Hamlet (1990) (DVD)

Overall, the acting is pretty good (and not quite as over-the-top as in the Branagh adaptation). Also, unlike the Branagh adaptation, this film is shown in its time-appropriate setting. However, in this film, Fortinbras and all references to Norway are excluded. In fact, this 1991 film condenses the play considerably (almost by 1/2). In my opinion, eliminating the Fortinbras subplot was particularly disappointing, even though one can understand the reasons for doing so.Below, I have listed most of the changes (as well as some other staging comments). [What follows assumes a considerable understanding of the text of Shakespeare's Hamlet.]Act 1, Scene 1 is excluded.- Film begins with Hamlet's father being laid to rest in the crypt, with Gertrude crying over King Hamlet's body.Act 1, Scene 2 is considerably condensed.Act 1, Scene 3 is slightly condensed.- In the conversation between Polonius and Laertes, Polonius speaks only the most a few of the most famous lines such as "to thine own self be true."- When Polonius tells Ophelia not to speak with Hamlet, Hamlet overhears the conversation.Act 1, Scene 4 is slightly condensed.Act 1, Scene 5 is slightly condensed.- Hamlet actually appears somewhat afraid of his father's ghost.- Hamlet speaks with his father's ghost on the battlements of the castle.- Hamlet only insists that Horatio and Marcellus swear on his sword 1 time.Act 2, Scene 1 is excluded.Act 2, Scene 2 begins around line 80 and is slightly condensed.- When Polonius talks with Hamlet, Hamlet, in his madness, has one shoe on and one shoe off.After Act 2, Scene 2 line 215, adaptation shifts to Act 3, Scene 1, which is slightly condensed.- Hamlet, when he meets with Ophelia in the lobby, spies the shadows of someone. Hamlet assumes that he is being spied upon and begins speaking louder to insure that those spying on him hear him.- Hamlet grabs Ophelia's face rather violently when he accuses her of using cosmetics.- Hamlet speaks his "to be or not to be" speech alone in the crypt near his father's coffin after his meeting with Ophelia. [In other words, Ophelia, Claudius, and Polonius do not hear Hamlet's "to be or not to be" speech.]Act 2, Scene 2, after line 215 is slightly condensed until line 305, at which point the scene is greatly condensed.- Hamlet behaves violently toward R & G when R & G remain silent after Hamlet asks them whether the King or Queen sent for them.- Hamlet does not learn the players have been displaced by a younger troop.- The players do not present speech to Hamlet at lines 448 to 498.- Hamlet's "O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I" speech is considerably condensed.Act 3, Scene 2 is considerably condensed.- Hamlet does not tell the players not to overact.- Male actors play the female roles.- Many of the less important lines of dialogue are cut from the play within the play.- Claudius is very distraught and disoriented after he witnesses the poisoning in the play within the play.- Hamlet forces the flute up against [G's] neck when he accuses R & G or trying to play him like a flute.- Lines 342 and after are eliminated (i.e. Polonius does not appear telling Hamlet to see his mother).Act 3, Scene 3 is considerably condensed.- First 70 lines are excluded.- Most of Claudius' lines as he prays are excluded.Act 3, Scene 4 is slightly condensed.- Hamlet appears unhappy that he has murdered Polonius, mistaking him for Claudius.- Even though Hamlet stabs Polonius, Polonius does not bleed much.- Hamlet behaves rather violently towards his mother, in this scene.Act 4, Scene 1 is considerably condensed.Act 4, Scene 2 is eliminated.Act 4, Scene 3 is slightly condensed.Act 4, Scene 4 is eliminated.- That is, Hamlet does not meet Fortinbras or his soldiers because they are not part of this adaptation.Act 4, Scene 5 is slightly condensed.- Once Hamlet has left for England, Ophelia begins to go mad. [As in the Folio text, it is difficult to know whether Ophelia's madness is the result of her father's murder or Hamlet's rejection of her love.]* However, a scene is added that shows Hamlet replacing R&G' letters with 2 of his own. Then, the film shifts to a short scene in which R&G get their heads chopped off.- Laertes angry return is left largely intact, although Laertes does not appear to have a mob of angry citizens behind him.Act 4, Scene 6 is excluded.Act 4, Scene 7 is moved until after Act 5, Scene 1.- The only scene that is included before this point is Gertrude's telling Claudius and Laertes that Ophelia has drowned.Act 5, Scene 1 is slightly condensed.- Lines are excluded in which gravediggers say that if Laertes did not have friends in high places, she would not have received a Christian burial.- Lines are excluded in which gravediggers talk about how a gravedigger's house lasts until doomsday.Act 4, Scene 7 is considerably condensed.- Claudius and Laertes' plot against Hamlet is shown after Ophelia's burial because at Ophelia's burial is the first time Claudius learns that Hamlet was not murdered in England. [In other words, Act 4, Scene 6 is excluded - no evidence that Hamlet was captured by pirates.]Act 5, Scene 2 is considerably condensed especially before line 162. After line 162, the scene is only slightly condensed.- Osric's speech is very short and to the point.- Before the dueling match, Claudius openly drops a pearl-shaped pill into the wine glass. [Why? I do not know. It seems to defeat the purpose of a secret murder.]- Laertes only switches to the poisoned sword after Gertrude drinks the poisoned wine.- Horatio does not offer to kill himself by drinking some of the poisoned wine.* Film ends with an aerial shot of Hamlet dead on the ground and Horatio lying over Hamlet's body while the crowd looks on stunned at the events that occurred. [Note: We never know who gains the crowd of Denmark since Fortinbras is not a part of the film.]

