Hamlet Double Feature Part I: Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet

I remember reading about Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet when it first came out, back in 1996.  I was intrigued by the notion of a filmed version of the complete text of Hamlet, and also by Mr. Branagh’s cast, which combined famed Shakespearean actors with a variety of famous Hollywood stars.  But I missed the film in theaters, and for one reason or another I never caught the film on video/DVD until just a few weeks ago.

I can’t say that I found Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet to be entirely successful, though I must respect the enormous ambition of the undertaking.

It’s quite a delight to watch Hamlet performed in its full, complete version.  Much praise must go to Mr. Branagh and his studio partners for the respect they show their audience by not feeling the need to shorten the play.  The great length does make this film something of an endurance test — and I will freely admit that I watched it in two sittings (something which I’m generally loathe to do, even when watching a long film).  By the time I got to the famed play-within-the-play scene, I felt my attention beginning to wane, so I stopped and picked up the film again on another evening.  I’m glad I did, because it enabled me to enjoy the second half of the performance more, I think, than had I gone straight through.

I recall reading some criticism of the cast of this version of Hamlet, but I must say that I really enjoyed the, shall we say, eclectic assemblage of actors.  I think the entire ensemble acquits themselves quite well, and it’s fun seeing actors like Gerard Depardieu and Robin Williams filling out small roles.  Their appearances bring a nice spark to those scenes, and I think the casting was a canny way for Mr. Branagh to draw modern audiences into his story.

There are some real standouts among the large ensemble.  Kate Winslet, in one of her first film roles, is absolutely magnificent as Ophelia.  She is incredibly skilled with Shakespeare’s words, lending them a fluidity that is impressive.  She has a nice spark with Branagh as Hamlet — indeed, their shared “get thee to a nunnery” speech is one of the dramatic high-points of the film for me.  Julie Christie is also very impressive as Gertrude.  She brings a regal bearing to the role, and gives the character a strong inner life that shines through even in scenes when she has little to do.  Charlton Heston brings every ounce of his movie-star persona to bear in the role of the Player King, and he is outstanding.  I’ve often found myself bored, I will admit, by the scenes with the players — it’s a portion of the play where I’m usually eager for Hamlet to just get on with things already!  But Heston’s monologues as the Player King are phenomenally compelling.  I have rarely seen this powerhouse actor be better.

But my favorite performance — believe it or not — is Billy Crystal as the Gravedigger.  I would have thought that Mr. Crystal would stick out like a sore thumb in a Shakespearean performance, but he absolutely knocks his scene out of the park.  He does give the Gravedigger something of a modern twist — the character, after all, does still sound like Billy Crystal!  And there’s something about Billy Crystal that feels very late-twentieth-century to me.  But Mr. Crystal is marvelously facile with the dialogue, and more than with any other actor in the piece, I felt like I could follow every word of the Gravedigger’s dialogue — all the puns and rude comments included.  By his intonations, and his gestures, and his mannerisms — every aspect of his performance — Mr. Crystal makes the words of the scene come alive in a way that is impressive.  It’s a very funny — albeit morbid — scene, and Mr. Crystal absolutely nails it.

In the central role, Mr. Branagh is very strong, though his Hamlet is a bit more manic than I would have expected.  Mr. Branagh can really chew the scenery, which is fun, though I found myself preferring the scenes when he dialed his performance down a bit to a more personal level.  He’s delightful, for instance, in the Gravedigger scene that I was just discussing — I loved his fast-paced banter with Mr. Crystal.  Mr. Branagh clearly knows this play backwards and forwards, though there were times when I think the high energy-level of his performance was a bit more suited for the theater than for film (where a smaller gesture can carry a greater weight).  As the star and the director, this film really rides on Mr. Branagh’s shoulders, and I am impressed by his boldness at taking so much upon himself.

Speaking of boldness, Mr. Branagh and his team clearly put great effort into creating a broad canvass for this telling of Hamlet.  The sets are opulent and the costumes lavish.  There is some really intriguing set design to be found in this film.  The spectacle of the court at Denmark is impressive, and the hall of mirrors in which several key scenes take place — including the “to be or not to be” speech — is a clever physicalization of some of the underlying motifs of the play.

Unfortunately, there are also some moments when the staging is incredibly awkward, and when the attempts at spectacle fall flat.  Most problematic are the scenes at the very start of the play with the ghost of the dead King Hamlet.  What was meant to be scary to me looked very silly, and the pounding music and the overwrought reactions of Hamlet and his fellows only made the scene even more ridiculous.  Adding insult to injury, there are several shots that are repeated several times (such as a moment where we see the earth opening up).  These effects are unconvincing when seen once — when repeated over and over again, they feel laughably amateurish.  This is not a good way to start one’s film!

There are other equally unfortunate moments.  Hamlet’s speech at the end of disc one is accompanied by a painfully fake-looking pullback that is meant, I suppose, to channel the epic feel of a film like Braveheart (which was released the previous year) but to me just looked silly.  The final assault on the Danish capital, at the end of the play, felt equally underwhelming.  It looked like ten extras storming the castle, rather than an army.

I loved the look of Hamlet’s costumes (mostly in black), particularly his outfit for the final duel which is a little weird but very striking.  Though the film seems to be set in the early 1900’s, there’s a timeless quality to the sets and costumes that is strong, and avoids one’s thinking too hard about when, exactly, this is all supposed to take place.  There are a few moments that felt “off” to me — a shot of Laertes reading a newspaper seemed unnecessarily contemporary, and the images of Ophelia in a straightjacket felt just bizarre.

To me, the film works best when Mr. Branagh keeps things intimate.  He has assembled a marvelous cast, as I’ve already said, and the film is strongest when he lets those actors just go at it.  It’s when the film tries to be epic that it often stumbles.  But I really can’t be too hard on Mr. Branagh and his team for having enormous ambition with their project.  Perhaps their reach at times exceeded their grasp, but Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet is still a fun, vibrant telling of Shakespeare’s play.

So why did I title this post a Hamlet Double Feature? Because not long after watching Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet I also watched the recent BBC version of Hamlet, starring David Tennant and Patrick Stewart!  Check back here on Friday to see what I thought of that version!