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Hamlet (1948)

Posted By: Notsaint
Hamlet (1948)

Hamlet (1948)
DVD9 | VIDEO_TS | NTSC | 4:3 | 720x480 | 7500kbps | 7.7Gb
Audio: English AC3 1.0 @ 128Kbps | Subtitles: English
The Criterion Collection
02:33:00 | UK | Drama

Winner of four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor, Sir Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet continues to be the most compelling version of Shakespeare’s beloved tragedy. Olivier is at his most inspired—both as director and as the melancholy Dane himself—as he breathes new life into the words of one of the world’s greatest dramatists. Criterion is proud to present Hamlet in a luminous black-and-white digital transfer.

Director: Laurence Olivier
Cast: John Laurie, Esmond Knight, Anthony Quayle, Niall MacGinnis, Harcourt Williams, Patrick Troughton, Tony Tarver, Peter Cushing, Stanley Holloway, Russell Thorndike, Basil Sydney, Eileen Herlie, Laurence Olivier, Norman Wooland, Felix Aylmer, Terence Morgan, Jean Simmons, Anthony Bushell, Patricia Davidson, Doreen Lawrence, Christopher Lee, Desmond Llewelyn, Victor Lucas, Patrick Macnee

Hamlet (1948)


Although criticized by Shakespeare devotees upon its release because of director, producer, and star Laurence Olivier's decision to excise large portions of the text, his cinematic version of Hamlet is widely considered the best out of several dozens (and counting). Hamlet (Olivier) is a medieval Danish prince who's still melancholy over the sudden death of his father and the quick, subsequent remarriage of his mother, Queen Gertrude (Eileen Herlie) to his uncle, Claudius (Basil Sydney). Informed by the ghost of his father that Claudius murdered him, Hamlet schemes to take revenge. Unsure how best to proceed, his delays and the horrible secret burdening him eventually lead to the violent snuffing out of several lives in both his family and that of courtier Polonius (Felix Aylmer), whose daughter Ophelia (Jean Simmons) is in love with Hamlet. Greatly influenced by the inventive camera work in Citizen Kane (1941) and by modern, psychological reinterpretations of Shakespeare's play, Olivier's masterpiece was the winner of four Academy Awards, for Best Picture, Best Actor (Olivier), Best Black and White Art Direction/Set Direction and Best Black and White Costume Design.

Hamlet might have well have been called Laurence Olivier's Hamlet: he produced it, directed it, starred in it, and condensed it down to a trim 153 minutes. Olivier's hatchet is sharp – by comparison, the Kenneth Branagh version of the full play runs 242 minutes – but so is his sense of good storytelling. He is perhaps more brooding and less action that many Hamlets. Nonetheless, he was for the generation that followed him the standard for acting to which others aspired. Good acting distinguishes this production, though some of the performers are clearly too old or too young for the part that they play. The film rarely makes a break visually with its stagebound origins, an interesting bit of conservatism in a version that aggressively trims a good hour-and-a-half of running time out of Shakespeare's original. The tech credits for the film are competent, but this is an area of the film that has been overshadowed by later versions, in which directors have taken more distinctive views of the material.

IMDb

Special Features
- Beautiful digital transfer, with restored image and sound
- English subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired
- Optimal image quality: RSDL dual-layer edition

Hamlet (1948)

Hamlet (1948)

Hamlet (1948)