Whether you find the prospect of an evening of Shakespeare on film daunting or exciting, you’re in for a treat with Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet. First, Branagh loves Hollywood. He likes movie stars, fabulous sets, intense drama, stunning costumes, and the broad sweep of life one can capture on 70mm film. His Hamlet is the Gone With the Wind of Shakespeare films.
So here, we want to talk about what happens when Shakespeare goes Hollywood. (Next week, we’ll look at more at the nature of Shakespeare on film.) Branagh knows as well as anyone that a movie needs to entertain. But we’re talking Hamlet here, perhaps the greatest work by the greatest writer in the English language. If you asked any group of, say, 50 people if they’d rather go see Hamlet or Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, chances are good Megan Fox would beat out the Bard. So Branagh pulls out all the stops – resplendent costumes in red and gold and black, the opulent backdrop of Blenheim Castle, and notable A-list actors taking on even the small roles. Branagh reminds us that this play, while a tragedy, is great fun. It’s got ghosts, and murder, and thwarted love, and political intrigue, and sword fights, and poison, and grave humor, and Kate Winslet’s face pushed up against a two-way mirror.
Usually, to get all this and pages of awesome language in, directors need to cut the words down. Branagh himself is one of the more aggressive Shakespeare text cutters when he’s filming. His production of Love’s Labor’s Lost (2000) reportedly removed 75% of Shakespeare’s lines (replacing some of them with music by Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, and Jerome Kern). He did much the same with As You Like It (2006), set in Japan. But with Hamlet, you get a “complete” text, all the lines associated with the play. (We’re being a bit coy about that because there are different versions of Hamlet, and a definitive text is a bit of a misnomer.)
One justification for cutting the language is that Shakespeare wrote for a stage that had little in the way of decoration. His characters tend to paint pictures with their words (think of Macbeth’s “is this a dagger I see before me” speech, how clear the images are even though they reside primarily in Macbeth’s imagination). As you watch this first part of Hamlet, listen for the kinds of speeches that other directors would have cut because they could show what was being described.
One thing to ask yourself is whether all of Branagh’s scenery ends up being redundant? When the soldiers explain about the ghost they’ve seen walking the battlements, and Branagh gives you his version of the ghost, do the images simply reiterate the lines? We tend to think that Branagh deftly avoids this trap, and we’ll leave it up to you to consider how the language complements or competes with the filming.
Hollywood also likes stars. When we go to a film like Mission: Impossible to watch a character name Ethan Hunt, we’re never able to disassociate ourselves from the fact that it’s Tom Cruise who plays him. Branagh trusts Shakespeare’s characters to hold their own even when they’re played by famous faces like Julie Christie, Billy Crystal, Robin Williams, and Jack Lemmon. (It doesn’t always work; and yes, we’re looking at you Alicia Silverstone.) Part of this acceptance of star power as a force behind the Shakespearean actor is that Branagh considers himself sort of a movie star. He frequently succeeds in his roles as Benedict, Henry V, and Hamlet in making you forget you’re watching a Shakespearean actor and not just another Hollywood leading man. His shaping of the lines is so effortless, it’s easy to watch him act.
In fact, not since Lawrence Olivier has one man handled both the directing and primary acting of so many quality Shakespearean films. We hope that while you watch the first part of Hamlet tonight, that you’ll enjoy it as much as a movie as an addition to the ranks of great Hamlet productions.
R. Findlay
Film Club Adviser
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