I like the Shakespeare Plays version. I think it was done by the Royal Shakespeare Company. They did the whole thing. Patrick Stewart as Claudius and Derek Jacoby as Hamlet. An extraordinary performance.
Kenneth Branaugh’s version was nice to look at. Scenery and Costumes. He sometimes didn’t follow the Bard’s advice, for he so strutted and bellowed that I had thought that some of nature’s journeymen had made a man, and not made him well, he imitated humanity so abominably. Jack Lemmon had a small part as a guard.
There’s been a version on the Hallmark channel set in more modern times. It’s not bad. They have people of color in the cast, which is nice for a change.
Sir Laurence Olivier was way to sedate. So critically acclaimed, but to me he seemed to be sleepwalking through it.
I saw the Tulsa Little Theater’s production. Very nicely done. Seeing it live is very special. Wish I could have seen Richard Burton do it. He said he got so bored with it that he would do the to be or not to be soliloquy in German and nobody would notice.
I used to have a mild obsession with this play. (I’m much better now.)
[quote=“Richardm”] Kenneth Branaugh’s version was nice to look at. Scenery and Costumes. He sometimes didn’t follow the Bard’s advice, for he so strutted and bellowed that I had thought that some of nature’s journeymen had made a man, and not made him well, he imitated humanity so abominably. Jack Lemmon had a small part as a guard.
[/quote]
Hee - and don’t forget Charlton Heston! I’m afraid we’re in direct opposition - loved Branagh, hated Jacobi. Mind you, I suspect if the quality of the sets had been equivalent, it might have been a fairer contest. Overacting, thy name is Mel Gibson. Olivier + Shakespeare makes me yawn, uncultured heathen that I am.
Most entertaining filmic Hamlet: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
The most wonderful production I ever saw was one done in ‘Elizabethan’ style in Sydney - bare, raised stage, men playing all parts, no scenery, minimal costuming, audience able to come and go as they pleased, buy food and drink from hawkers around the room etc. It was just so bloody entertaining. The audience hissed and threw rubbish at the entrance of Claudius and entourage (someone threw an apple at Gertrude, who caught it neatly and scowled at the offender). During Hamlet’s ‘shall I kill him now?’ speech the audience were screaming ‘yes! Do it! Kill him!’ and booed when he said ‘No.’ Great fun. The cast were all brilliant - notably, Gertrude was played by Hugo Weaving (this was way before he was very well known), and honestly, it was the most touching Hamlet/Gertrude confrontation scene and final act I have ever seen.
[quote]Player: We’re more of the blood, love, and rhetoric school.
Guil: Well, I’ll leave the choice to you, if there is anything to choose between them.
Player: They’re hardly divisible, sir – well, I can do you blood and love without the rhetoric, and I can do you blood and rhetoric without the love, and I can do you all three concurrent or consecutive, but I can’t do you love and rhetoric without the blood. Blood is compulsory – they’re all blood, you see.[/quote]
Tom Stoppard is an amazing writer. i think he also wrote shakespeare in love.
i also found this bit of humor…
Coniston is not a hamlet and certainly not a Hamlet. The former are very small villages, like the one I lived in in Devon where the post office doubled as the only shop, and sold tinned fish, cornflakes, toilet paper and little else. Later they stopped selling cornflakes.
Of Hamlets, I like the Mel Gibson one and feel that it is underrated. I would have loved to have seen the Elizabethan style production in Sydney that daasgrrl mentioned.
Coniston is not a hamlet and certainly not a Hamlet. The former are very small villages, like the one I lived in in Devon where the post office doubled as the only shop, and sold tinned fish, cornflakes, toilet paper and little else. Later they stopped selling cornflakes.
Of Hamlets, I like the Mel Gibson one and feel that it is underrated. I would have loved to have seen the Elizabethan style production in Sydney that daasgrrl mentioned.[/quote]
Yes, you’re right. Couldn’t think of a “real” hamlet. Ashamed to say I can’t think of one.
On topic though, Olivier’s Hamlet is the only filmed version I’ve watched all the way through. Have it on DVD in fact.
