Hamlet story
Hamlet is a 1948 British film adaptation of William Shakespeare's play of the same name, adapted, directed by and starring Laurence Olivier. Hamlet was Olivier's second film as director and the second of the three Shakespeare films that he directed (the 1936 As You Like It had starred Olivier, but had been directed by Paul Czinner). Hamlet was the first British film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. It is the first sound film of the play in English. Olivier's Hamlet is the Shakespeare film that has received the most prestigious accolades, winning the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Actor and the Golden Lion at the 9th Venice International Film Festival. However, it proved controversial among Shakespearean purists, who felt that Olivier had made too many alterations and excisions to the four-hour play by cutting one-and-a-half-hours' worth of content. Milton Shulman wrote in The Evening Standard: "To some it will be one of the greatest films ever made, to others a deep disappointment. Laurence Olivier leaves no doubt that he is one of our greatest living actors... his liberties with the text, however, are sure to disturb many."
31 total · 4 choice · 9 major · 16 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| courtly intrigues | choice | The drama took place in the royal court of Denmark as people were jostling for power, marriage, and prestige. |
| descent into madness | choice | His father's death and the subsequent revelation that it was murder, seemed to drive Hamlet into something that people around him thought was madness. |
| despair | choice | Hamlet was thought to have gone mad. He was also brooding over existential matters, suicide, etc. |
| the desire for vengeance | choice | Hamlet sought revenge against his uncle, Claudius, who had murdered Hamlet's father in order to seize the throne and marry Hamlet's mother, Gertrude. Laertes sought vengeance against Hamlet for the killing of his father, Polonius, and the subsequent suicide of his sister, Ophelia. |
| coping with the death of a parent | major | Hamlet and Laertes grieved for their respective fathers. Ophelia grieved for her murdered father, Polonius. |
| decision making in the face of uncertainty | major | Much of Hamlet's troubles were due to the fact that he strongly suspected murder (on the word of a ghost) yet had no evidence. To this point, the film opened with a voice-over from the producer, saying "This is the tragedy of a man who could not make up his mind". |
| father and son | major | Hamlet dwelt on the murder of his late father, King Hamlet, throughout the story. He encountered his father's ghost early on in the story. Laertes sought vengeance against Hamlet over the killing of Laertes' father, Polonius. |
| incestuous relationship | major | This adaptation of Hamlet is noted for playing up the sexual tension between Hamlet and his mother. In one scene, they kissed passionately on the mouth seated on her bed. Hamlet also implied incest between Ophelia and her brother. |
| mother and son | major | Hamlet and his mother Queen Gertrude were central to the story. |
| poison murder | major | Claudius used poison to murder such inconvenient people as Hamlet's father and later Hamlet himself. Gertrude and Laertes died collaterally from Claudius' designs. |