Richard Burton's Hamlet
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Movie Reviews of Richard Burton's Hamlet
Movie Review: Burton is perfect, the picture quality is not
Summary: 4 Stars
Burton played Hamlet in Canada and at the Lunt-Fontaine theatre in NYC in 1964. It was like Beatlemania with Liz and Richard walking to their waiting limo after each performance. Those were the days of Liz and Dick hysteria! This film was thought to be lost, but was thankfully unearthed in a loft at Burton's Celigny, Switzerland home. It's impossible to give this DVD 5 stars because the video quality is distressingly poor. Not only is the picture overly dark, it's taped from an actual live performance and the supporting players oftentimes are lost in the shadows. The audio remains quite good and powerful at times, but sadly, you oftentimes cannot make out who is on stage.Another criticism is that they didn't include any interviews with surviving members of the cast. Gielgud also spoke at length about this project in various interviews from 1964 and thereafter. Burton also spoke about this performance in an interview with David Frost from 1970. Why weren't these snippets included?
Burton's performance is fabulous. He brings an earthy, reckless, sexy quality to the brooding Hamlet and he's phenomenal in the role. He absolutely owns the stage with this performance, completely eclipsing the supporting cast, with the exception of Hume Cronyn. The modern-day street clothes are not a distraction and Burton looks magnificent in his dark blue turtleneck sweater.
Despite the flawed video quality, this is still worth owning if you are a fan of Burton or Shakespeare. This is the most masculine and dynamic performance of Hamlet of the past 40 years.
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 (?)
Movie Review: Burton puts the "ham" in Hamlet.
Summary: 3 Stars
Since this is a film of a Broadway production rather than a cinematic version of the play, obviously the standards one uses to evaluate it have to be adjusted. The lighting, sound and camera work leave much to be desired and one is left with just the performances to bring the text to life.
With these considerations in mind, how does it stand up? Well, the main weakness is a significant one: Richard Burton's performance. He rushes through his lines and accents the oddest words (perhaps like he is singing, as another reviewer has noted, but singing like he's forgotten what the words mean). Since this is a stage version of the play it is probably more difficult to convey subtlety in the dialogue, as one could in a film, but Burton makes this problem particularly glaring by also shouting most of his lines. His is one of the more physical Hamlets; however, whereas Mel Gibson used his physicality to provide a contrast to an inner sensitivity, Burton's portrayal actually seems more like what one would expect of an actor who is associated with action films. As another reviewer has noted, he portrays the prince as truly mad. The Hamlet in the text of the play is a man whose sanity is open to question, who reveals multiple facets the more closely he is analysed. This complexity allows for a variety of interpretations of not only the character but also the play - one of the qualities that makes the play one of the peaks of dramatic literature. Burton's interpretation brushes much of this ambiguity aside, creating a version of one of literature's most complex characters that almost manages to be one dimensional. Richard Burton undoubtedly has stage presence though and this helps somewhat in helping the viewer hold on to the end.
The other performance worth commenting on is Hume Cronyn's Polonius. He does some interesting things with the character, making him less foolish than most actors do. Significantly, he also injects some humour into the delivery of his lines. His performance is one of the few high points of the production.
Overall, this isn't the worst version you'll see, but it certainly shouldn't be anywhere near the top of your list if you're interested in screening the play.
Movie Review: Performace ***** Technical Presentation *
Summary: 3 Stars
I was very excited when this release was announced. It is a fine performance though curious with a Welsh Hamlet against a backdrop of American supporting actors. It is much more complete than either Olivier or Gibson. A fascinating historical document of a Broadway event.The video and sound, alas, are very disappointing. The interview hypes "Electronovision" as some new technology for presenting Broadway to the masses, but it looks and sounds more like an old kinescope. Don't know what Evision was supposed to do for it. There was a Columbia (CBS, Sony) stereo audio recording (nla) made at the time...had it been of this specific performance (which it wasn't) then they might have synced it to greatly improve the sound.
Meanwhile we must be satisfied to have a flawed (B&W) shadow of a marvelous night at the theater.
Movie Review: Burton disappointing
Summary: 2 Stars
I had heard that Richard Burton offered the definitive Hamlet in this production. I was, however, disappointed. I found Burton to be far too intense in the opening scenes. Here, Hamlet is supposed to be melancholic, but Burton shouts the words "seems, madam? Nay, it is" almost angrily, despite the dialogue's obvious suggestion of Hamlet's brooding mood. Perhaps this angry and overly intense interpretation is rooted in the intensity of the 60s, but overall, I found it to be flawed and ignorant of Hamlet's character. The rest of Burton's performance is equally abrasive.
Furthermore, I found the performances of the rest of the cast to be generally uninspired and unengaging.
There are, however, some exceptional elements to the production. Gielgud's stage direction and his treatment of the ghost come to mind, but, despite this, I cannot recommend this production because of Burton's performance.