Richard Burton's Hamlet (1964)

A modern dress version of Shakespeare's tragedy about a Danish prince.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: NR
Release Date: 17-AUG-1999
Media Type: DVD Product Description

Shakespeare would have raved

Over three hours of wonderful entertainment, Richard Burton is quite magnificent as Hamlet, the direction is superb, watch how wonderfully everyone on stage can be seen at any one time - blocking to die for. The supporting cast are exceptional, only in one place are some words lost because of background noise. A truly inspiring experience. June 15, 2008

Review for Richard Burton's Hamlet

The new, sealed, DVD arrived even before the scheduled delivery date. It would have been very informative if Amazon had published more information about this version of Hamlet. It had been a long time since I had seen this version, but I remembered that the actors wore "street" clothes.I discovered, after opening the DVD, that this was filmed during the final rehearsal (prior to dress rehearsal) and was directed by Sir John Gielgud. The film was supposed to have been destroyed, but Burton kept a copy archived. Amazon should also include that critics hailed this version as the height of Burton's vocal powers and charisma. May 15, 2008

Definitive Hamlet

This is priviledged viewing. Burton's Hamlet is everything Hamlet should be; virile, impassioned, needling, damaged. The fact that it is a filmed play is obvious. Clarity is not brilliant and you do miss the close-ups of a cinema experience. But in light of the performance, it hardly matters. Hugh Cronyn as Polonius is very good, wry and comical but it is Burton's performance that dominates. The way he paces the stage, the unexpected rhythms of that incomparable voice. No-one has ever depicted the soul in torment like Burton. May 5, 2008

Tremendous When it Works

The great Shakespearean actor John Gielgud here directs Richard Burton in a final rehearsal for Hamlet in 1964. It is a fascinating, stage-shrewd interpretation that mostly works, is tremendous when it does, and is also in some scenes flat as a pancake. The rough quality of the film oddly adds to the intensity; it was not meant to be preserved.

Lighting effects and costuming being withheld at this stage of production, the concentration falls on language and gesture. The total effect is first quite weird, as in the first 1/3 of the play you are given Polonius and Hamlet dominating, playing off each other, and everybody else falling into the background. Hume Cronyn in modern business suit gives one of the most obnoxious Polonius performances on record, quickly gelling it as almost straight comedy. Moody and dark Burton floats around him, getting upstaged, and the audience laughs at even his most serious lines. Weirder yet, the air of comedy never totally disappears from this production of perhaps the greatest tragedy in any language.

Yet an incredible, mercurial interpretation by Burton uses all this as launchpad, building up in a workmanlike manner with uncanny pacing and distinct, deliberate phrasing. His mood swings need to be seen to be believed, and are quite convincing as they hammer at a central dramatic issue here -- is Hamlet truly mad? Burton achieves full flight by the time Hamlet kills Polonius, who is then cast off like so much detritus. What follows is this film's greatest moment -- the bedroom scene with Hamlet and Gertrude played better than you will ever see it again. Freudian interpretations of this scene by Sir Lawrence Olivier and Mel Gibson cannot hold a candle to this, which plays it straight with masterful dramatic intelligence. When Hamlet sees his father's ghost, presented as a great shadow, and Gertrude does not, we are finally convincingly informed that he is in another, special dimension of truth, which tragically only he inhabits in this poisoned kingdom. This is as good as Shakespeare ever gets, true treasure trove stuff.

The Claudius is decent, and shines in his confession scene. Unfortunately Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and Ophelia are about as flat and stilted as they come. But their disappearance only weirdly adds to the crackling, intermittent power of the whole thing, and Burton's Hamlet is so real against them it hardly detracts.

The graveyard scene, unfortunately, is only so-so. This Laertes -- in a pivotal role that cannot be sacrificed -- doesn't deliver much, and the whole thing starts to wind down before it is over. Some of this is doubtless due to the artlessness of the filming of this stage play, from a distance. But nevertheless to be honest you can't give Gielgud's direction of the climax more than one star. Weirdness returns and finally doesn't go away. Hamlet oddly dies on his feet, ends up slumped like a drunk on the throne, and then is carried off in a straight rip-off of the Oliviet Hamlet, as if that is what the audience expects. Fortinbras walks in and starts shouting -- oh, please! In a nutshell, the ending is a big disappointment.

But you will never forget Burton doing the soliloquies, the gritty black and white realism conveyed by the bad filming, the use of friezelike blocking of scenes by Gielgud, and all that counts for very, very much. September 22, 2007

The Best Hamlet I've Seen

Burton (and Gielgud) have the best understanding of Hamlet that I've seen on film. I don't know why Olivier and Jacobi want to play Hamlet like he's bisexual, but it isn't right. Branagh is good, but for some scenes Gibson's interpretation is better than Branagh's. Gibson's is the most romantic Hamlet, but plays Hamlet as mostly depressed at first. Truth is, Hamlet is as mad as hell, but is torn and doesn't know what to do about it, so he turns it inward, at first. Burton's interpretation is quite good and the closest to the way Hamlet should be played. July 5, 2007

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