Branagh's overacting, and his forcing of his interpretation of the story on the viewer, may detract from Shakespeare's art somewhat, but it is better that modern audiences get a piece of it, rather than nothing. They will be seeing it more as Shakespeare's audiences saw it: a play with sword fights and battles, and mighty kings and nobles, murder and incest and evil schemes and ghosts-and great art, if one cares to look for it, but in Shakespeare's day most didn't, any more than most people do now. If they see this film they will understand clearly at least one man's interpretation of the play. Shakespeare is hard to understand for the vast majority of people nowadays many people are not even inclined to try, because of its reputation as Serious Literature and its archaic English. What I think speaks very much in this play's favor is that it is accessible. (And Charlton Heston, too, but I wasn't sure if he was playing at being a hack.) A lot of the ambiguities in the play were clearly resolved one way in the flashbacks. In my opinion, those actors who were not big-name celebrities generally did a better job though I would except Billy Crystal and Robin Williams.

Branagh was really over-the-top, doing a lot of yelling mostly. The acting was not really up to the Hamlet standard.

Hamlet full movie free online