I have to say, movies based on plays written by Shakespeare tend to not get a lot of respect from me or many other movie fans. People tend to have beliefs that they are dull, slow moving, and not interesting simply because they contain a lot of dialogue that is sometimes really hard to understand. Hamlet is a movie that is a prime example of how to make a Shakespearean movie correctly, since it follows the play very well. It also stars one of the greatest of all British actors; Laurence Olivier. However, the movie does make some adjustments to simplify the play for the silver screen, namely the fact that much of the dialogue is left out and some important characters are missing. If this was a line-by-line reconstruction of the play, it would easily be over 3 hours. The movie follows Hamlet, the prince of the northern european country of Denmark whose father, king of Denmark, is killed, apparently by a snake. Hamlet (Olivier) is frustrated and suspects something else was responsible for killing his father. Horatio and some other men report seeing the ghost of Hamlet's father, and soon, Hamlet comes face to face with him. The ghost tells him he was killed because Claudius poisoned him while he was asleep. Hamlet pretends that he is mentally unwell, which leads Polonius to keep an eye on him. Polonius thinks he is insane because of his love for Ophella. Later, some performers perform a play for the new king that is altered to mimic the recent murder of Hamlet's father. Claudius refuses to look at it, which makes Hamlet positive he is responsible for killing his dad. Now wanting Claudius to die, Hamlet hears someone behind some curtains in his mother's room, and stabs the curtains with a knife. It's then revealed he accidentally killed Polonius, and the spectre of his father appears again. Hamlet's mother is unable to see the ghost. Near the end of the movie, some men challenge Hamlet to a duel after he is deported to england but then returned to Denmark. Using a poisoned weapon, Laertes hits Hamlet with it and he dies shortly afterwards. This is one of the better movie adaptations of a Shakespeare play. Despite leaving out almost 50% of the dialogue, it still manages to tell its story, and was successful upon its release in 1948. Ironically, the actress who plays Hamlet's mother in this movie was younger than Olivier's character who is supposed to be her son. When I say that the movie was well received when it came out, I'm not exaggerating. This is actually the most acclaimed Shakespeare film in terms of awards, and Olivier received an oscar for best actor. Up until fairly recently, this was the only movie where the main (oscar winning) actor had also directed a movie that netted him another oscar. It's still a good movie (obviously since Olivier is in it), even if some people may not like the cuts made to the script.
Review of Hamlet
