Review of Hamlet (1996) by Courtney S — 18 May 2008

Kenneth Branagh's Shakespearean masterpiece. Add a star-studded cast, a lush score & an unabashed faithfulness to Shakespeare's text (something that Branagh has always done in his Shakespeare films & in "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein"- a sadly underappreciated cinematic epic) and you get nothing less than Shakespeare in all his glory.

Recently released on 2-Disc Special Edition DVD, this 4-hour extravaganza is A MUST for any movie collection. True, Shakespeare is not everyone's cup of tea, but with Part I on Disc I & Part II on Disc II, with some great bonus features, how can you complain? Branagh's unique staging is remarkable, especially the famous "To Be Or Not To Be" soliloquy performed in a hall of mirrors, Academy Award winner Charlton Heston's magnificent speech featuring cameos by Academy Award winner Sir John Gielgud & Judi Dench, the climactic fight sequence between Hamlet & Laertes and the closet scene between Hamlet & Gertrude, just to name some of the highlights of this remarkable movie.

I also highly recommend Sir Laurence Olivier's film version (which won Best Picture & Best Actor, both for brevity and sheer cinematic enjoyment. Zefirelli's "Hamlet" was very mediocre (misplacing of lines, etc).

This film should've been rated PG (the violence was mild and the sexuality was very brief).