The cast includes three
actors — Scofield, Bates, and Holm — who had themselves played
Hamlet on stage or film. It also features two actors — Stephen Dillane
and Michael Maloney
— who went on to play Hamlet onstage.
I had a professor in college who knew
everything there was to know about "Romeo
and Juliet." Maybe he knew too much. One day in class he
said he would give anything to be able to read it again for the
first time. I feel the same way about "Hamlet."
I know the play so well by now, have seen it in so many
different styles and periods and modes of dress, that it's like
listening to a singer doing an old standard. You know the
lyrics, so the only possible surprises come from style and
phrasing.
The style of
Franco Zeffirelli's "Hamlet,"
with
Mel Gibson in the title role, is robust and physical and -
don't take this the wrong way - upbeat. Gibson doesn't give us
another Hamlet as Mope, a melancholy Dane lurking in shadows and
bewailing his fate. We get the notion, indeed, that there was
nothing fundamentally awry with Hamlet until everything went
wrong in his life, until his father died and his mother married
his uncle with unseemly haste. This is a prince who was healthy
and happy and could have lived a long and active life, if things
had turned out differently.
Part of that approach may come from Zeffirelli, whose famous
film version of "Romeo
and Juliet" also played on the youth and attractiveness of
its characters, who were bursting with life and romance until
tragedy separated them. The approach also may come from Gibson
himself, the most good-humored of contemporary stars, whose
personal style is to deflect seriousness with a joke, and who
doesn't easily descend into self-pity and morose masochism. He
gives us a Hamlet who does his best to carry on, until he is
overwhelmed by the sheer weight of events.
Zeffirelli sets his film in a spectacular location - a castle on
an outcropping of the stark coast in northern Scotland, perched
on top of a rock nearly surrounded by the sea. There is mud
here, and rain and mist, and the characters sometimes seemed
dragged down by the sheer weight of their clothing. This is a
substantial world of real physical presence, fleshed out by an
unusual number of extras; we have the feeling that this throne
rules over real subjects, instead of existing only in
Shakespeare's imagination.
Right at the outset, Zeffirelli and his collaborator on the
shooting script, Christopher De Vore, take a liberty with "Hamlet"
by shifting some dialogue and adding a few words to create a
scene that does not exist in the original: The wake of Hamlet's
father, with Hamlet, Gertrude and Claudius confronting each
other over the coffin.
In film terms, this scene makes the central problem of "Hamlet"
perfectly clear, and dramatically strengthens everything that
follows. It sets up not only Hamlet's anguish, but the real
attraction between his mother and his uncle, which is seen in
this version to be at least as sexual as it is political.
The cast is what is always called "distinguished," which usually
but not always means "British," includes at least three actors
who have played Hamlet themselves:
Alan Bates, as Claudius;
Paul Scofield, as the ghost of Hamlet's father, and
Ian Holm, as Polonius. Holm is especially effective in the
"to thine own self be true" speech, evoking memories of his
great work as the track coach in "Chariots
of Fire," and I enjoyed Bates' strength of bluster and lust,
as a man of action who will have what he desires and not bother
himself with the sorts of questions that torture Hamlet.
The women of the play,
Glenn Close, as Gertrude, and Helena Bonham-Carter, as
Ophelia, are both well cast. Close in particular adds an element
of true mothering that is sometimes absent from Gertrude. She
loves her son and cares for him, and is not simply an unfaithful
wife with a short memory. Indeed, there are subtle physical
suggestions that she has loved her son too closely, too warmly,
creating the buried incestuous feelings that are the real spring
of Hamlet's actions. Why has she remarried with such haste?
Perhaps simply so the kingdom's power vacuum will be filled; she
seems a sensible sort, and indeed everyone in this version seems
fairly normal, if only Hamlet could rid himself of his gnawing
resentment and shameful desires long enough to see it.
Bonham-Carter is a small and darkly beautiful actress who is
effective at seeming to respond to visions within herself. As
Ophelia she has a most difficult role to play, because a
character who has gone mad can have no further relationship with
the other characters but must essentially become a soloist. All
of her later scenes are with herself.
That leaves Hamlet and his best friend, Horatio (Stephen Dillane),
as those who are not satisfied with the state of things in the
kingdom, and Dillane, with his unforced natural acting, provides
a good partner for Gibson. As everything leads to the final
sword fight and all of its results, as Hamlet's natural good
cheer gradually weakens under the weight of his thoughts, the
movie proceeds logically through its emotions. We never feel, as
we do sometimes with other productions, that events happen
arbitrarily.