Brilliant is an often overworked phrase, but in the case of *Hamlet* starring Mel Gibson, the word cannot be used enough. For brevity's sake, I will save Zeffirelli's cudos for another time and place except to say that he has done a good thing. This review is for Chris Devore and his beautiful working and dramturgy of the more than difficult Shakespeare script. Devore somehow makes it better. Were he in London, late 1500's, he would have been a collaborator, making Will's work the pearl it is today. My only plea is that, at some date, we will get to see Gibson give the advice to the players which was omitted so that other pieces could be spared.This may have been Glenn Close's best work. This is not a complaint, but rather a sign that anyting else she may have or has done cannot be any better than this wonderful, small role. Gertrude, the Queen (Close), has an important commentary that must be heard in order for the play to work - Will was no fool - and it needs a Close to do it.Alan Bates has been a staple of English theatre and screen and has delivered many fine parts (such as Gabriel Oaks in *Far From the Madding Crowd*, 1967). As Claudius, the regicide and brother of Hamlet, Senior, Bates makes you believe that his reign could have been noble except for that one small cancer, that flaw in his character - very Clintonian and very believable.I have wanted to kick Ian Holm's ever since Ash hurt Ripley in *Alien*, 1979. I have to keep reminding myself that he really is that believable and that I really don't hate him, It's the character he has created so well. His body of work is repleat with characters of such believability that you forget his name - IAN HOLM - until he does it again, the next time, in the next movie. If films were strictly Hasidic, Holm's version of Polonius would be Kosher. There is not one piece of ham in his entire performance. It is worth the purchase of the DVD just to see him act.Everyone is good in the movie and there is not time to talk about all of them. But a note to those whose noses are airbourne and won't tolerate anyone but Olivier as Hamlet. There are several uneven performances in his excellent movie. There are no uneven performances in this piece.Finally, we come to the mad prince of Denmark. It is most astonishing that I watched this epic again after Mel's dark night of the troll, thrashing about in complete insanity, arguably brought on by hard likker, frustration, and stupidity. Yet with all said, Gibson IS the essential Hamlet. You will find no other actor who delivers the goods the way the Cruiser from the Boozer does.You know this is true, not just by watching the exquisite performance on the DVD, but by Gibson's own marveling at what was accomplished, not because of some actor's raison d'etre, but rather by the actor's very ability to understand that he is dealing with things that go beyond the ken of normal humans. IS Hamlet crazy, or crazy like a fox? And when is he crazy we get to hear Mel say in the devastating interview he made for the DVD release many years gone by.So, enough from me.If you want to see the best Hamlet ever, buy this DVD and feast.- Dick Anderson

Out of all the Hamlet videos we previewed this was the best to keep the teenagers interested to go along with the book. None the less everyone was bored out of their minds and they like other Shakespeare works.

since this film could not be found on any other platform,i went and found a single blu ray copy on Amazon.com. Although Very Expensive and available only on spanish import (you can change to english with no subtitles very easily!).It is a beautiful version,with great actors and direction! Since it does not seem it will ever be available to rent or buy on any other platform i am happy to pay the cost to add to my blu ray collection,so i can watch this JEWEL anytime i want!!!!!

