My Bonnie Bride and I finished watching Kenneth Branagh’s production of Hamlet (1996); this in part due to the recent CineTV Movie Star of the Week feature on Kate Winslet, who appeared in this film as Ophelia. Unlike Harold Hecuba’s smash hit musical Hamlet A-Go-Go (which doesn’t really exist, but I just had to toss in a Gilligan’s Island reference), this adaptation is very long, weighing in at a touch over four hours. Needless to say, we did not watch it in one sitting. More like over three evenings.
Hamlet - IMDB
About a third of the way in, I realized I haven’t seen a production of Hamlet, nor have I read it. Admittedly, I have only read about a dozen of Shakespeare’s plays and have seen productions (stage and screen) of a few more than that. And yes, I do have some favorites for both reading and screen. A Comedy of Errors produced by The Flying Karamazov Brothers is one of my favorites. But we’re supposed to be talking about Hamlet right now.
Branagh, like Zeffirelli, has a darn good handle on producing Shakespeare for the screen, in addition to being a brilliant performer. In Branagh’s Hamlet, it is somewhat updated in time period to what appears to be (at least to me) early to mid 19th Century based on the firearms used by the soldiers in the film.
One of the surprises, at least for me, is finding out that both Billy Crystal and Robin Williams can perform Shakespeare quite admirably; especially Williams as he has a history of ad-libbing and cracking people up beyond all belief. How Williams managed to play Shakespeare without his usually comedic style is beyond me. And Crystal as a Gravedigger chatting with Hamlet over what was to be Ophelia’s grave was simply brilliant.
Branagh incorporated a number flashback scenes as an overlay to some of the main scenes to fill in some action and flesh out background events, including the murder of Hamlet’s father by Claudius (Derek Jacobi) and again with Hamlet’s soliloquy about Yorick. This was an interesting touch to the production and helped with the overall flow of the film.
Add to the mix brilliant performances by Charlton Heston as The Player King, and, of course, the aforementioned Kate Winslet as Ophelia, among many others. And I do mean many others.
Branagh and Winslet - IMDB
Speaking of Kate Winslet, she played the role of Ophelia exceptionally well, disturbingly so when Ophelia had lost her sanity after the death of her father Polonius. Playing someone who has lost their sanity has got to be wuite a challenge, and she continued to show her versatility as an actress by handling her part quite well.
We both enjoyed watching this production of Hamlet, and, even though it is quite long, it is worth the time. It really is best to watch it over a couple of evenings rather than in a single sitting.
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