The best Hamlet?

[kelby_lake]

Please note that in the poll, I've included famous TV or film portrayals of Hamlet as more people are likely to have seen them than theatre productions (plus it's been done so many times on stage that it'd be hard to choose).

[wessexgirl]

I haven't yet watched the Tennant version, so I will withold judgement for now. I do love Branagh and Olivier in the role though, so I'm thinking my vote will go to one of those.

[Janine]

My vote really goes in degrees - I like Branagh firstly, Jacobi next and Olivier third. I can't stand Ethan Hawke as Hamlet...maybe I just hate the whole modern version of the film. I am a little prejudiced, since I am a big Branagh fan and waited for with baited breath for the DVD to be released; but I think Branagh nailed it; especially in the "to be or not to be speech" in the mirror. That was brilliant on his part and he pulled it off with perfection. I gasped when I first saw it and I still do when I view the scene individually on DVD or Youtube. I have never seen the David Tennent version, but I think I did catch bits of it on Youtube. I will go now and see if I can dig up any. Mel Gibson actually wasn't bad as Hamlet (surprising at the time) but the film was so abreviated..still not a bad film in my opinion. Actually, the Olivier version is also not the play in it's entirity, and certain scenes I feel are greatly lacking. The BBC Jacobi and the Branagh utilize the entire text. I have never seen the Burton one. I think I have some trouble seeing Burton in the role; but I am sure it must have been a fine performance. I will see if Youtube has some excerpts.


Edit: you can check out the Burton and the Tennent on Youtube...what's with Tennent wearing a T-shirt? I actually thought his version wasn't bad; but I the lines about 'plucking off his beard' don't work with a cleanshaven guy...sort of made me laugh. Burton felt wrong too; although, I can see he's a wonderful stage actor. It just feels off to me...the delivery of the lines. Ok, why no nomination for Kevin Kline? I have actually seen some of his key scenes on Youtube...they are not bad; still not my favorite by far; but he should have been in the voting.

[kelby_lake]

I was thinking of putting him on but wasn't sure if he was that well-known compared to the others.

I haven't watched all of Olivier's version- surprising how the incest got past the censors.

[Lokasenna]

Does this refer to the best production of Hamlet the play, or the best portrayal of Hamlet the character?

The best production on the list is the Tennant/Doran one, but I've yet to Olivier topped as Hamlet, despite the fact that the rest of the production was rather ropey.

[prendrelemick]

I won't vote as I 've only seen 4 of the above, but David Tenant was the pick of them. The others were good, but his was the perfect casting. I discovered new aspects of the role through his performance.

[Niamh]

Tennant got my vote even though i havent seen all of those portrayals.

[kelby_lake]

Does this refer to the best production of Hamlet the play, or the best portrayal of Hamlet the character?
.

Best portrayal of the character- that is to say, which interpretation do you think is most accurate/interesting?

You can see the 'To be or not to be' speeches of all the actors mentioned in the poll on Youtube.

[prendrelemick]

Have you got a link to that?

[kelby_lake]

I'll put them up:
Kenneth Branagh:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JD6g...om=PL&index=15

David Tennant: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OY-QL_HJBCc

Derek Jacobi: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-elDeJaPWGg

Mel Gibson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwFzvg3L2Qg

Richard Burton: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsrOXAY1arg

Ethan Hawke: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YHMYkUrV7A

Laurence Olivier: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gft5G...08A757&index=6

[wessexgirl]

I watched the Tennant version yesterday, and wow.......he was brilliant, I really loved him, mesmerizing. However, I do appreciate that he makes it so naturalistic, as to perhaps lose some of the poetic beauty of the lines, which I always loved Olivier for, but watching that performance again in the clip, I'm not sure I rate him as the best anymore. I loved Derek Jacobi's performance too, surely one of the greatest Shakesperean actors around, with a melodious voice which captures the beauty, but a delivery which makes understanding easier. Branagh, as ever, is wonderful, but I think overall I'm going to sit on the fence and say that there are elements of both Tennant's and Jacobi's which make them the best for me, therefore, I can't vote.

Were Ethan Hawke and Mel Gibson there for a joke Kelby ? I think Kevin Kline's version is more worthy for the poll, but it's too late now.

[Janine]

The Branagh video is strange. The person putting up the video translated it from the widescreen and to 4.3 ratio and he looks a bit thin. If you go by this and not the film you will definitely not see the brillance in this mirror image version. I did however, view the David Tennant version of the speech and found it quite mesmerizing and very believable. He really captures the inner workings of Hamlet's mind; it's very natural sounding, as he thinks out loud about the idea of his own suicide; his pacing is excellent; he never rushes a line. I do think it beats the Jacobi version; although, that is pretty amazing in the entirity of the performance - I own it and the Branagh films; I still appreciate the Branagh version, but in a different way - actually Hamlet is suppose to be a 35 yr old, not a younger man, although it's been interpretted both ways. Is this Tennant performance from a film or from stage? I don't know that much about the actor or the production. It definitely does look mesmerizing. I might like to check out the entire play. Is it the play uncut?

