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Hamlet [DVD] [1948]
 
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Hamlet [DVD] [1948]

DVD ~ Laurence Olivier
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)

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Hamlet [DVD] [1948] 4.0 out of 5 stars (16)
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Product details

  • Actors: Laurence Olivier, Jean Simmons, Eileen Herlie, Basil Sydney, Norman Wooland
  • Directors: Laurence Olivier
  • Writers: Laurence Olivier, William Shakespeare
  • Producers: Laurence Olivier, Anthony Bushell, Herbert Smith, Reginald Beck
  • Format: Black & White, Full Screen, PAL
  • Language English
  • Region: Region 2 (This DVD may not be viewable outside Europe. Read more about DVD formats.)
  • Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Classification: U
  • Studio: ITV DVD
  • DVD Release Date: 14 April 2003
  • Run Time: 155 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B00004CZVJ
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 8,924 in DVD (See Bestsellers in DVD)

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Reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review

In the opening scene of Hamlet, Laurence Olivier describes the play in a voice-over as "the tragedy of a man who couldn't make up his mind". But Olivier's screen adaptation is considerably more thoughtful and complex than this thesis would suggest. The contradictions and ambiguities of the title character, who prowls cavernous sets filled with vast, ancient corridors and winding staircases, emerge as if from a dream. The plethora of tracking shots--precise enough to impress Stanley Kubrick--encircle Olivier and his tightly constructed geometry of demise. Drawing on his experience playing the Prince on stage at Elsinore in 1937, the legendary thesp provides the film with the patina of greatness and shows how the constitution of the formerly cheerful Prince weakens increasingly under the burden of his own thoughts and inability to accept his mother's o'er-hasty marriage to uncle Claudius (Basil Sydney). Indeed, if emotions could possess ghosts, Olivier's Hamlet shows how they would manifest themselves. There is even a dollop of Freud, suggesting that Queen Gertrude (Eileen Herlie) has perhaps loved her offspring too closely--thus providing the fuel for Hamlet's actions. As Ophelia, Jeans Simmons captures the character's early spirit better than her gradual disintegration (Helena Bonham Carter fares better in Franco Zeffirelli's fine 1990 remake). Purists may bemoan the loss of Fortinbras, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, but these choices allow Olivier to focus more squarely on Hamlet's plight. His monologues, many held in secret enclaves, glow with the dramatic markedness of a Dostoevski novel, with all of the master's irony, allusions and witticisms in place. The winner of four Oscars (Best Picture, Actor, Art Direction, and Costumes), this is a Hamlet for the ages. The rest is silence. --Kevin Mulhall


DVD Description

Laurence Olivier delivers one of his greatest Shakespearean performances as the lead role in this 1948 version of Hamlet. Seldom has the tragic story of the Danish Prince, tortured by his duty to his murdered father and by the guilt and fear he feels at the prospect of revenge, been so brilliantly portrayed. Hamlet is an immortal story of murder, intrigue, madness and despair, conveyed through the tragedy of a man who thinks but fails to act. For as long as Shakespeare is performed, this film--which won Academy Awards for Best Film and Best Actor--will stand as a definitive production.

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Customer Reviews

16 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (16 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Unsurpassed, 14 Sep 2002
By A Customer
Olivier's film of Hamlet is not perfect, but it is unlikely to be excelled. No present-day director, of sufficient intellect or skill to match it, would want to try; and there is no living English-speaking actor with the physical presence, voice or mastery of Shakespeare's language to fill the role. Any apparently negative judgements here are made in the context of a standard so far unequalled. There is no point in discussing Olivier's cuts or re-arrangements of the text; his film is an entertainment, not an academic exercise, and anyone who is not a moron will be handsomely entertained. The pace is somewhat sedate, until the cathartic final bloodbath, but the ghost is gripping and effective enough from the start to engage the viewer with the action. There is a strongly Victorian, neo-Gothic feel to the magnificent staging and rich costumes, reinforced by deliberate emulation of Millais' 1852 painting of the drowning Ophelia. The costumes benefit from the black and white photography, avoiding the technicolour garishness which obtrudes in Olivier's later Richard III. Modern viewers may think Hamlet should show a rather more feverish and agitated distraction, but this is not a serious fault. What, then, are the major flaws? First, the introduction ("this is the tragedy of a man who could not make up his mind"), which is completely unnecessary, off-putting, and almost silly. It should be removed. Second, although the acting of the supporting players (especially Eileen Herlie, and including Jean Simmons, whose touchingly fragile Ophelia has sometimes been disparaged) is generally excellent, Terence Morgan as Laertes is weak and mechanical, particularly in the early scenes. He cuts a spirited figure in the duel, but is otherwise unconvincing. Perhaps his woodenness is partly intentional, since he is suspected of being but "the painting of a sorrow, a face without a heart". Occasionally there is a sense that one or two other actors are also merely reciting the lines, without living them. The third, and most surprising failing, however, is in Olivier's delivery of "to be or not to be", the most famous soliloquy in English literature. This speech is a distillation of Hamlet's three preoccupations: the riddle of life and death, the legitimacy of revenge, and his perplexed sense of sexual frustration and disgust, which underpins the entire play. By treating the passage exclusively as a meditation on suicide, Olivier misses the opportunity of consolidating his fully justified Freudian interpretation of the drama, and virtually throws it away, symbolically dropping his bodkin into the troubled sea. But in spite of these criticisms I can't see any other actor/director bringing a fraction of the concentrated intelligence and stagecraft displayed in this production to the modern screen.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Period Piece, 23 Jan 2003
By A Customer
Perhaps the most impressive of Olivier's Shakespeare films. An utterly individual (and disturbing) atmosphere pervades the entire production. Every aspect seems integrated to a single vision and contributes to an experience that is greater than the sum of its parts.

