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Hamlet, Charlton Heston, and Valentine's Day
Yes, they're all connected. This weekend I was watching my DVD of Hamlet, the Kenneth Branagh 1996 version, and during her mad scene, Ophelia sings about "Tomorrow is St. Valentine's Day" and being his Valentine.
Not long ago we had a thread about Valentine's and several people thought it was "made up" (by the greeting card people or candy companies, I guess) and I had my doubts. Well, I didn't do any further googling but apparently the celebration of "being a Valentine" for someone is at least 400 years old. So the holiday and the romantic stuff isn't new at all.
The Branagh version of Hamlet is the only full length film ever made of the play. It's a lavish production, filmed in 70mm, featuring many celebrity stars doing cameos as well as major actors in the lead roles. For example, Jack Lemmon plays the loyal soldier Marcellus, Billy Crystal the satirical gravedigger.
And Charlton Heston is the "player king". Those of you who've seen Hamlet know that a troupe of famous actors visit the castle and they're old pals of Hamlet. When we first meet them, their leader gives a speech off the top of his head. In this movie, Charlton Heston performs this role.
The speech is one of the most amazing and powerful things I've ever seen an actor perform. When that came along, I replayed the scene several times. If anybody has seen this version of Hamlet, you know what I mean. Heston gave a gripping and wonderful speech, something to watch over and over.
One thing about seeing an uncut version of Hamlet, a very flashy theatrical version, is that you get to see the inner plot workings of how Hamlet and his mortal enemy, King Claudius, throw up plots against each other. If you see a shorter version you might wonder, "why doesn't Hamlet just kill Claudius?" (of course this is a central issue in the whole play -- Hamlet's famous speech is about "to be or not to be") but if the full length version you understand that the king is surrounded constantly by guards and loyal pals and Hamlet simply can't do the deed right off.
Another thing -- lots of people have in their minds the 1948 movie starring Lawrence Olivier as their only memory of Hamlet, and might think that Hamlet was a fruity, nerdy, and weird guy, because this is the way Olivier played him. Wrong wrong wrong, in my opinion. If you see Ken Branagh play Hamlet, you see him as I think Shakespeare meant -- a smart, clever, and very heroic guy, manly and not obsessed with his mother (Olivier played up the questionable idea of an Oedipal sexual feeling that Hamlet has for his mother, way off course, I think).
Remembering that older somewhat creepy version can really spoil the play. Realize that Shakespeare was hugely popular in his day, and the "groundlings" -- standing room only -- fans were regular people who weren't very well educated or royalty. But they loved the plays and found them very entertaiing.
And this film version of Hamlet is a great and exciting story -- intrigue and mystery that's lasted for hundreds of years. Anybody seen the movie? If you have the slightest interest in seeing Shakespeare as I think it was meant to be, have a look. And you'll never forget the Charlton Heston scene.
Reduces some grown men to weeping and night sweats.
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I'll watch Hamlet if you watch Batman:Mask of the Phantasm.
Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag. And we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people. T Roosevelt
It is actuall a very fine film, been ages since I've seen it.
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Don't believe everything you think.
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What you do defines you, not what you say or think.
Saw it in the theater when it came out, but it took 10 years for the studio to issue it on DVD, said they needed a larger market. Turns out of course that the sales were just fine. Plenty of people will shell out 25 bucks for a good movie, regardless of what it is, DVDs being so nicely permanent, unlike VHS.
I watch the Hamlet occasionally, once in a while from start to finish but most of the time I will watch segments of it. My experience with the play is pretty extensive, having written several papers in school on Hamlet, including my senior thesis, in which I compared Hamlet to Laertes. The full length play has so much funny stuff in it, besides the drama. Hamlet skewers those around him who are sent to "test" him or control him, and he's so smart that he runs circles around them, often with great humor.
Most really good literature endures because it's genuinely entertaining. Hamlet is no exception. Aside from a few rare moments, the whole play is watchable, particularly this movie by Branagh. It grabs you from the start, when the guards and Horatio see the ghost. And after they are scared out of their minds, Horatio says for them to say nothing to anyone else, but they will go to see "young Hamlet". And so the mystery begins. 400 years later, it's good.
Reduces some grown men to weeping and night sweats.
I'll have to pick that up, Sam. I have Branagh's "Henry V," and it is amazing. Branagh's rendition of the St Crispin's Day speech brings tears to my eyes every time.
NRA Life Member 2010
Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. - TR
We're having a war, dammit! We have to offend SOMEBODY!!! - John Adams
Never saw that movie version, it is now on My must see list.
Literature that has stood the test of time.
"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted and I won't be laid a hand on.
I don't do those things to other people, and I require the same of them."
John Wayne as J.B. Books in "the shootist"
The Olivier version is spotty, due to his very quirky and somewhat gay acting Hamlet. Some versions, like the Ethan Hawke, are unwatchable. The Mel Gibson and the Richard Chamberlain are both okay.
But this Branagh version tops all, by a huge margin. First, it's very theatrical, the exteriors filmed at huge Blenheim Castle, interiors with lavish sets. Costumes, etc, stunning. The true drama of the play comes across instantly.
If I could wave a magic wand and get lovers of real movie dramas to watch just the 2 opening scenes, the one where the guards see the ghost of old Hamlet (start with an exciting scene), and then the 2nd scene, where King Claudius (Derek Jacobi) and the Queen (Julie Christie) are in this huge hall surrounded by hundreds of the court, and you can begin to see the smarminess of Claudius yet his brilliant mind, and then Hamlet comes on at the last, totally changing the scene, and he takes over right away.
And of course, the stunning Charlton Heston performance.
Reduces some grown men to weeping and night sweats.
Watched it again yesterday, for about the fifteenth time.
