William Shakespeare | Hamlet (1996)

Kenneth Branagh became the heir apparent to the 'Shakespeare on Film' mantle originally given to Laurence Olivier, and although he denies that this Hamlet is like Olivier's, it is hard to ignore Branagh's dyed blonde hair. But the real problem with the film is its length — not because it is too long to sit through, but because it doesn't have to be that long. Branagh spends a good deal of screen time in extra-textual flashbacks in an effort to make clear what the text is trying to say: there is Claudius' drunkenness, a young Hamlet playing with Yorick, and Fortinbras being corrected by Old Norway. While this may be interesting to the director, it is filmic redundancy to an audience, and sometimes down right annoying. As is the music. There is lots of it, and it interferes with the actor's lines. And there are lots of those too. Because Branagh, for the first time, elected to film a 'complete' version. The problem lies in the definition of 'complete'. Shakespeare's play exists in three versions and often these three texts are combined or conflated to give what some consider a 'complete' text. This conflated text consists of more than 3500 lines and in performance on the stage could take as long as three hours because the passages that Shakespeare wrote as descriptive must be said to a live audience. Film, however, can condense these passages into visual images. Unfortunately, Branagh does not condense, but expand. The important thing that Branagh has done is preserve the political backdrop of the action in the events wrought by Fortinbras and Norway. With the invasion of Norway into Denmark at the end of the film, in a sense, it is complete. The other thing that Branagh does so well is to employ an international cast in certain roles, allowing the actors to speak in their accents. Not only does this technique add appeal for broader audience segments, but it also brings a freshness to certain scenes. In this film, however, the one flaw was the casting of Jack Lemmon as a guard at the beginning, but it is offset by Billy Crystal's performance in the 'graveyard' scene and Robin Williams' as Osric. Overall, the film gives the entire story of the play and gives the viewer a good sense of Denmark as a prison in which there is no privacy at all. And this makes it more successful than either Olivier's or Zeffirelli's version. - J.R. Costa

Cast: Attendants to Claudius: Riz Abbasi, David Blair, Peter Bygott; English Ambassador: Richard Attenborough; Ghost: Brian Blessed; Hamlet: Kenneth Branagh; Polonius: Richard Briers; Priest: Michael Bryant; Gertrude: Julie Christie; First Gravedigger: Billy Crystal; Stage Manager: Charles Daish; Hecuba: Judi Dench; Reynaldo: Gerard Depardieu; Guildenstern: Reece Dinsdale; Yorick: Ken Dodd; Attendant to Gertrude: Angela Douglas, Rowena King, Sarah Lam; Lucianus: Rob Edwards; Horatio: Nicolas Farrell; Francisco: Ray Fearon; Doctor: Yvonne Gidden; Priam: John Gielgud; Player Queen: Rosemary Harris; Player King: Charlton Heston; Cornelius: Ravil Isyanov; Claudius: Derek Jacobi; Fortinbras' Captain: Jeffrey Kissoon; Marcellus: Jack Lemon; Barnardo: Ian McElhinney; Laertes: Michael Maloney; Fortinbras' General: The Duke of Marlborough; Old Norway: John Mills; Sailors: Jimi Mistry, David Yip; Prologue: Siân Radinger; Prostitute: Melanie Ramsey; Second Gravedigger: Simon Russell Beale; Young Lord: Andrew Schofield; Fortinbras: Rufus Sewell; Rosencrantz: Timothy Spall; Young Hamlet: Tom Szekeres; First Player: Ben Thorn; Voltemand: Don Warrington; Second Player: Perdita Weeks; Osric: Robin Williams; Ophelia: Kate Winslet.

Director: Kenneth Branagh; Writers: William Shakespeare, Kenneth Branagh; Producer: David Barron; Music: Patrick Doyle; Production Companies: Castle Rock Entertainment, Columbia Pictures Corporation, Fishmonger Films, Turner Pictures.

Colour. Runtime: 238 minutes.

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