The brooding sets, William Walton's melancholy music, the black and white film stock and the singularly talented cast coalesce to produce a genuine and characterful period piece.

Of course this is not the only way to do Hamlet. Of course there are cuts and adjustments. But Olivier's vision is effective and his portrayal of the great role is indispensable. Felix Aylmer is a delightfully quirky Polonius and Jean Simmons looks wonderful. The sound and picture quality on DVD is remarkably good for a film made in 1949.

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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars how my love of film began..., 22 Oct 2002
By Alejandra Vernon "artist & illustrator" (Long Beach, California) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)   
This review is from: Hamlet [VHS] [1948] (VHS Tape)
This was the first film I was taken to see, at the age of 5. I loved it then, and love it now.
Filmed in Denmark, it's a stylish work of art. The sets and cinematography are fabulous, and it boasts a superb score by Sir William Walton.

The magnificent Olivier gives us the most poetic and melancholy Hamlet on film...the way he uses his eyes in this performance is extraordinary, and very moving. Jean Simmons is a delicate and beautiful Ophelia, I like Eileen Hurlie's Gertrude, and Norman Woodland's graceful Horatio is outstanding.

Though the Zeffirelli/Gibson version is my favourite, and Branagh's ever so long uncut version stunning, this one shouldn't be missed...it's the classic of classics...riveting even for a child of 5 !

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Not matching either Derek Jacobi or Kenneth Brannagh!
I agree with Susan Cairns. I was not impressed by Olivier's effort nor indeed by the production in general. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Terentius

1.0 out of 5 stars NO EXPRESSION
HAVE NONE OF YOU SEEN THE KENNETH BRANAGH HAMLET? Laurence Olivier delivers his lines with little or no expression, varying only between monotonous, feelingless prose and loud... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Mrs. Susan Cairns

4.0 out of 5 stars Olivier delivers a fantastic adaptation of classic tragedy
After seeing a ghost of his father King Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Hamlet (Olivier) goes into madness as he learns the truth of his father's death. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Stampy

4.0 out of 5 stars Laurence Olivier
This is probably Laurence at his best. He struggled with Othello, very obviously a white actor trying to play a black man. Read more
Published 20 months ago by John F. Doherty

5.0 out of 5 stars A tragedy about a man who couldn't make up his mind
Having just finished reading the play,I was keen to view this classic 1948 film of "Hamlet" which stars Laurence Olivier as the tragic Danish prince. Read more
Published 23 months ago by L. Davidson

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Movie...Exciting, Tragic, Engrossing...But Most Of All, Cinematic
I'm no more competent to discuss Hamlet as literature than I am to ride a horse. So let's talk about it as a story and as a movie. Read more
Published on 12 Jun 2007 by C. O. DeRiemer

4.0 out of 5 stars Good - but more about Olivier's ego than Hamlet's
Although I think this is an excellent version of Hamlet, Olivier's performance as the eponymous character is a tour de force, and the period setting and authentic Danish location... Read more
Published on 4 Mar 2006 by Andrew Page

4.0 out of 5 stars Good - but more about Olivier's ego than Hamlet's
Although I think this is an excellent version of Hamlet, and Olivier's performance as the eponymous character is a tour de force, there is a gripe I'd like to share... Read more
Published on 4 Mar 2006

5.0 out of 5 stars Tradition has its merit.
A play by William Shakespeare. The story is of the decision and indecision of the Prince of Denmark, Hamlet, he is informed of an evil deed "Murder most foul" by the ghost of his... Read more
Published on 6 Feb 2006 by bernie

5.0 out of 5 stars The play's the thing.
"Hamlet belongs into the theater," says Mel Gibson, the star of the tragedy's 1990 adaptation by Franco Zeffirelli, in an interview on that movie's DVD. Read more
Published on 4 May 2005 by Themis-Athena

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