movie shaves a bunch of that off for time constraints. The movie is cut down to two hours and thirty minutes. The last 30 of which involve the famous dual between Hamlet and Laertes. For those who have never heard or read of the story of Hamlet I wont spoil how it ends.

Overall the directing and acting by Olivier was in a class by itself. For some reason I found a lot of the other actors very dry. Horatio, Claudius and Ophelia all seemed robotic in the movie. The actress chosen to be Gertrude was far to young, and I guess skipping some parts in the play make Laertes a very one dimensional character. Due to the strength of Olivier the movie gets a 4. For Shakespeare die hards I am sure you can find things to nit pick about, but for the rest of use it is an entertaining portrayal of a timeless story, and above all a well made movie from the standpoint of directing.