Great Film overall

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Take:1. a famous play2. a director with now ideas of his own who is using3. a copy of the stage design of a popular theatre production of the play mentioned in 1.4. an actor for the lead - who has no feeling for the part he's playing And you'll get: "Hamlet, Prinz von Dänemark"I listened to the radio play of "Hamlet" with Maximilian Schell as Hamlet and I was so disappointed. I hoped that the filmed version would be better, that Schell would at least have a body language to underline what he's saying - nothing. Then the set... the minimalistic design is not everyone's taste, but usually I like it when there's just enough on the stage to make clear what's the setting and nothing more. Alas, that's on a stage, in a theatre. It won't work in a film based on a play that actually has believable settings. That the idea for the set was copied from the theatre production in which Schell played the Hamlet already... let's say if that was the only thing to complain about... I ask myself how Schell could get the part of Hamlet anywhere in first place and how anybody could allow him to play Hamlet a second time. If you've got the choice to view any of the about sixty films based on "Hamlet", don't watch this one, unless you're a masochist, or really hardcore, or like to poke fun on untalented actors.

While not to everyone's tastes, I actually prefer the dreary tone of this production. I prefer this over the one Gibson was in, at any rate. The dark and sparse sets give you a real sense of Hamlet's brooding mind.

** Possible spoilers ahead **I saw this movie only through the aid of Mike and the bots from Mystery Science Theater 3000 a.k.a MST3K. I am a fan of Shakespeare. I've read "Hamlet" a few times. This is the fourth film version of Hamlet I've seen, and it is the worst. The Mel Gibson and Laurence Olivier versions are just breathtakingly wonderful. Branagh's version is slightly tolerable (watch Branagh's "Henry V" instead). This 1960 version just absolutely reeks of badness.Not only is Shakespeare rolling in his grave but Laurence Olivier is probably rolling in his, too, and I don't blame them. There is just one scene with about 10 props and that's it. I loved the riffs from MST3K such as "Hamlet-Man," and "the famous rap artist, the notorious K.I.N.G." Oh, and this movie is very poorly dubbed into English. The filmmakers and directors of this sad, sad, film version of Hamlet are all Laurence Olivier wanna-bees. It was blatanly obvious that they were copying Olivier's film techniques from his version of Shakespeare's tragedy. Here's some advice for future filmmakers (especially those who want to bring Shakespeare to the big screen): NEVER, and I mean NEVER try to copy filmmaking techniques from older, classic films and try to make them breathtaking. It will never work.My hats off to MST3K for making this film tolerable.

You'd think that the immortal words of William Shakespeaere would be able to rise above just about anything, but alas bad acting and really bad sets will drag down even the most wonderful playwright. As usual, Hamlet broods over the death of his father. In this version, Elsinore is nothing more than some pillars, stairs, and a lot of black backgrounds. The fact that it's dubbed into English from German doesn't help this production. The actors seem to be forcing the lines from their mouths, and climatic battle between Laertes and Hamlet doesn't have the punch or tension that it should have. It was great seeing this on MST, their satiric tounges ripping into the acting and sets but sparing the dialouge. By the way, we're out of ear poison.