Richard Burton's Hamlet
by Colleran, Bill
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Christopher Culkin, Hugh Alexander, Hume Cronyn, Philip Coolidge, Richard BurtonDirector: Colleran, Bill
Brand: Image Entertainment
Primary Contributor: Richard Burton
Primary Contributor: Hume Cronyn
DVD: 2 Layers, Region Code 0
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Black & White, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: Academy Ratio, 1.33:1
Running Time: 191 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1999-08-17
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Image Entertainment
Movie Reviews of Richard Burton's Hamlet
Movie Review: Welsh Rare Bit
Summary: 3 Stars
This is a black and white video of a live performance of Burton's Hamlet on Broadway, and requires a little patience to sit through, as it doesn't hold up as a film or even a television broadcast from the period. You're pretty much always watching the full proscenium and when they do focus on one portion of the action it's often at the expense of what we need to see elsewhere - particularly in the final scene. The sound, however, is fine and you don't miss a word.
The main attraction is Burton and you sense the crowd's there to see him take on the role, as actors facing these challenges were a big deal at the time. He's about 40 here and his melancholy seems like world-weariness. He brings almost too much intelligence to the role. He's in great voice throughout, though when he conveys passion with that keening cry of his he sometimes sounds like a parody of himself. When he puts on his antic disposition he's perversely funny, if a little self-conscious. And though he leaps about occasionally, he doesn't have much physical grace. You sense that all this must have been something to see onstage, and when this was finished I felt more teased than pleased.
Having seen pictures of this production I always assumed Alfred Drake was an older gentleman at the time. Here he appears younger than Burton. He's a little effete with a posture that's almost comically erect, but he's impressively well spoken. His confession scene - a speech that obsessed Lincoln - is very nicely done. Eileen Hurlie's good, but not as compelling as in Olivier's film, and sports a distracting hairstyle (wig?) Hume Cronyn's Polonius is a clear favorite with the audience, but seems to be doing his own thing and doesn't connect with other actors. John Cullum's athletic Laertes is a little too honey-baked -- Elsinore by way of Virginia. The Ophelia of Linda Marsh is very effective, though I don't know what became of her after this. John Gielgud's voicing of the ghost is a distraction.
The minimal extras include the ridiculous hyping at the time of the technology involved in presenting this in movie theaters. Electronovision! -- now gone the way of Sensoround, but described by Burton as "perhaps epoch making."
Happily, the practice of audiences applauding at the end of each scene or an actor's exiting the stage has ended on Broadway. I'm not sure they still applaud a star's entrance anymore, except on rare occasions. Here there's an ovation for the third act entrance of George Voskovec (?)
Summary of Richard Burton's Hamlet
Richard Burton stars and Sir John Gielgud directs William Shakespeare's play of the Danish Prince. This is a "Hamlet" acted in rehearsal clothes, stripped of all extraneous trappings, so the beauty of the language and imagery could shine through. Filmed during an actual Broadway performance, to be shown in movie theaters for two days only, the prints were contractually ordered destroyed, but Burton sent one to the British Film Institute, and kept one print at home, located by his widow Sally in 1988; here then is the complete Burton "Hamlet" in all its vocal power and glory.Drama DVD Video
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