Hamlet............................
Oh, its an Omelet with ham
And if my thought-dreams could be seen
They'd probably put my head in a guillotine
But it's alright, Ma, it's life, and life only.
So don't fear if you hear
A foreign sound to your ear
It's alright, Ma, I'm only sighing...(Bob Dylan)
...a small ham....
"Gentlemen, Prepare to defend yourselves" SGM Basil Plumley
"I would rather be the hammer than the anvil..." Irwin Rommel
"Very odd. I've never blown a goat." Buffy
That depends totally upon the actor.
Reduces some grown men to weeping and night sweats.
Sam was your take on "The Merchant of Venice" with Dustin Hoffman and Branagh's Henry V?
Then There's Kurosawa's RAN, his version of King Lear?
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Don't believe everything you think.
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What you do defines you, not what you say or think.
Never saw the Hoffman movie. The Branagh Henry V was excellent but it's not my favorite play, way overblown political rant without the psychological stuff that the tragedies have. I did enjoy big ol' Brian Blessed, one of my fave Brit stars.
I've not really liked "remakes" of Shakespeare, no matter who did them. Kurosawa I loved, with Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, others. But what makes Shakespears great isn't the plot -- he borrowed most of his plots from older plays --- it's the language and the brilliance he puts into the older stories.
For example, difference between "drama" and "melodrama" -- drama is a deeper story with tragic implications or strong story, like maybe "The Third Man", whereas melodrama is what we know as action thrillers -- Die Hard, etc. Not bad stuff of course, just different.
Take Hamlet -- and I've made a very strong study of this play -- the older plays had the story as a melodrama action thriller. Hamlet's dad, old Hamlet, the king is murdered, his brother takes over the throne and marries the widow, young Hamlet's mom. Hamlet comes home from the war, and starts a huge action fight, swords and poison and everything, revenge, lots of fighting. End of story. This is the basic melodrama of the older plays.
Shakespeare turned this okay story into a masterpiece. How? He puts Hamlet not at war, but away at college, Wittenberg in Germany. Even 400 years ago, that school had a reputation for excellence and scholarship, a sort of Harvard, and it's been that repuation forever. So Hamlet's got great training in military but he's more of an intellectual. He's a scholar and thinker. He learns about his father's murder but cannot simply leap into revenge. Why? The answer's way too long for here, but generally he's not a killer. What else Shakespeare did was create a new character, Laertes, who is exactly the stereotype of the Hamlet in the older plays. He's also away at school, but where? Paris, the Sorbornne. A playboy school. He's hot headed and violent and eager to kill, and so we have that contrast between Hamlet and Laertes.
Look what happens after the Mousetrap play... King Claudius is praying (unsucessfully) and Hamlet finds him, says "Now might I do it." and then talks himself out of the killing. But later, when Claudius gets Laertes all fired up, asks him what he'd do to someone who killed his father, Laertes says "I'd cut his throat in the church!" which is the exact opposite of Hamlet's action. All through the play, we see this dual behavior and see how advanced the drama is, how more interesting it is. Anyway...
Reduces some grown men to weeping and night sweats.
"If I could wave a magic wand and get lovers of real movie dramas to watch just the 2 opening scenes, the one where the guards see the ghost of old Hamlet (start with an exciting scene), ".......................
It worked with Me................
That is the power a writer has essentially, to do what You and Shakespeare have done with mere words, work the art of magic on Your readers.....A pen (keyboard) is Your magic wand.......................
"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted and I won't be laid a hand on.
I don't do those things to other people, and I require the same of them."
John Wayne as J.B. Books in "the shootist"
Wow, Doc, thanks, but I surely don't deserve even a remote comparison. When you see this Hamlet, the thrill of Hamlet's sarcasm and wit is overpowering, how he even bests King Claudius. What I've seen before is Claudius played as a drunken buffoon, a thug, no charisma, and it's wrong. Hamlet needs a good foe to fight against, and Derek Jacobi is terrific. He does it so well controlled, so very smart, you can understand why he took over with his older brother's "sad untimely passing", deftly knocking Hamlet aside.
And he knows from the outset that something's going on with Hamlet and is wary of him, and if he had the chance (Hamlet's hugely popular with the people and is immune to assault except by trickery), he'd kill him in an instant. You can also see that Claudius genuinely loves his new wife Gertrude (one reason why he murdered his bro). So he's a complex, excellent villain for Hamlet to fight, and that's what you don't see in other versions, but is immediately seen in this movie.
As anyone knows, it takes a great and powerful villain for the hero to be truly fun to watch in fighting him. Like Alan Rickman does in both Die Hard and Quigley Down Under, playing a terrific and interesting baddie. And Jacobi is the best I've ever seen here.
Reduces some grown men to weeping and night sweats.
Waving the magic wand again, I want to persuade anyone who's even slightly interested... Don't think about this Hamlet movie by Kenneth Branagh as "that old stuff I had to study in high school in Miss Kinman's class, ugh" or that very overblown Olivier version where he plays a faggy Hamlet, but instead, okay, Sam said this was a really gripping and interesting drama, lots of intrigue, action, sharp sarcastic attacks, and it's done in a big flashy style, great sets, costumes, music, like any big scale Hollywood movie.
Okay, sure, I was a Shakespeare fan for many years, but to see this was the answer to my dreams -- someone really did the play justice and gave us what has been capturing audiences literally for centuries. I was caught up in the spectacular production from the beginning. The ONLY slow part was way way later, act 4, when I thought that Ophelia's mad scene went on a bit much. Otherwise, no dragging, nothing went slow.
Nuff said... We've all got our fave movies, and for real smart and intelligent yet exciting drama, this does it for me.
Reduces some grown men to weeping and night sweats.