Hamlet Week: Day Three

Welcome to day three of Hamlet Week, where the Cap'n is discussing varying permutations of William Shakespeare's Hamlet. Today we come to the most complete of the five film adaptations, Kenneth Branagh's epic, 65mm interpretation.

Cap'n Howdy's Handy Hamlet Handbook:

Date of Release: 1996

Directed By: Kenneth Branagh (Henry V, Dead Again, Much Ado About Nothing)

Dramatis Personae: Hamlet (Branagh), Claudius (Derek Jacobi), Gertrude (Julie Christie), Horatio (Nicholas Farrell), Polonius (Richard Briers), Laertes (Michael Maloney), Ophelia (Kate Winslet)

Other Notable Cast Members: Brian Blessed (Much Ado About Nothing, Flash Gordon) - The Ghost, Richard Attenborough (The Great Escape, Jurassic Park) - Ambassador from England, Charlton Heston (The Omega Man, Ben-Hur) - Player King, Rosemary Harris (Spider-Man, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead) - Player Queen, Jack Lemmon (The Apartment, Glengarry Glen Ross) - Marcellus, Billy Crystal (The Princess Bride, Monsters Inc.) - First Gravedigger, Simon Russell Beale (Orlando, Persuasion) - Second Gravedigger, Robin Williams (One Hour Photo, The Fisher King) - Osric, Rufus Sewell (Dark City, The Illusionist) - Fortinbras, Gerard Depardieu (Cyrano de Bergerac, Maitresse) - Reynaldo, John Gielgud (Becket, Murder on the Orient Express) - Priam, Judi Dench (A Room with a View, Shakespeare in Love) - Hecuba, Timothy Spall (Topsy Turvy, Appaloosa) - Rosencrantz, John Mills (Great Expectations, Gandhi) - Old Norway.

Setting: Denmark (although shot in London, including Blenheim Palace which doubles for Elsinore), roughly late 19th century.

Run time: 242 minutes

What's Missing: Nothing. In fact, Branagh's version of Hamlet is so complete that it combines sections from the Second Quarto and First Folio versions of the play to create a sort of "Ultimate" Hamlet.

Other Deviations: What Branagh's Hamlet lacks in deletions, it does make up for changes: in addition to changing the period to a Victorian-esque time frame (it is unclear exactly when, but there are steam engine trains, newspapers, and the dress reflects somewhere between 1860-1890), the 1996 adaptation also inserts a number of "flashbacks", indicating points in the story which are only mentioned in the text. For example, the suggested sexual background between Hamlet and Ophelia is made semi-explicit in love scenes (although the nudity is tastefully modest), and the murder of King Hamlet is considerably more graphic than in the Olivier version.

Many would consider Branagh's decision to make Castle Elsinore brightly lit (and packed with mirrors) to be a huge deviation, which I suppose is fair. It is a very different take on Hamlet, one that removes much of the shadows and puts every character on display. That said, I think this does justice to including the play in its entirety - with all of the minor bits restored, all of the characters are more clearly understood, and the lack of darkness gives them nowhere to hide their motives.

The biggest change may be that of Claudius who, in the capable hands of Derek Jacobi, becomes a nearly sympathetic villain. Despite his ambition and lust for Gertrude, there is a hint of genuine regret for what he did to gain both crown and wife. The look of horror on Claudius' face as King Hamlet is dying adds nuance to an otherwise strictly horrendous act; his own terror at the deed done lends a credibility to the way he tries to maintain the royal family of Denmark. Early in the film, before Hamlet's seemingly erratic behavior sends him over the edge, Claudius seems to genuinely care for his nephew / step-son. Unlike Alan Bates' Claudius, there is less of a sense of trying to save face and more of a feeling of regret and panic when Gertrude drinks the poisoned cup and Laertes doubts his own ability to kill Hamlet.

There are other, smaller changes: Ophelia, upon going mad, is treated as a mental patient and placed inside a padded room constructed in Elsinore. When the audience first sees her, she is straight-jacketed, and rather than let her escape the grounds, Ophelia escapes captivity and drowns (off-screen). Rather than showing the drowning, or immediately before (as is the case in the 1948 and 1990 adaptations), the audience sees only Gertrude's face as she describes what happens, followed by a brief shot of Kate Winslet submerged in the water.

The inter-cutting of Horatio and Hamlet's duel with the invasion of Elsinore by Fortinbras' army might be considered something of a deviation, as the battle is more of an "action sequence" than the fight itself. I'll get to the extended cast in a moment, but sufficed to say that it may be considered a larger deviation to have so many American actors speaking in their native dialect (even Mel Gibson and Glenn Close attempted British accents).

