Memorable, crazy movie

Good movie but grossly overrated

Absolutely Fantastic

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Christopher Plummer's Hamlet is so fine that it redeems a bad film and goes a long way towards redeeming Plummer's career. Here is a man whose gifts might have placed him among the great classical actors, but it was not to be. The fault, dear Brutus, lay in his wayward commitment, a matinée-idol fecklessness that frequently opted for the easy or thoughtless way out. His Iago (1982) was a palimpsest of clashing interpretations; his ashen Macbeth (1988) died before the play began; and his Lear's (2004) admonition that nothing can come from nothing was self-referential. But his Cyrano (1973) was marvelous: romantic and contemporary, eloquent and neurotic, febrile and edgy yet flamboyant, it synthesized centuries of acting styles in a manner reminiscent of Olivier. I am happy to add Hamlet to the list of his achievements.Plummer gives us the complete Prince where others have given us parcels. He has looks, presence, breeding, charm, athleticism, wit and consummate grace. He also has a touch of the feminine (which works well for Hamlet), yet is incontestably virile. This is important: one mustn't feel that Hamlet's fitful misogyny springs from congenital attraction to his own sex. There is no doubt that Plummer could have happily married Ophelia in a better world than Denmark. Nor is there any doubt of his capacity for martial exploits if his mind could deem them authentic. "Hamlet does not think too much but too well," and Plummer has the capacity (lacking in Gibson, Branagh and Hawke) to convey a subtle and probing mind. Michael Pennington (1980) was more intellectual, Derek Jacobi quirkier in his line-readings, but neither combined thought and surprise with sexual incandescence as Plummer does. He is a bright particular Star who has been wounded into inwardness, which is merely to say that he is Hamlet.The movie serves as foil to Plummer: its badness makes his talent stick fiery off indeed. Filmed at Kronberg Castle in Elsinore, it struggles to work new interiors and grounds into every frame. At times, this pays dividends: The Players' first scene takes place in an open-air courtyard, conveying an exhilarating sense of freedom. Alas, most of the locations are derivative, distracting or nugatory. Repeated shots of waves crashing upon rocks look backwards to Olivier's Hamlet (1948) and sideways at Kozintsev's (1964). One stony corridor is much like another. The Nunnery Scene is filmed in the castle's chapel (acceptable) with Hamlet standing above and beyond Ophelia in the pulpit (not). A minister exhorting a sinful parishioner may seem like an apt metaphor, but the actors do not play the scene that way, and the distance between them prevents dramatic synapses from connecting. It's an ominous portent of postmodern decadence.There are unkind cuts, bizarre compositions and moments of painful misdirection--one can count the infelicities like sheep vaulting a stile. The Mousetrap is reduced to its Dumb Show, making nonsense of Gertrude's "The lady doth protest too much." Ophelia loses her second Mad Scene and all her unsettling flowers. Polonius, Gertrude and Claudius speak in a single-file diagonal bisecting the screen, which is perfect for a conga-line but awkward for a conversation. Plummer is so tender, quiet and lucid with Ophelia that her "O what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!" seems crazier than anything Hamlet has said.The tally increases with a crupperful of bad performances. Alec Clunes' Polonius is so fulsome and cute that one can hardly wait for Hamlet to kill him. Jo Muller plays Ophelia as though she were 13, while Laertes (Dyson Lovell) is a cipher to a great account. Subtextual Gertrude must be brought to the surface; June Tobin leaves her placidly submerged ("drown'd, drown'd"). As Fortinbras, Donald Sutherland looks and sounds like an extraterrestrial. The young Michael Caine is a beautiful creature, but beauty is wasted on Horatio, and Caine is so busy avoiding cockney vowels that he neglects to create a character. The biggest disappointment is Robert Shaw, whose distracted, head-rubbing Claudius seems to be suffering from recurrent migraines. Philip Locke, of blessed memory, brings more camp viciousness to Osric than I have ever seen, but it's too little, too late.Plummer must salvage the proceedings, and so he does, seizing his plum role and plumbing it to its depths. With him in the lead, at least one thing is healthy in the state of Denmark. Sometimes there is no reason at all to see a Shakespeare production; sometimes there is only one. Hamlet at Elsinore is out of joint, but Christopher Plummer was born to set it right.

Just finished watching this film/taping of Hamlet (DVD available from Netflix) and found it to be quite interesting on many levels. Of course, Christopher Plummer is a great Hamlet, but I was not as hot on Michael Caine. Really enjoyed Robert Shaw's Claudius and Jo Maxwell Muller (apparently deceased in 2010) as Ophelia. This version focuses the plot by cutting and editing (such as Laertes' overt challenge to Claudius on his return from Paris), but enough of the play is left for an enjoyable visit. All around the performers handled the verse with great clarity and that is very welcome. I have appeared in four productions of Hamlet, and teach it as part of my curriculum at a community college in Los Angeles and so am very familiar with it.

It's funny that so many people remember this telecast from almost 50 years ago. And with such uniformly positive feelings.I remember the pounding waves and the Long Hall. I remember Robert Shaw as the first Claudius I ever saw who was not only sonorous and regal, but violent, and sexy enough to seduce the Queen and make her agree to kill her husband. I remember Donald Sutherland coming in at the end as Fortinbras, and for once saving the character from being a wimpy, pompous letdown.Until recently, the film could only be seen in America at the Paley Media Centers in New York and Los Angeles.However Sir Michael Caine was recently reminded of his participation in this long-forgotten film, and he asked the BBC to resurrect it.We'll all have a chance to check our memories soon.

I am looking for a copy of Christopher Plummer as Hamlet at Elsinore, my aunt watched it when it was shown on TV in the UK in 1964, and said it was the best version of Hamlet she had seen. I am studying at drama school, and very interested in obtaining a copy for her and myself. It seems the BBC over here has not produced copies, and I suspect they have recorded over it with the pathetic programmes that are shown today. If anyone has any idea of how I might go about getting a copy of this, I would be extremely grateful, I saw on one website it was in a museum in New York. Can you get copies from there?Thanks a lot, Annamarie