Hamlet (1996 film)

Hamlet is a 1996 film adaptation of William Shakespeare's play Hamlet, adapted and directed by Kenneth Branagh, who also stars as Prince Hamlet. The film also features Derek Jacobi as King Claudius, Julie Christie as Queen Gertrude, Kate Winslet as Ophelia, Michael Maloney as Laertes, Richard Briers as Polonius, and Nicholas Farrell as Horatio. Other cast members include Robin Williams, Gérard Depardieu, Jack Lemmon, Billy Crystal, Rufus Sewell, Charlton Heston, Richard Attenborough, Judi Dench, John Gielgud and Ken Dodd.

Hamlet
Film poster
Directed byKenneth Branagh
Produced byDavid Barron
Screenplay byKenneth Branagh
Based onHamlet
by William Shakespeare
Starring
Music byPatrick Doyle
CinematographyAlex Thomson
Edited byNeil Farrell
Production
company
Distributed bySony Pictures Releasing
Release date
  • 25 December 1996 (1996-12-25)
Running time
242 minutes
Country
  • United Kingdom
  • United States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$18 million[1]
Box office$4.7 million[1]

The film is the first unabridged theatrical film version of Hamlet, running just over four hours. The setting is updated to the 19th century, but its Elizabethan English text remains the same. Blenheim Palace is the setting used for the exterior grounds of Elsinore Castle and interiors were all photographed at Shepperton Studios, blended with the footage shot at Blenheim. Hamlet was also the last major dramatic motion picture to be filmed entirely on 70 mm film until 2011, with the release of the documentary Samsara.

Hamlet has been regarded as one of the best Shakespeare film adaptations.[2][3][4][5] However, it was not a box office success, mostly due to its limited release, grossing just under $5 million on a budget of $18 million.[1] The film received four Oscar nominations for the 69th Academy Awards for Best Art Direction (Tim Harvey), Best Costume Design (Alexandra Byrne), Best Original Score (Patrick Doyle), and Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay) (Kenneth Branagh).

Plot
Main article: Hamlet § Plot

The film follows the plot of the original play, and is the first adaptation to have the complete original text.

Cast

Main characters
  • Kenneth Branagh as Prince Hamlet, the story's protagonist and Prince of Denmark. He is the son of the late King Hamlet and heir to the throne of Denmark. At first, Hamlet is depressed over his father's death and angered his mother Gertrude’s swift remarriage to his uncle Claudius. However, Hamlet is later told by the ghost of his father that Claudius murdered him, usurping his throne. Hamlet swears to avenge his father's murder. Branagh's interpretation of the title role, by his own admission, was considerably less "neurotic" than others, removing the Oedipal fixation so prominently featured in Laurence Olivier’s 1948 film adaptation, among others. During the scenes in which Hamlet pretends to be insane, Branagh portrayed the Prince as manic.[6]
  • Derek Jacobi as King Claudius, the play’s antagonist and brother of the late king. He murders his brother by pouring poison into his ear while he sleeps. He then usurps his brother's title and marries his widow. At first, believing Hamlet to have been driven mad by the loss of his father, Claudius tries to spy on Hamlet. When Claudius later learns Hamlet knows of the murder, he tries to use Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two of Hamlet's schoolmates, to have his nephew murdered. Jacobi appeared in the title role in the BBC's 1980 made-for-television version of Hamlet.
  • Julie Christie as Gertrude, Queen of Denmark and wife to both the late King Hamlet and King Claudius, whom she married swiftly following the former's passing—ignorant of the foul play that caused his death.
  • Richard Briers as Polonius, the Lord Chamberlain. An impertinent busy-body, Polonius believes Hamlet to be mad and convinces Claudius to join him in spying on the prince. Hamlet eventually kills him, believing him to be Claudius.
  • Kate Winslet as Ophelia, noblewoman of Denmark and daughter of Polonius. Ophelia is in love with Hamlet, until advised by her father Polonius and brother Laertes to end their relationship. She is eventually driven mad by both Hamlet's rejection and her father's murder and drowns herself.
  • Nicholas Farrell as Horatio, a good friend of Hamlet whom he met while attending Wittenberg University.
  • Michael Maloney as Laertes, the son of Polonius and brother of Ophelia. After instructing his sister to have no further relations with Hamlet, he departs for Paris. Upon news of his father's murder, Laertes returns to Denmark, leading a mob to storm the castle. Claudius incites Laertes to kill Hamlet and avenge Polonius' death. He later conspires with Claudius to murder Hamlet during a fencing duel.
  • Rufus Sewell as Fortinbras, the Norwegian crown prince. Played mostly in flashback and frequently referenced throughout the film, Fortinbras and his army storm Elsinore castle during the final scene, assuming the vacant throne of Denmark.

