hamlet (1990). directed by franco zeffirelli.

 hamlet (1990). directed by franco zeffirelli.

i have watched three different movies of hamlet. this one, another directed by kenneth branagh (poster) and one directed by laurence olivier (poster). my brother has another hamlet directed by micheal almereyda released in 2000 which has ethan hawke and diane venora in it - however i have not watched that version. you can safely say that i have a thing for this particular play of the bard's. i used to stay up at night reading the play. the good old days. when i was at uni i caught several live plays, in which one of them had hamlet played by a girl.

hamlet (1996). directed by kenneth branagh. 

hamlet (1948). directed by laurence olivier.

amongst the three hamlet-s, i must say that i like zeffirelli's version the best. i find branagh's version too long  as it spans over 4 hours. my failure that i could not concentrate more than 3 hours for a movie and another thing that bothered me is the fact that the movie was too festive. as for olivier's version, which was shot back in 1948, is black and white and i only watched it once. perhaps i could not pass judgement as to how good it actually is, only that i realized i like zeffirelli's the most which sort of sits in the middle between the two extremes. mel gibson played the moody prince of denmark who hesitantly wants to avenge his father's death, there is an interesting subplot of internal guilt when he finds himself lusting after his mother, played by glenn close.

aren't we all freudians, now?