Zeffirelli's great contribution in "popularizing" the play has
been to make it clear to the audience why events are unfolding
as they are.
This "Hamlet"
finally stands or falls on
Mel Gibson's performance, and I think it will surprise some
viewers with its strength and appeal. He has not been overawed
by Shakespeare, has not fallen into a trap of taking this role
too solemnly and lugubriously. He has observed the young man of
the earlier and less troubled scenes, and started his
performance from there, instead of letting every nuance be a
foreshadow of what is to come. It's a strong, intelligent
performance, filled with life, and it makes this into a
surprisingly robust "Hamlet."
Murder most foul is at the heart of "Hamlet"
-- and that's just one from the smorgasbord of cliches spawned
by Shakespeare's Danish tragedy. But thanks to director Franco
Zeffirelli and an impressive cast, both the tale and the telling
are strikingly fresh.
Disappointed purists will say it's fresh only
because Zeffirelli, who co-wrote the screenplay with Christopher
De Vore, has pared the Bard down to about 2 1/2 hours,
reassigning lines and transplanting scenes as well as chopping
vigorously. Reduced to "Master Pieces Theater," Shakespeare's
text nevertheless gains in force what it loses in integrity.
Movie audiences can savor the full implications of the
Elizabethan language when there's less of it to digest.
Of course, some of us have big appetites. To
divert our attention, Zeffirelli lets Mel Gibson prove there's
method in his Mad Max. As Hamlet, Gibson turns in a stunning
performance. Restoring humor and power to the melancholy Dane,
Gibson also employs the brooding strength seen in "Mrs. Soffel"
and the underrated "Tequila Sunrise." The Australian-raised
actor not only holds his own with Shakespeare's diction, but
also reinvigorates Hamlet's plotting with mordant wit.
Even those unfamiliar with "Hamlet" should be
able to follow that plotting easily. The movie opens with the
burial of Hamlet's father; while his widow Gertrude sobs,
brother-in-law and new king Claudius eyes her meaningfully. Soon
they have a reason to act like newlyweds, to Hamlet's dismay.
Transformed from a gray Brunhild into a radiant bejeweled
beauty, Gertrude (a superb Glenn Close) clearly arouses Hamlet
as much as she does Claudius (Alan Bates, gracefully
understated). But before the prince can sort out his Oedipal
complex, his father's ghost reveals there's something rotten in
Denmark: Claudius poisoned him.
As the ghost, Paul Scofield is a master of
restraint during his revelation, which unfortunately highlights
Gibson's one indulgence of Acting! The lethal box-office weapon
lets his baby blues well up, his jaw drop and his head shake in
close-up after close-up. He's so wired you almost expect Danny
Glover to appear and talk him down.
Once the scene is over and Hamlet has sworn
revenge, Gibson controls his character tautly. He teases
courtier Polonius (a wonderfully annoying Ian Holm) and others
almost impishly, yet lets us see his rage building towards a
climactic bedroom scene with Gertrude.
As Ophelia, Helena Bonham-Carter still looks
as childlike as she did in "A Room With a View" -- especially
next to Gibson and Close -- but her acting shows maturity.
Although limited by her few lines, she's absolutely chilling in
her mad scenes, parceling out chicken bones instead of flowers
and singing ironic love songs.
Nathaniel Parker is moving as Ophelia's
aggrieved brother Laertes; Stephen Dillane is convincing as
Hamlet's cautious friend Horatio; and as false friends
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Michael Maloney and Sean Murray
mix camaraderie with creepiness. It's as if two of the guys in
the Docker's ads were narcs.
Production designer Dante Ferretti and music
supplier Ennio Morricone also contribute authenticity and
atmosphere to "Hamlet." But forget the "trappings and the suits
of woe"; what you'll remember longest is Gibson's demonstrating
he has "that within which passeth show."
Mel Gibson's
only previous Shakespearan experience was playing Juliet in
an all male production of "Romeo and Juliet" in Australia.
By contrast, Alan Bates
(who played Claudius) had played Hamlet in London in 1970
and Paul Scofield
(who played the Ghost) had played the part in 1948 and 1955
and is considered one of the greatest twentieth century
interpreters of the role.
This was the first
Shakespearean role that Glenn Close
had ever attempted on either stage or screen.