Supporting characters
  • Robin Williams as Osric, the Elsinore courtier sent by Claudius to invite Hamlet to participate in the duel with Laertes.
  • Gérard Depardieu as Reynaldo, a servant to Polonius. He is sent by Polonius to Paris to check up on Laertes.
  • Timothy Spall as Rosencrantz, a courtier friend of Hamlet who is sent by Claudius to spy on Hamlet.
  • Reece Dinsdale as Guildenstern, a courtier friend of Hamlet who is sent by Claudius to spy on Hamlet.
  • Jack Lemmon as Marcellus, a sentry at Elsinore who, with Barnardo, alerts Horatio of the appearance of King Hamlet's Ghost.
  • Ian McElhinney as Barnardo, a sentry at Elsinore who, with Marcellus, alerts Horatio of the appearance of King Hamlet's Ghost.
  • Ray Fearon as Francisco, a sentry at Elsinore and the first character to appear on screen.
  • Brian Blessed as the Ghost of Hamlet's Father, an apparition in the form of the late King who informs Hamlet of his murder and Claudius's usurpation of the throne.
  • Billy Crystal as the First Gravedigger, a sexton digging Ophelia's grave who makes a case as to why she should not receive Christian burial before making quick dialogue with Hamlet. He later presents the skull of Yorick to Hamlet, not knowing of Hamlet's history with the jester.
  • Simon Russell Beale as the Second Gravedigger
  • Don Warrington as Voltimand, an ambassador sent by King Claudius to Old King Norway.
  • Ravil Isyanov as Cornelius, an ambassador sent by King Claudius to Old King Norway.
  • Charlton Heston as the Player King
  • Rosemary Harris as the Player Queen
  • Richard Attenborough as the English Ambassador
  • John Gielgud as Priam, the King of Troy, played in flashback during the Player King's speech.
  • Judi Dench as Hecuba, the Queen of Troy and wife of Priam, played in flashback during the Player King's speech.
  • John Mills as Old King Norway, uncle of Fortinbras, played in flashback reprimanding his nephew for claims against Denmark.
  • Ken Dodd as Yorick, the King's Jester, played in flashback entertaining the royals of Elsinore during the gravediggers scene.
  • John Spencer-Churchill, 11th Duke of Marlborough, appears in a small cameo scene as the Norwegian Captain.

Production

Origins

Aspects of the film's staging are based on Adrian Noble's recent Royal Shakespeare Company production of the play, in which Branagh had played the title role.[7]

Text

The film uses a conflated text based on the 1623 First Folio, with additions from the Second Quarto and amendments from other sources. According to a note appended to the published screenplay:

The screenplay is based on the text of Hamlet as it appears in the First Folio – the edition of Shakespeare’s plays collected by his theatrical associates Heminges and Condell and published in 1623 by a syndicate of booksellers. Nothing has been cut from this text, and some passages absent from it (including the soliloquy "How all occasions do inform against me ...") have been supplied from the Second Quarto (an edition of the play which exists in copies dated 1604 and 1605). We have also incorporated some readings of words and phrases from this source and from other early printed texts, and in a few cases emendations from modern editors of the play. Thus in I, 4, in the passage (from the Second Quarto) about the "dram of eale", we use an emendation from the Oxford edition of the Complete Works (edited by Stanley Wells and Gary Taylor, 1988): "doth all the noble substance over-daub" – rather than the original's "of a doubt".[8]

Style

Despite using a full text, Branagh's film is also very visual; it makes frequent use of flashbacks to depict scenes that are either only described but not performed in Shakespeare's text, such as Hamlet's childhood friendship with Yorick, or scenes only implied by the play's text, such as Hamlet's sexual relationship with Kate Winslet's Ophelia.[9] The film also uses very long single takes for numerous scenes.

In a radical departure from previous Hamlet films, Branagh set the internal scenes in a vibrantly colourful setting, featuring a throne room dominated by mirrored doors; film scholar Samuel Crowl calls the setting "film noir with all the lights on".[10] Branagh chose Victorian era costuming and furnishings, using Blenheim Palace, built in the early 18th century, as Elsinore Castle for the external scenes. Harry Keyishan has suggested that the film is structured as an epic, courting comparison with Ben-Hur, The Ten Commandments and Doctor Zhivago.[11] As J. Lawrence Guntner points out, comparisons with the latter film are heightened by the presence of Julie Christie (Zhivago's Lara) as Gertrude.[12]

Filming

Hamlet was shot in Panavision Super 70 by Alex Thomson. It was the last feature film to be entirely shot in 70 mm until production of Samsara in 2011.[13] Branagh was among the very few to use 65mm film cameras after that, on his 2017 film Murder on the Orient Express.[14] Filming took place January 25-April 12, 1996.

