Production Company: Two Cities Films
"When sorrows come, they come not single spies. But in battalions!" - Claudius
Setting
Denmark, c 1200's
The Plot
The storyline follows Hamlet [Olivier], who has recently lost his father the King and is in deep depression after his father pops back to explain he was in fact murdered. Hamlet goes on a mighty mission to prove it and reclaim the throne from his uncle.
The Review
It is said the highly esteemed Laurence Olivier hand-picked the cast and got the title role (fair enough); he did an excellent job of this although I'm not convinced Eileen Herlie, a woman 11 years younger than him, was the best choice for his mother!
I found the acting overall to be a lot more natural than the dreadful wooden BBC versions they used to make us watch at high school, partly why I was apprehensive of watching this 2.5-hour masterpiece. Fortunately it was an enjoyable interpretation...or as enjoyable as a tragedy can be when everyone is miserable, dead and/or insane. Although the script is a long one, it was never dull and kept the audience drawn in. It was the naturalness of the characters that made the archaic medieval English easy to follow and understand, it drew me in to what was going on and their effective use of shading and fog made the ghost scene really quite chilling.
All these centuries later I found so many common clichés originate from Hamlet, 'to thine own self be true' for one, so the old Bard is everywhere, there is no escape! An actor in what is known as 'the play within the play" made a subtle reference to Julius Caesar, another of William Shakespeare's works (see what he did there?) so perhaps the play was written just before a re-release and they needed a little 16th century-style product placement! Ophelia [Simmons] has a remarkably pure singing voice which was a pleasure to listen to and Felix Aylmer pulled off the devious and manipulative Polonius flawlessly; on the flip-side the "flamboyant water-fly" Osric was a touch overplayed by Peter Cushing.
So there. My first Shakespearean review since 1999!
I found the acting overall to be a lot more natural than the dreadful wooden BBC versions they used to make us watch at high school, partly why I was apprehensive of watching this 2.5-hour masterpiece. Fortunately it was an enjoyable interpretation...or as enjoyable as a tragedy can be when everyone is miserable, dead and/or insane. Although the script is a long one, it was never dull and kept the audience drawn in. It was the naturalness of the characters that made the archaic medieval English easy to follow and understand, it drew me in to what was going on and their effective use of shading and fog made the ghost scene really quite chilling.
All these centuries later I found so many common clichés originate from Hamlet, 'to thine own self be true' for one, so the old Bard is everywhere, there is no escape! An actor in what is known as 'the play within the play" made a subtle reference to Julius Caesar, another of William Shakespeare's works (see what he did there?) so perhaps the play was written just before a re-release and they needed a little 16th century-style product placement! Ophelia [Simmons] has a remarkably pure singing voice which was a pleasure to listen to and Felix Aylmer pulled off the devious and manipulative Polonius flawlessly; on the flip-side the "flamboyant water-fly" Osric was a touch overplayed by Peter Cushing.
So there. My first Shakespearean review since 1999!
The Slap
This definitely goes to our nasty Lord Chamberlain Polonius, making a bad situation worse by his conniving manipulative ways. Even his cliché-packed speech to Laertes in Act 1 couldn't save him, as wise as his advice was.
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