There are people who say it's not as good as the original play put on at The Globe in 15xx . . but they are lying.Overall it is a watchable version, far less "up itself" than the over-acted, pompous, self-indulgent twaddle performed by classic 'luvvies' like Dear Old Larry . . . .Yes it does have a rather 'watch me, I am good' performance from Mel Gibson, but the photography is ok and very little of substance has been cut from the script.The big bonus is that it's comprehensible.To be fair, there are some dreadful, dreadful productions based in modern settings which are much less Shakespearean, so judging this against those renders 5 stars.

This is the best movie version of Hamlet that I've seen. It's heavily edited from the original play but that's a good thing as I've always considered the play to be too long and overstuffed. This version clocks in at just over two hours.Mel Gibson is brilliant as the title character, by turns brooding, funny, angrily energetic and at times bordering on madness. I seem to remember that he'd previously played the role on a West End stage but I can't find any reference to it on the internet (perhaps I imagined it!).The rest of the cast are also very believable and do a superb job, especially Glenn Close as Gertrude (Hamlet's mother) Paul Scofield as the ghost of Hamlet's dead father, and Helena Bonham Carter as the tragic and terminally bewildered Ophelia (Hamlet's love interest who looks about 14 years old!).I've watched this version many times on TV and am glad to finally have it on DVD.

Very pleasantly surprised at how good this version, in a long line of different versions, really is. With two American lead actors and a great supporting cast, including Paul Scofield and Alan Bates, and set in the beautiful landscapes of Scotland, the famous story of Shakespeare's Hamlet is wonderfully brought to life

Hamlet [DVD ]Recently bought this from Amazon.co.uk. truly a visual extravaganza. Mel Gibson is simply stunning in the title role. The rest of the cast are all superb. Particularly appealing is the dialogue delivery. It is so natural. You never for a moment feel that the actors are reading their lines from Shakespeare. In all the other productions which I have seen (Branagh's and Lord Olivier's) however well they act, it is still 'acting'. Albeit of a high order. But Gibson does not act. He 'is' Hamlet. The casting is so perfect. Also we are accustomed to seeing Gibson act 'crazy' both in the 'Lethal weapon' films and the 'Mad Max' films. We accept him for what he portrays. Maybe, in a round about way, our sub-conscious has registered Mel Gibson as part 'loony'. Maybe that is the reason why his portrayal of the Prince of Denmark seems so acceptable to audiences all over the world. We feel that he is 'a person who can't make up his mind'. If you are collecting 'Hamlet' for the first time, then I suggest you go for this 'Mel Gibson Version'. It truly reflects what the bard of Avon imagined. One single minor set-back I found with this DVD is that there are no Bonus features and a subtitle. The lack of sub-title may not bother the 'pundits' but for the common man in countries where English is not the first language, I think that might pose a wee bit of problem. That aside, this is the 'ultimate' HAMLET. Hamlet [DVD

I found this version very easy to watch, Mel Gibson as Hamlet, handles the emotion of mistrust, grief and vengence very well and I found Helena Bonham Carters (Ophelia) descent into madness/ grief also very believable. There was some attempt at explaining Mrs Hamlet's (Gertrude) quick turn of emotion to her once brother in law in the opening scenes which I haven't seen before and was quite interesting.There is some editing from the text and bits missed out or shortened which I don't think helped the Polonius character and the relationship with his daughter and son and probably the reason I didn't give 5 stars but the full length film would probably be 3 hours and this length of film was less common in the 90's.The film looks to be set in the time it was written and the costumes and set are beautifully shot and help to give an impression of life in those times. I bought this version because it's a set piece on a shakespeare course I've just started but would recomend it to anyone.