Music
William Shakespeare's Hamlet: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Soundtrack album by
Patrick Doyle
Released10 December 1996
Recorded1996
GenreSoundtrack
Length76:25
LabelSony Classical Records
ProducerPatrick Doyle
Maggie Rodford
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic link
Film Music on the Web link
Filmtracks link

The score to Hamlet was composed and co-produced by frequent Kenneth Branagh collaborator Patrick Doyle and conducted by Robert Ziegler. Doyle composed three primary themes for the film to accompany the characters of Ophelia, Claudius, and Hamlet, which are varied throughout the score. The "simple, childlike" theme for Ophelia is mostly string-dominant, often performed by a string quartet yet occasionally accompanied by a full string ensemble or mixed chorus. For Claudius, Doyle composed a theme in the form of a demented canon, using more 20th century harmonies. The theme for Hamlet was considered by Doyle to be "the most daunting and elusive" to conceive, before settling upon a more "simple" motif to accompany the contemplative character.[15]

The soundtrack was released 10 December 1996 through Sony Classical Records and features 26 tracks of score at a running time of over 76 minutes.[16] For his work on the film, Doyle received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score.

  1. In Pace (3:07) – performed by Plácido Domingo (this is heard in the film during the closing credits)
  2. Fanfare (0:48)
  3. "All that lives must die" (2:40)
  4. "To thine own self be true" (3:04)
  5. The Ghost (9:55)
  6. "Give me up the truth" (1:05)
  7. "What a piece of work is a man" (1:50)
  8. "What players are they" (1:33)
  9. "Out out thou strumpet fortune" (3:11)
  10. "To be or not to be" (1:53)
  11. "I loved you once" (3:27)
  12. "Oh, what a noble mind" (2:41)
  13. "If once a widow" (3:36)
  14. "Now could I drink hot blood" (6:57)
  15. "A foolish prating nave" (1:05)
  16. "Oh heavy deed" (0:56)
  17. "Oh here they come" (4:39)
  18. "My thoughts be bloody" (2:52)
  19. "The doors are broke" (1:20)
  20. "And will 'a not come again?" (1:59)
  21. "Alas poor Yorick" (2:49)
  22. "Sweets to the sweet – farewell" (4:39)
  23. "Give me your pardon sir" (1:24)
  24. "Part them they are incensed" (1:47)
  25. "Goodnight, sweet prince" (3:36)
  26. "Go bid the soldiers shoot" (2:52)

Release

Hamlet was screened out of competition at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival.[17] A shorter edit of the Branagh film, approximately two-and-a-half hours long, was also shown in some markets.[18][19]

Home media

A 2-Disc DVD was released in the US and Canada on 14 August 2007. It includes a full-length commentary by Branagh and Shakespeare scholar Russell Jackson. A Blu-ray Disc was released on 17 August 2010 in the US and Canada with similar additional features, including an introduction by Kenneth Branagh, the featurette "To Be on Camera: A History with Hamlet", the 1996 Cannes Film Festival Promo, and a Shakespeare Movies Trailer Gallery.[20]

Reception

Box office

Hamlet was not a success at the box office, mostly due to its limited release. The film earned just over $90,000 in its opening weekend playing on three screens. It made just over $30,000 in the Czech Republic (the film's only foreign market) and ultimately played on fewer than 100 screens in the United States, bringing its total gross to just under $5 million on a budget of $18 million.[1]

Critical response

Hamlet received positive reviews. It currently holds a 95% rating at Rotten Tomatoes with the consensus, "Kenneth Branagh's sprawling, finely textured adaptation of Shakespeare's masterpiece lives up to its source material, using strong performances and a sharp cinematic focus to create a powerfully resonant film that wastes none of its 246 minutes."[2]

