William Shakespeare's Hamlet (Two-Disc Special Edition)
by Kenneth Branagh
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DVD details
Actor: Billy Crystal, G?rard Depardieu, Julie Christie, Kate Winslet, Kenneth BranaghDirector: Kenneth Branagh
Brand: Warner Brothers
Primary Contributor: Kenneth Branagh
Primary Contributor: Julie Christie
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled)
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Original recording remastered, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.20:1
Running Time: 242 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-08-14
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Warner Home Video
Product features:
- Hamlet has the kind of power, energy and excitement that movies can truly exploit,' award-winning actor/director Kenneth Branagh says. In this first-ever full-text film of William Shakespeare's greatest work, the power surges through every scene. The timeless tale of murder, corruption and revenge is reset in an opulent 19th-century world, using sprawling Blenheim Palace as Elsinore and st
DVD Reviews of William Shakespeare's Hamlet (Two-Disc Special Edition)
DVD Review: Notable effort, less accessible than other efforts. Mixed casting.
Summary: 3 Stars
I have liked Kenneth Branagh's other Shakespeare films. I appreciate that he doesn't reduce the plays to sing-songy recitals. Having said that, he seems to have a weakness for some inappropriate casting. Let's start with Jack Lemmon. I like Jack Lemmon. He is a gifted comedic and dramatic actor, but he had no business whatsoever playing a guard in Shakespeare's Hamlet. Now, I know Ophelia's supposed to be mad, but Kate WInslett's Ophelia is simply incoherent most of the time. I'd have preferred Helena Bonham Carter, but with her you have to take Mel Gibson as Hamlet.
The choice of Julie Christie as Gertrude, on the other hand, is inspired. Her performance makes sense of a woman who would sleep with her murderous former brother-in-law.
All of the plot points are made clearly for once, but except for Hamlet's ambiguity about the status of humanity in the cosmos, most of the subtle stuff gets short shrift.
DVD Review: Perfect Production!
Summary: 5 Stars
Really this is an amazing version of Hamlet. Someone told me it was boring because it was full text, but I do not agree. When I watched it I was enraptured the entire time. I really loved it. I showed it to my high school senior English class and they loved it too. I recommend this version for school use. Kevin Branagh is amazing! Perfectly casted, amazing set! DVD Review: Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet
Summary: 5 Stars
I recently used this video with my senior students. I teach in a low economic area of Los Angeles. The students responded well to it and were able to follow the plot except for the one section where the troupe of actors comes to perform at Elsinore. This whole section is a giant actor-manager-playwright in-joke that Shakespeare inserted but which my students were mystified by. Additionally, I had to explain to them that Hamlet is requesting the players to alter the play to look more like the scene of his father's murder.
The costume and staging of the play are subdued and not distracting. The acting...that is the movement of the characters and their facial expressions are well done enough that my students could interpret emotions even without understanding the words.
There are some surprise cameos: Robin Williams, Charleton Heston, etc.
Overall, Branagh has done a great job with the staging of this play and it works well with students.
DVD Review: Hamlet - Kenneth Branagh H
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the Shakespeare everyone should be introduced to. Branagh is faithful, understandable and musical in his delivery. This sacrifices nothing, but tells the gut-wrenching tragedy so every viewer experiences the sorrow and the frustration. The surround-sound of the DVD makes the ghost scenes beyond errie as Hamlet Sr.'s voice washes around the room. He sounds like he is in front of you, then beside, then behind all within one word. Geilgud is good in his version, but he allowed the art to eclipse the story. Branagh has found the balance.DVD Review: Awe inspiring
Summary: 5 Stars
What a magnificent movie! Reviewer Dennis Littrell already covered almost everything, but I wanted to add my vote of 5 stars to the count. There are other movies that deserve 5 stars on a 5-star scale, but very few like this Hamlet that deserve 100 on a 100-star scale. To differ with Littrell a mite in detail, I think Heston was so perfect as the Actor I wouldn't consider his switching roles with Gielgud, and Branagh's presence/stature amply filled the role of Hamlet. Bravo, Branagh, on direction and portrayal.
Description of William Shakespeare's Hamlet (Two-Disc Special Edition)
No Description Available.Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: UN
Release Date: 14-AUG-2007
Media Type: DVD
It's the greatest work of literature, but nobody had ever filmed Hamlet uncut--until Kenneth Branagh went about the task for his lavish 1996 production. The result is a sumptuous, star-studded version that scores a palpable hit on its avowed goal: to make the text as clear and urgent as possible. Branagh himself plays the melancholy son of the Danish court, caught in a famous muddle about whether to seek revenge against his royal father's presumed slayer. the man who now sits on the throne and shares the bed of Hamlet's mother. (Or, as the song "That's Entertainment" summarizes the plot: "A ghost and a prince meet / And everyone winds up mincemeat.") As a director, Branagh (who shot the movie in 70 mm.) uses the vast, cold interiors of a vaguely 19th-century manor to gorgeous effect; the story might scurry down this hallway, into that back chamber, or sprawl out into the enormous main room. With its endless collection of mirrors, the place is as big and empty as Citizen Kane's Xanadu.
That all works; what doesn't work is Branagh's tendency to over-direct the big dramatic moments. He indulges in quick cutting and flashbacks as though to fend off the audience's objections to the four-hour running time, and the style sometimes looks like wasted energy. The experienced Shakespearians in the cast come off nicely; Derek Jacobi's Claudius, Richard Briers' Polonius, and Michael Maloney's Laertes are just terrific. Julie Christie is a suitably attractive Gertrude, and Kate Winslet makes the most of Ophelia's mad scenes. Branagh's habit of folding in unexpected American performers is on the mark, too: Billy Crystal is surprisingly good as the Gravedigger, Robin Williams predictably camps up Osric, and Charlton Heston is an inspired choice as the grandiloquent Player King. The biggest irony here is that Branagh himself is not quite spot-on as Hamlet. Of course he speaks the lines beautifully, but Branagh's screen personality radiates certainty and clarity of vision; there's little of the doubt that might make him Hamlet-esque. Still, tremendous credit for fending off slings and arrows to get the movie made. --Robert Horton
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