I saw this in the theater when it came out.\u00a0 There are a few things that should be said about it to start with.\u00a0 It\u2019s fully four hours long!\u00a0 It has everyone in Hollywood (and outside of it) in the cast.\u00a0 Richard Attenborough, Brian Blessed, Julie Christie, Billy Crystal, Judi Dench, G\u00e9rard Depardieu, John Gielgud, Charlton Heston, Derek Jacobi, Jack Lemmon, Kate Winslet and so help me even Robin Williams.\u00a0 And the cinematography is full of pomp and circumstance and beautiful settings.\u00a0 But it is unwatchable.<\/p>\n
Branagh runs around doing his crazy act and shouting out his lines at a dizzying rate but the whole thing is annoying and after even a half hour becomes too tedious to endure.\u00a0 Some of the performances I did enjoy.\u00a0 Richard Briers as Polonius I thought was good.\u00a0 I liked Derek Jacobi as Claudius.\u00a0 Jack Lemmon as one of the watchmen I found unconvincing.<\/p>\n
For a true devotee of Shakespeare who is determined to watch it, I suggest watching it in a scene by scene fashion.\u00a0 Probably twenty or thirty minutes is the sub-lethal dose.\u00a0 So taking it in eight to twelve bite sized chunks you could get through without losing your ability to appreciate the lines.<\/p>\n
It’s a pity.\u00a0 Branagh was given a budget and an array of talent that is impressive.\u00a0 And a lot of the visual presentation is beautiful.\u00a0 But his vision for the title role falls far short of even such popular versions as Franco Zeffirelli\u2019s 1990 version with Mel Gibson.<\/p>\n
So let me not go on beating it up.\u00a0 Let me just say I cannot recommend this version for an enjoyable experience of the play.\u00a0 Watch Olivier or Gibson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I saw this in the theater when it came out.\u00a0 There are a few things that should be said about it to start with.\u00a0 It\u2019s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[239,237],"tags":[887,888,43,38,1355,295,2363],"class_list":["post-10185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","category-reviews","tag-hamlet","tag-kenneth-branagh","tag-movie-review","tag-review","tag-reviews","tag-shakespeare","tag-shakespeare-in-film"],"yoast_head":"\n