Roger Ebert, film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times, awarded the film four stars, comparing it to Laurence Olivier's lauded 1948 version, stating, "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."[3] Janet Maslin of The New York Times also praised both Branagh's direction and performance, writing, "This Hamlet, like Branagh's version of Much Ado About Nothing, takes a frank, try-anything approach to sustaining its entertainment value, but its gambits are most often evidence of Branagh's solid showmanship. His own performance is the best evidence of all."[21] The New York Review of Books praised the attention given to Shakespeare's language, "giving the meter of the verse a musician's respect";[22] Branagh himself said his aim was "telling the story with utmost clarity and simplicity".[23]

Some critics, notably Stanley Kauffmann, declared the film to be the finest motion picture version of Hamlet yet made. Online film critic James Berardinelli wrote the film a four star review and declared the Branagh Hamlet the finest Shakespeare adaptation ever, rating it as the best film of 1996, the fourth best film of the 90s, and one of his top 101 favourite films of all time, saying, "From the moment it was first announced that Branagh would attempt an unabridged Hamlet, I never doubted that it would be a worthy effort ... I have seen dozens of versions of this play, and none has ever held me in such a grip of awe".[4]

The film did have its detractors, however, with Lloyd Rose of The Washington Post calling it "the film equivalent of a lushly illustrated coffee-table book"[24] and Desson Thomson writing of Branagh's performance: "the choices he makes are usually overextended. When it's time to be funny, he skitters over the top. When he's sad or touched, he makes a mechanical, catching noise in his throat."[25] John Simon called Branagh's performance "brawny" and "not easy to like" and said that Branagh's direction used "explicitness where Shakespeare ... settled for subtlety or mere suggestion".[26] Leonard Maltin, who gave the film a positive three stars in his Movie and Video Guide (and gave the Olivier version of Hamlet four stars), praised the cinematography by Alex Thomson, but stated that "Branagh essentially gives a stage performance that is nearly as over-the-top as some of his directorial touches."[27]

Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet ranks No. 3 on Rotten Tomatoes list of Greatest Shakespeare Movies, just behind Akira Kurosawa's Ran (1985, based on King Lear), which ranks in second place, and Branagh's own Henry V (1989), which ranks in first place.[5]

Accolades
Award Category Recipients and nominees Result
Academy Awards Best Art Direction Tim Harvey Nominated
Best Costume Design Alexandra Byrne Nominated
Best Original Dramatic Score Patrick Doyle Nominated
Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay) Kenneth Branagh Nominated
Art Directors Guild Awards ADG Excellence in Production Design Award Tim Harvey, Desmond Crowe Nominated
British Academy Film Awards Best Costume Design Alexandra Byrne Nominated
Best Production Design Tim Harvey Nominated
British Society of Cinematographers GBCT Operators Award Martin Kenzie Won
Best Cinematography Award Alex Thomson Won
Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards Best Film Kenneth Branagh Nominated
The International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography CAMERIMAGE Golden Frog Award for Best Cinematography Alex Thomson Nominated
Chicago Film Critics Association Awards Best Actor Kenneth Branagh Nominated
Empire Awards Best British Actress Kate Winslet Won
Evening Standard British Film Awards Special Jury Award Kenneth Branagh Won
San Diego Film Critics Society Awards Best Actor Kenneth Branagh Won
Satellite Awards Best Art Direction and Production Design Tim Harvey Nominated
Best Cinematography Alex Thomson Nominated
Best Costume Design Alex Byrne Nominated
Best Original Score Patrick Doyle Nominated
Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture Kate Winslet Nominated

Game

A spin-off game entitled Hamlet: A Murder Mystery, directed by historian Jean-Pierre Isbouts, was a co-production between Pantheon and Castle Rock-Entertainment.[28][29][30] Also produced in 1996, this was arguably the first video game based on a Shakespeare work.[31][32] This CD-ROM is divided into two parts titled: "To be" (where players can play Hamlet in the narrative) and "Not to be" (where players can read the texts).[33] In gameplay, players wander through the castle trying to locate the killer.[34] The game combines material from the film with original footage, animation, and games and puzzles.[30]

Galley Cat deemed it "The Hamlet Video Game That Time Forgot".[35] Shakespeare Studies, Volume 38 thought the game shows film's potential as a middle ground for digital works by offering a sound narrative that can be manipulated by player choices.[36] "Shakespeare's Hamlet In An Era of Textual Exhaustion" felt the game offered a reworking of the plot that gave the player agency and a sense of immersion.[37] Quandary praised the game for its multi-layered nature and its packaging.[38]

