My first impression was, "Wow, this looks dated." While black and white can look sleek and vibrant, that is not the case here. It looks old. The benefits of using Elsinore were negated by the poor cinematography. Additionally, the DVD transfer was created from inferior film stock that has not been restored. The picture is marred by constant spots, periodic vertical black lines, and occasional ripples. The monoaural sound varies in volume throughout. I suppose that the draw here should be the release of a previously unavailable production, but some clean-up of the film before release would have helped.
The cast is worthy of name-dropping. Christopher Plummer is Hamlet. Robert Shaw is Claudius. Michael Caine is Horatio. Donald Sutherland is Fortinbras. With such names, one might expect a stellar performance. That is not quite what one gets here, though.
Things did not start well. The action of the play begins in earnest with Claudius addressing the court. No "Who's there?" The entire patrol scene that opens Hamlet was gone. Hmmm. The strangeness continued. Hamlet's first spoken line is, "I shall in all my best obey you madam." It became apparent what was happening here--director Philip Saville was exercising considerable license.
This version is another example of artistic rearrangement. Dialogue did not seem to be shifted from one character to another; rather, it was removed. To fit a 166-minute running time, things have to be cut. That is understandable. What was done here, though, was odd. Things one expects to see were gone, and things one expects not to see were there. The aforementioned edits were made, and yet Fortinbras was left in. Such unbalanced editing continued throughout the film. There was no interaction between Laertes and Ophelia following Polonius' death and Laertes' return. In fact, Laertes' return was not announced at all. Suddenly, he was back plotting with Claudius. Ophelia gave no one flowers; it was the shortest madness scene that I can recall. There was no second gravedigger, but Osric was there in all of his water-fly glory.
There was no ghost shown on screen. We heard a voice only. When the ghost orders Hamlet and mates to swear upon the sword, evidently only Hamlet heard him. When the ghost appeared in Gertrude's chamber, again it was only voice.
Hamlet's soliloquies were jumbled. "Too, too solid flesh" was in its usual place. "To be or not to be" was moved to follow Hamlet repeating "Except my life" to Polonius. The speech itself was bizarrely choreographed; it was removed from any temporal setting. Was Hamlet in the castle? Was he beneath it in a tomb? Was he on an upper floor? The answer to all questions is yes...and no. He moved from one setting to another with no regard for reality. The speech led into the nunnery scene. Hamlet catches Polonius and Claudius spying on him through a window, which leads him to ask Ophelia where her father is. It was clumsily staged. The "rogue and peasant slave" soliloquy followed after a while. The "How all occasions" speech, typically dropped, was left in place.
"The Mousetrap" was another example of odd staging. Usually, the dumb show is removed to save time. In this production, the actual play was removed. It was all dumb show. The actors did not speak. When Gertrude accused the lady of protesting too much, it made no sense. How could the lady protest at all when she never uttered a line?
The chapel scene was well shot. Claudius was on his knees at ground level while Hamlet was above on a balcony. It made sense, which was ironic considering how little of the rest of this production did.
Ophelia's madness scene, described previously, was much shortened. There was another strange scene placement. When Claudius delivers the line about sorrows coming not as single spies, it is when he and Gertrude are in bed about to make love. I don't recall that in Shakespeare's original, and its presence here did not improve the production.
The climax scene was a rather typical fencing duel. The first pass was quick, the second was a bit more protracted, and the whole thing was fairly standard. The usual deaths occurred in the usual ways. Fortinbras arrived on the scene and began to speak. He should have remained mute. What was his accent? Was it Scottish? Was it English? Was it Arnold Schwarzenegger? Perhaps that's how Norwegians speak, but I found the attempt laughable. As cannons fired at Fortinbras' request, the film ended.
The DVD jacket describes this as a "truly unique and thrilling production." In my opinion, that is half correct. While not terribly thrilling, it is indeed unique (which may not be a compliment). Described as a "must own for fans of the Bard," I will agree that die-hard fans like myself would want it. I cannot recommend it to the general viewer, though. It's just not the draw that it might have been.
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