Hamlet Reviews

Olivier's script may have been trimmed for the cinema but this is the definitive Hamlet on film. That he also directed this murky evocation of the play adds to the value.... Read more

Olivier's reputation as the greatest Shakespeare movie actor is well deserved, in my view. This movie version of Hamlet is widely used as the standard by which all other movie versions of Hamlet are measured, and it is still my favorite,... Read more

I think it's safe to say this is the best Hamlet so far. Not that I've seen them all but it's hard to imagine how anything in this production could be much improved upon.The story, admittedly, is kind of dumb.... Read more

With this film, Sir Laurence Olivier set the standard as to how Shakespeare should be done on screen. His direction of his handpicked cast was flawless and his own straightforward interpretation of Hamlet is the one everyone else's is measured... Read more

Hamlet (Laurence Olivier), son of the murdered king of Denmark, contemplates whether or not to take vengeance on the murderer and now king, Claudius (Basil Sydney), Hamlet's uncle. Hamlet must also decide what to do about his mother, Gertrude (Eileen... Read more

Sir Laurence Olivier's excellent Oscar-winning 1948 adaptation of one of William Shakespeare's most famous plays is arguably the best one, although Kenneth Branagh's star-studded, uncut version, made 48 years later (see my review on it) is also very good. Olivier,... Read more

The titled melancholy Danish prince (Oscar-winner Laurence Olivier) seeks to avenge those involved with his father's death. It seems that Olivier's father (voiced by John Gielgud) still roams the Earth as a spirit that walks around aimlessly, unable to find... Read more

It stands to reason that Larry Olivier's version of Hamlet is one of the best, and even if he was a little old for the role (in his forties by this time) it really is the perfect role for him.One... Read more

The amount of lines taken from this play and used in our everyday conversation is staggering. Like all of the Bard's works, his endurance is not only the mastery of language, but really in storylines that just never get old.... Read more

For years I've considered the classical soviet screen-version of Hamlet directed by Kozintsev (1964) as the best adaptation of the play. I still think it's a masterpiece, however now it fills the second place in my preferences and the first... Read more