See also

References
  1. Hamlet (1996) Archived 13 November 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
  2. "Hamlet (1996)". Rotten Tomatoes. IGN Entertainment, Inc. Archived from the original on 8 August 2008. Retrieved 9 August 2008.
  3. Ebert, Roger (24 January 1997). "Hamlet". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on 29 January 2012. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
  4. Berardinelli, James. "Hamlet (1996)". ReelViews.com. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
  5. "Greatest Shakespeare Movies". Rotten Tomatoes. Archived from the original on 23 January 2012. Retrieved 21 January 2012.
  6. Roger Ebert (24 January 1997). "Hamlet: Review".
  7. Crowl, Samuel (2000). "Flamboyant Realist: Kenneth Branagh". In Jackson, Russell (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Film. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. p. 225. ISBN 978-0521866002.
  8. Branagh, Kenneth (1996), "Hamlet" by William Shakespeare: Screenplay and Introduction by Kenneth Branagh; production diary by Russell Jackson (New York: W W Norton), p.174. ISBN 0393045196
  9. Keyishian, p.79
  10. Crowl, p.227
  11. Keyishian, p.78
  12. Guntner, pp.122–123.
  13. McGavin, Patrick (17 August 2012). "The Master Rules in Chicago: 70 mm Screening Of Anderson Film Recalls Welles' The Lady From Shanghai". Movieline.com. Movieline. Archived from the original on 19 August 2012. Retrieved 21 August 2012.
  14. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 3 November 2017. Retrieved 9 November 2017.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  15. Hamlet (1996): (Patrick Doyle) Archived 8 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine. Filmtracks.com. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
  16. Doyle: William Shakespeare's Hamlet (soundtrack) Archived 12 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine. AllMusic. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
  17. "Festival de Cannes: Hamlet". festival-cannes.com. Archived from the original on 6 October 2012. Retrieved 27 September 2009.
  18. Alternate versions for Hamlet Archived 27 June 2004 at the Wayback Machine. IMDb. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
  19. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 21 December 2013. Retrieved 15 December 2013.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  20. Hamlet (Includes Blu-Ray Book) Archived 28 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Warner Bros. Shop. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
  21. Maslin, Janet (15 December 1996). "Hamlet". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 May 2010.
  22. O'Brien, Geoffrey New York Review of Books 6 February 1997, cited by Samuel Crowl, "Framboyant Realist: Kenneth Branagh" in Jackson, Russell The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Film (Cambridge University Press, 2000) p.228
  23. Branagh, Kenneth Introduction and Notes to Much Ado About Nothing: Screenplay p.ix cited by Crowl, p.228
  24. "'Hamlet': Kenneth Branagh's Inaction Flick". The Washington Post. 22 July 1997. Archived from the original on 4 November 2012. Retrieved 4 May 2010.
  25. "Branagh's 'Hamlet': Not to Be". The Washington Post. 22 July 1997. Archived from the original on 4 November 2012. Retrieved 4 May 2010.
  26. John Simon On Film: Criticism, 1982–2001 – John Ivan Simon – Google Books
  27. Leonard Maltin's 2009 Movie Guide – Leonard Maltin – Google Books Archived 17 June 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  28. "Hamlet: A Murder Mystery". VideoGameGeek. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
  29. "Hamlet: A Murder Mystery - from CD-ROM Access". www.cdaccess.com. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
  30. Eric Hansen, "You're the bard in 'Hamlet' game", Tampa Bay Times (14 February 1997), p. 9T.
  31. "NEW 'ELSINORE' CD-ROM: TO WIN OR NOT TO WIN ... - Free Online Library". www.thefreelibrary.com. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
  32. "The Tennessean from Nashville, Tennessee on September 15, 1996 · Page 159". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
  33. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 17 April 1997. Retrieved 11 February 2019.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  34. "Hamlet op het web als detectivespel". NRC (in Dutch). Retrieved 11 February 2019.
  35. "The Hamlet Video Game That Time Forgot". www.adweek.com. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
  36. Zimmerman, Susan; Sullivan, Garrett (September 2010). Shakespeare Studies. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press. ISBN 9780838642702.
  37. Loftis, Sonya Freeman; Kellar, Allison; Ulevich, Lisa (27 November 2017). SHAKESPEARE'S HAMLET IN AN ERA OF TEXTUAL EXHAUSTION. Routledge. ISBN 9781351967457.
  38. "Hamlet: A Murder Mystery Review by Quandary". 13 August 2004. Archived from the original on 13 August 2004. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
  • Maric, Jasminka, "Filozofija u Hamletu", Alfa BK Univerzitet, Beograd, 2015.
  • Maric, Jasminka, "Philosophy in Hamlet", author's edition, Belgrade, 2018.
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