What Works: I'll make it clear from the get-go that I remain a tremendous fan of this version of Hamlet. This viewing makes the fifth time I've seen it from beginning to end, and every time I find something new to enjoy. However, what I found most interesting in viewing it in the context of other Hamlets were the minute details missing from other adaptations, which I'll detail here.

Tiny things, like the inclusion of Reynaldo (a character so often dropped that I forgot to mention he'd been left out of the other films) or the English Ambassador (who seemed to be removed in the interest of showing Rosencrantz and Guildenstern die in the Zeffirelli film), actually enhance the experience. Yes, the inclusion of the complete text is also nice, and in watching them as I have, it's easier to spot lines missed in other versions.

I also like the way that Branagh sets up visually Hamlet's involvement with fencing early in the film and peppers it throughout, so that when he utters the line "I do not think so: since he went into France, I have been in continual practise," it seems perfectly believable. The restoration of conversations to their normal place in the play is also nice (Claudius and Laertes now scheme about the duel before meeting Hamlet in the graveyard), and every character has more time to breathe. It may seem like an insignificant part of the play to include Reynaldo and Polonius, or Voltimand and Cornelius delivering the news from Norway, or even the second Gravedigger, who has virtually no bearing on Hamlet and Horatio, but it allows Denmark to open up. The import of Fortinbras' arrival in Denmark, when he lied about waging war with Poland, has more gravity in the full version.

Here's where I may bump into contention with some: I like much of the "stunt casting," particularly Charlton Heston and Robin Williams. It's true that Gerard Depardieu is interesting to watch, but Reynaldo doesn't really have much to do in the film. Heston, on the other hand, overcomes the fact that he's speaking with a standard American accent (or perhaps a Californian) and really does justice to the Player King's speeches. Robin Williams, in a very different way, does justice to Osric, who previously registered as a fop in the hand of Peter Cushing and not at all with John McEnery.

Williams channels his manic energy into making Osric a nervous pretender to royal life, desperate to impress Hamlet and Horatio with his manners. His jittery delivery underscores his own take on the "fop-ish" element of Osric, making him a little too impressed with Laertes and imprecise with his speech to Hamlet. That, and the way he say "carriage" (something like "care-eee-ahge") in an attempt to appear cultured, is quite funny.

With that being said, continuing this discussion leads me to the next section -

What Doesn't Work: While I do like some of the American actors (and most of the British cast), I have always taken some umbrage with the aftertaste left by Jack Lemmon and Billy Crystal. It's not that either of them are bad, per se; Lemmon is, in fact, very good in quiet moments. The problem is that their voices are so distinctive (and Crystal's New Yawk accent so pronounced) that it tends to distract from their delivery. I would very much enjoy the scene with the gravediggers were it not for the fact that Billy Crystal seems like he walked out of a Yankees game and into Denmark to dig graves. Again, it's nothing personal against the performances, but something about their distinctive voices seems out of place in this Hamlet.

One might also say, as a form of minor complaint, that this "eternity" Hamlet (as Branagh calls it in the introduction) is quite an endurance test. Not that the film is boring or ever drags, but at four hours it is something you must prepare yourself to sit through beginning to end. The completeness of the text does mean that you need set aside time to devote to the film and nothing else, even if you broke it up as I had to (into the first two and a half hours last night, followed by the last hour and a half this morning). Be forewarned that this is the adaptation of Hamlet to watch if you want absolutely everything, but you'd best be free for at least four hours.

Beyond that, I have two other minor quibbles. The first is that Branagh uses two dissolves during Ophelia, Laertes, and Polonius' conversation prior to his leaving France. The first makes almost no sense at all, unless the layout of Blenheim Palace is less evident than it appears and he needed to move them from outside the front to near the side quickly. The second, which moves the three into what looks like the Chapel, seems useful for Polonius' advice, but undermines the urgency with which he speeds Laertes off (they were, after all, outside to begin with!).

The second has to do with the Ghost of Hamlet. I don't actually mind moving the chase into the woods outside of Elsinore (although the geography is a little tricky considering the wide shots facing away from the castle), and the reveal of the Ghost is fine (I actually quite like the way that Branagh plays with the iconography of King Hamlet with the statue of his likeness outside the castle), but I could have done without the tremors. In order to underscore how unnatural the Ghost's presence is, Branagh frequently cuts to inserts of the earth cracking open (with smoke billowing) and trees shaking, even as Marcellus and Horatio arrive to swear on Hamlet's sword. If anything, it's a tad over the top.

Final Thoughts: Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of the play manages to include fidelity to the text and still be cinematic (in a way that's very different from Zeffirelli's but nonetheless effective in its own right). If you have the time to invest in the film, I highly recommend it. For as long as I can remember discussing the film, there's been an undercurrent of hostility for this version, one I'd be quite happy to hear someone expand upon. I've never had the problems with it that some friends have, and I highly recommend the experience.