Hamlet (1990) starring Mel Gibson, directed by Franco Zeffirelli

© 2002 Debra Murphy
In a Catholic family which includes a daughter who wore a Braveheart tee threadbare, a mother who has seen Signs three times on the big screen, and several men folk who, in spite of the female Murphys’ incessant pratings about Mel Gibson being one of the Almighty’s prettier creations, are nonetheless willing [...]

Hamlet (1996) starring and directed by Kenneth Branagh

© John Murphy, 2005
Kenneth Branagh is one of the most exciting filmmakers working today. Or is he working? I mean, as a director? He directed a movie called Listening two years ago, which nobody’s heard of, and Love’s Labour’s Lost (2000) was barely a blip on the radar. That would place this film, Hamlet, quite [...]

Hamlet (1964) starring Richard Burton, directed by John Gielgud and Bill Collerhan

© Debra Murphy, 2000
In 1964, theatre history was made and legends augmented, if not born, when John Gielgud directed Richard Burton in a production of Hamlet on Broadway. The production might have remained nothing but a legend to most of us, who did not have the pleasure of seeing it first-hand, had it not been [...]

Hamlet (2000) starring Ethan Hawke, directed by Michael Almereyda

© 2000 John Murphy
Hardcore Shakespeare traditionalists who insist on “purity” of interpretation (i.e. a whole lot of tights and prepubescent boys in drag) miss the essential genius of the Bard’s plays. The reason Shakespeare endures 400 years after his death is his ability to transcend the boundaries of time, geography, and culture by addressing in [...]

Hamlet (1948) directed by and starring Laurence Olivier

© 2007 John Murphy
O’erstepping the Modesty of Nature
“Suit the action to the word, the word to the action, with this special observance, that you o’erstep not the modesty of nature. For anything so overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, was and is, to hold, as ’twere, [...]

Hamlet (BBC, 1980), starring Derek Jacobi, directed by Jonathan Miller

Buy BBC Hamlet on DVD from Ambrose Video
Buy BBC Hamlet on VHS from Ambrose Video
It is also available from Ambrose Video as part of a boxed set of 5 DVDs of the BBC Shakespeare Tragedies. (Enter “BARD” in the appropriate discount code box for a special $2 discount for bardolatry.com readers!) Or buy the set [...]

Hamlet (2005) starring Adrian Lester, directed by Peter Brook

© 2005 John Murphy

We Shall Sift Him
It is only when we forget Shakespeare that we can begin to find him.
– Peter Brook, 1996.
Who is Hamlet? That is the question. First off, he’s an acid test for actors. Viewing the different versions can be disheartening. It’s like watching one soldier volunteer to scope out the [...]