Critic Reviews
82
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
positive
7(70%)
mixed
3(30%)
negative
0(0%)
Showing 10 Critic Reviews
100
This is picture-making at its best.
100
Considering that 90% of those seeing any production of Hamlet will know the story at the outset, the key to an adaptation's success is what the director does beyond the dialogue. That's one area in which Olivier's 1948 version excels.
100
It's as impressive for the near-flawless performances of its deep cast of British film and theatrical stars (including Jean Simmons as Ophelia, Eileen Herlie as Gertrude and John Gielgud as the voice of Hamlet's father's ghost) as it is for its director's surprisingly rich and baroque visual style. [04 Aug 2006, p.C8]
90
A brilliant, thrilling, vital transference of the play to the screen.
90
The filmed Hamlet of Laurence Olivier gives absolute proof that these classics are magnificently suited to the screen.
80
Olivier's classic and personalised version of the troubled Prince of Denmark is still highly atmospheric and intriguing.
80
Whatever the omissions, the mutilations, the mistakes, this is very likely the most exciting and most alive production of Hamlet you will ever see on the screen.
60
Laurence Olivier's famous 1948 interpretation of Shakespeare's play suffers slightly from his pop-Freud approach to the character and from some excessively flashy, wrongheaded camera work—including the notorious moment when Hamlet begins the soliloquy and the camera begins to track back.
60
At 155 minutes, this screen adaptation of Shakespeare's most celebrated play bears scars from deep cuts in the text.
50
Despite winning several Oscars, Olivier's (condensed) version of Shakespeare's masterpiece makes for frustrating viewing: for all its 'cinematic' ambitions (the camera prowling pointlessly along the gloomy corridors of Elsinore), it's basically a stagy showcase for the mannered performance of the director in the lead role (though he's ably supported by a number of British theatrical stalwarts).
