Olivier could have produced an extraordinarily vigorous Hamlet, bursting with energy and boasting a physical panache that few others could equal. Instead, he has, unfortunately, deprived Hamlet of more than half his lines and many of his actions. He is more the paperweight of Denmark than its prince.
Scenes are rearranged, lines rewritten, and words changed. There is no trace of politics: Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and even Fortinbras vanish. Olivier's voice-over, "This is the tragedy of a man who could not make up his mind" (from the Gary Cooper film Souls at Sea), might more appropriately have been, "This is the tragedy of Hamlet made simpleminded." Hamlet becomes an immobile young man troubled by the twin demons of indecision and incest. In this cut-up, cut-down Hamlet, the prince cannot act until he resolves his feelings for his mother and his girlfriend and determines they are not one and the same.
Sadly, the strength of the film is not in the text or the actors, but in the questing, fluid camera, and the confining, claustrophobic set.
Scenes are rearranged, lines rewritten, and words changed. There is no trace of politics: Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and even Fortinbras vanish. Olivier's voice-over, "This is the tragedy of a man who could not make up his mind" (from the Gary Cooper film Souls at Sea), might more appropriately have been, "This is the tragedy of Hamlet made simpleminded." Hamlet becomes an immobile young man troubled by the twin demons of indecision and incest. In this cut-up, cut-down Hamlet, the prince cannot act until he resolves his feelings for his mother and his girlfriend and determines they are not one and the same.
Sadly, the strength of the film is not in the text or the actors, but in the questing, fluid camera, and the confining, claustrophobic set.