Richard Burton's Hamlet
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Movie Reviews of Richard Burton's Hamlet
Movie Review: A Lost Masterpiece that Should Have Stayed Lost
Summary: 2 Stars
My parents saw Burton in Hamlet on Broadway in '64, from which this original taping derives, and I was excited to see that this was available. But no amount of appreciation of Richard Bruton's incredible acting or Sir John Gielgud's perfect directing can salvage this DVD. I have a large collection of early cinema on DVD (and am used to blotchy film & lousy sound) but the quality of this is so poor as to make enjoyment impossible. Forget any nonsense you have heard about "theater in the raw" or "Hamlet stripped to the bare bones". This is unwatchable as the picture is so bad. The best you can do with this is turn the screen off & just listen to the dialogue. It will give you an inkling of the brilliance of Burton "live". For a great DVD version of Hamlet, look for the BBC Shakespeare Hamlet series with Sir Derek Jacobi as Hamlet. Expensive but worth the money.Movie Review: Stale, flat, and unprofitable
Summary: 2 Stars
I thought this was a very poor Hamlet. Polonious was the best performance in it. Claudius was passable. Gertrude was dreadfully dull. The staging was utterly unimaginative. Up front, I do not like Burton in much of anything, except for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolfe. I think he's an egotistical, self-serving actor, and this performance is a prime example of that. His performance all facade and showy vocals, with no heart whatsoever. He's only minimally aware of the other actors performing with him. I even perfer Mel Gibson's honest if failed attempt to this showboating. The best Hamlets I've seen are Kevin Kline's uneven but brilliant performance and the classic Olivier. Buy one of those.Movie Review: A boring rendition
Summary: 2 Stars
I was terribly disappointed with this. I just can't sit through the entire piece!!