Hamlet (1996)

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, returns home to find his father murdered and his mother remarrying the murderer, his uncle. Meanwhile, war is brewing.

Director:

Kenneth Branagh

Writers:

William Shakespeare (play), Kenneth Branagh (screenplay)

Stars:

Kenneth Branagh, Julie Christie, Derek Jacobi

Nominated for 4 Oscars. Another 9 wins & 20 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Riz Abbasi	...	Attendant to Claudius
Richard Attenborough	...	English Ambassador
David Blair	...	Attendant to Claudius
Brian Blessed	...	Ghost of Hamlet's Father
Kenneth Branagh	...	Hamlet
Richard Briers	...	Polonius
Michael Bryant	...	Priest
Peter Bygott	...	Attendant to Claudius
Julie Christie	...	Gertrude
Billy Crystal	...	First Gravedigger
Charles Daish	...	Stage Manager
Judi Dench	...	Hecuba
Gérard Depardieu	...	Reynaldo
Reece Dinsdale	...	Guildenstern
Ken Dodd	...	Yorick

Storyline

Hamlet (Sir Kenneth Branagh), son of the King of Denmark (Brian Blessed), is summoned home for his father's funeral and his mother Gertrude's (Julie Christie's) wedding to his uncle Claudius (Sir Derek Jacobi). In a supernatural episode, he discovers that his uncle, who he hates anyway, murdered his father. In an incredibly convoluted plot, the most complicated and most interesting in all literature, he manages to (impossible to put this in exact order) feign (or perhaps not to feign) madness, murder the "Prime Minister", love and then unlove an innocent who he drives to madness, plot and then unplot against the uncle, direct a play within a play, successfully conspire against the lives of two well-meaning friends, and finally take his revenge on the uncle, but only at the cost of almost every life on-stage, including his own and his mother's.

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Plot Keywords:

shakespeare play | ghost | gertrude character | ophelia character | horatio character | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for some violent images and sexuality

Details

Country:

UK USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 December 1996 (USA)

Also Known As:

William Shakespeare's Hamlet

Filming Locations:

Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

$18,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$148,321, 29 December 1996, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$4,414,535, 13 April 1997

Company Credits

Production Co:

Castle Rock Entertainment, Turner Pictures (I), Fishmonger Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

242 min 150 min (cut)

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) Dolby Digital (35 mm prints) SDDS (35 mm prints)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Michael Maloney (Laertes) played Rosencrantz in Hamlet (1990).

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Goofs

In the very long shot along the length of the throne room, the cameras are visible in the mirrors.

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Quotes

Hamlet: I have of late, but wherefore I know not, lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises; and indeed, it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory; this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire! Why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! How infinite in ...

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Alternate Versions

Two versions should have been theatrically released at the same time: a complete 242-minutes director's cut shown only in selected venues (large key cities) and a shorter, wide-release version that ran about two-and-a-half hours. After some critical backlash, Castle Rock decided to release the complete 4 hours everywhere in the US and use the shorter version for some overseas territories.

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Connections

Featured in HBO First Look: Hamlet (1996)

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Soundtracks

In Youth When I Did Love
(uncredited)
Written by William Shakespeare
Performed by Billy Crystal

User Reviews

Branagh really raised the bar with this version

seen one you've seen them all, right? wrong! I still like the sombre Olivier version and Gibson did well, but this is in a class of its own.

I finally realized with this expanded production set 200 years closer to the present the full message that Shakespeare cleverly concealed with the more prominent aspect of Hamlet's quandary, and that is he, Hamlet, is driven to distraction by the awareness its the insidiousness of human nature that created the conditions that saw his father murdered.

looking at the play with this insight you can see numerous scenes where this notion is there in the background. and by changing the era, Branagh shows yet again the astonishing applicability of that truth. all you need is to read a newspaper, something 'included' in this production.

thank god for British stage actors raised on Shakespeare.

a very rewarding viewing.