Thanks for posting the links, kelby lake. That was very helpful.

[Virgil]

Jacobi has always been the model of Hamlet for me.

[prendrelemick]

Janine: The David Tenant version is a TV adaptation of The Royal Shakespeare Company's recent production.

It was about 3 hours long, so there will have been cuts, but its pretty seamless.

[kasie]

The Branagh video is strange. The person putting up the video translated it from the widescreen and to 4.3 ratio and he looks a bit thin. If you go by this and not the film you will definitely not see the brillance in this mirror image version. I did however, view the David Tennant version of the speech and found it quite mesmerizing and very believable. He really captures the inner workings of Hamlet's mind; it's very natural sounding, as he thinks out loud about the idea of his own suicide; his pacing is excellent; he never rushes a line. I do think it beats the Jacobi version; although, that is pretty amazing in the entirity of the performance - I own it and the Branagh films; I still appreciate the Branagh version, but in a different way - actually Hamlet is suppose to be a 35 yr old, not a younger man, although it's been interpretted both ways. Is this Tennant performance from a film or from stage? I don't know that much about the actor or the production. It definitely does look mesmerizing. I might like to check out the entire play. Is it the play uncut?

Thanks for posting the links, kelby lake. That was very helpful.

Janine: The version shown on BBCtv over the Christmas holidays is a film of a stage version - the DVD will be available later in January. (Sorry, prendrelemick, I didn't realise you had already posted that)

The original production was staged at the Courtyard theatre in Stratford through the summer of 2008 and transferred to London in late autumn/early winter of that year. It was last year's gold-dust ticket - and I managed to get one for Stratford (lucky, lucky girl). It was electrifying in the theatre - Tennant was manic and Stewart was chillingly menacing.

THe filmed version was interesting - the set had been recreated for the filming, it was not filmed on the actual stage. However it looked as though the dimensions of the set had been kept so the actors did not have to re-learn moves and the severe rectangle of the area available for movement contained the action and gave a certain sense of claustrophobia. Some scenes were filmed in outside settings, the graveyard scene, for example - I'm not sure if this added to the overall effect or not - while the viewer (me, at any rate) is aware of a certain distance watching the action on a 'stage', to have some scenes presented realistically, the hole-and-corner effect of the anonymous backroom from which Hamlet was dispatched for England, the bleak graveyard, somehow distorted the 'reality' that had been accepted in the 'stage set' scenes.

Tennant had grown into his performance - when I saw him on the stage he was David Tennant playing Hamlet - and I'm sure a good proportion of the audience was there to see David Tennant in the flesh: he even got a solo curtain call which I've never before seen at Stratford, very much an ensemble place. In the film he was Hamlet as played by David Tennant (to be compared and measured against other great performances, Olivier, Jacobi etc, etc), The 'mad' scenes had been toned down - he is known for his energetic and athletic performances - and were slightly less hectic and manic, possibly to make it easier for the cameras to track him. The cameras were however able to show the sudden switch between 'mad' and 'sane' - he played the madness as feigned for Hamlet's own ends - even more effectively than the sudden stillness on the stage after all the wild rushing and leaping about.

In contrast, Patrick Stewart's Claudius was somewhat diminished by the filming process. He exuded menace on the stage, a frightening aspect of Claudius I've not seen portrayed before, and that was underplayed in the film - I suppose it might have come over a bit 'hammy' in close-up, but it was a loss to the interpretation of the character, imo.

What was lost in the transposition from stage to film was, I think, the audience - the Courtyard is not a large theatre, built around a tongue stage, so the actors and audience are pretty close to each other and in my experience in that theatre (even more so in the old Swan which was similar in style but even smaller) the actors respond quickly to the audience's reactions - it's almost like a duet in which one side responds fairly silently but affects the way the other side proceeds. The film had none of that feed-back to colour or enlarge the performances which made them just a shade flat and theoretical (imo).

Just as a bit of background info, Janine, David Tennant is a much-loved Doctor Who on tv at the moment - but not for much longer, he's due to regenerate tonight, , the new Doctor had better be good..... You don't know Doctor Who? Hmm, where to start? No, just accept that DT is widely loved by young and old in the role. (And features in many an erotic fantasy of ladies who should be old enough to know better....what do you mean, it's a children's programme...)