Richard Burton's Hamlet

Buy This Item Richard Burton's Hamlet by Image Entertainment  Available from Amazon  $26.99  on 11-16-2008     Richard Burton stars and Sir John Gielgud directs William Shakespeare's play of the Danish Prince. This is a "Hamlet" acted in rehearsal clothes, stripped of all extraneous trappings, so the beauty of the language and imagery could shine through. Filmed during an actual Broadway performance, to be shown in movie theaters for two days only, the prints were contractually ordered destroyed, but Burton sent one to the British Film Institute, and kept one print at home, located by his widow Sally in 1988; here then is the complete Burton "Hamlet" in all its vocal power and glory. Reader Reviews 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.

Richard Burton's Hamlet Available from Amazon Price: $26.99 Updated on 11-16-2008.

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