Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day Seventy-Three: Great Danes

After two Shakespearian adaptations failing to win the Oscars in the 1930s, the final winner at a 1940's Oscar Ceremony was indeed based on one of Will's best loved works. And it was by one of the men who would become famous for his Shakespearian leads that being Laurence Olivier who also won as Best Lead Actor and produced and directed the piece. Unlike a lot of the other films I'm not providing a plot synopsis here because most of you should know the story of Hamlet i.e. Danish prince tries to avenge the death of his father by his uncle, who then married his mother, by trying to get him to admit to the crime and then killing him himself. Obviously this being a tragedy the lion's share of the characters die one way or another, Hamlet's love Ophelia goes a bit potty and drowns herself, Hamlet's mum is poisoned and my favourite is Polonious who is stabbed while behind a curtain giving us the message that Peeping Toms never prosper. But adaptations of Shakespeare's plays should always be analysed by how they look visually. To some extent Olivier has done a good job the scene in which Hamlet writes a play basically about his uncle killing his father is done very well, with the space used for the play being particularly apt. The way this whole scene is lit is brilliant and some colour almost creeps into the scene also. The way that Hamlet's father's ghost is portrayed is also done very well with a suit of armour with a blacked out face surrounded by smoke creating a sense of fear. The filmic techniques also allow for some of the dialogue to be changed with Hamlet delivering some of his soliloquies in voice-over. On the whole though I did find the film was overly stagey and Olivier didn't quite utilitise all that was available to him in terms of filmic space. As there was so much oppourtunity to do something special I feel it was squandered and most of the scenes felt like they were simply being acted on the stage. I know its an adaptation but Olivier failed to make edits and almost 2 and a half hours it feels too long.

Another problem I had was in Olivier's lead performance, although there's no denying he's one of the greatest actors of all time, I just feel that he was maybe a little too old for Hamlet and he failed to portray some of his vulnerability instead going for all out thespian-mode. The other nominated member of the cast, Jean Simmons as Ophelia, also didn't do a lot for me and I was rather glad when she drowned herslef. There were some good supporting performances mainly from Basil Sydney as Claudius, Eileen Herlie as Gertrude and Felix Alymer as Polonious. At the end of the day I think the academy wanted to seem a little cultured that year and that's maybe why Olivier's Hamlet won the big one. I'm not saying its a bad film but for me Olivier failed to make a film instead this felt more like a filmed version of a Hamlet performance.