#82 - Hamlet

I think my feelings on Shakespeare can be summed up by a Canadian Folk Duo named Dala

"I don't want to read what Shakespeare wrote, I just want to feel it"

I only did Macbeth in High School, and truth is I came into this movie totally unknowing of the plot of Hamlet which probably makes me an uneducated cad.

At the end of the day, let's say this is the 2nd of 3 Shakespeare movies that Olivier directed - (we already saw Henry V and we won't see Richard III until the 200's) - It's considered one of the more definitive versions of the time up until more recently - the play is crazy long, and at 2.5 hrs, even a good chunk of the dialogue and characters were cut for time - (I guess he took to calling it in later years a STUDY on Shakespeare)

It's not bad but in my mind I've always imagined an air of desperation in Hamlet's soliloquy "To Be or Not to Be" that
Anyhow, it took me two viewings to finish cause yes, I started dozing off on the first one - watch for quick scenes with Peter Cushing and Patrick Troughton, who would go on to play the 2nd Doctor in Doctor Who, admittedly the only role of his I knew before this :)

at least now I have a general idea of the story of Hamlet - LOL

RB