Hamlet

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. See the film adaptation of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 2008 stage production of Hamlet, staring David Tennant as the prince who could not make up his mind and Patrick Stewart as the usurping king.

Produced by Great Performances on PBS

22 Comments
  • http://www.facebook.com/margaret.dalton.31 Margaret Dalton

    This interpretation of “Hamlet” has quickly become my favorite. Hamlet’s most famous soliloquy – “to be or not to be” – was intense while at the same time comes across as unbelievably intimate.

  • Meh

    Tennant!

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1444936744 Travis Mason

    Man, tennant literally didn’t even blink

    • http://www.facebook.com/jonnelle Jonnelle Rein

      He couldn’t. The Weeping Angels would get him.

    • http://twitter.com/RebeccaASherman Rebecca Sherman

      “… staring David Tennant”, it even says so in the caption below the video. :)

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jerry-Kuruc/1841239744 Jerry Kuruc

    Dr Who (Tennant) and Prof.X/CPT Picard (Stewart) — what a great version of Hamlet

  • Facebook User

    David Tennant and Patrick Stewart?! niiiiiiiiiiiice.

  • Meh Meh

    I would love to have this available online for my junior English class to watch next year!

    • http://www.facebook.com/dgsweet Jeffrey Sweet

      It’s on DVD.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1428165257 Michael Alber

    Hamlet, or Sons of Anarchy in only a little over three hours.

  • http://www.facebook.com/Snarflepopasaur Tanya Lane

    My favorite Shakespeare play! I’ve seen Gibson and Branagh’s versions. I loved Tennant in “Secret Smile”, so I’m excited to watch this!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Melissa-Marie-Fuller/775558488 Melissa Marie Fuller

    Tennant and Stewart. You LITERALLY cant do better.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=541010187 Hayley Prychun Rodgers

    Absolutely FANTASTIC! Tennant as Hamlet was inspire (and hilarious) the actors and director showed the humor in the lines and played off each other well, even without lines and only looks. Best production I have seen of the play, didn’t even miss Fortinbras. I was 1.5 hours in and felt like I had been watching only 20 minutes or so. Very, very good.

  • Guest

    we saw the first night of this production at RSC in 2008 it was an amazing..Tennants acting was excellent throughout and we got to meet him afterwards :)

  • http://www.facebook.com/barbara.symonds.503 Barbara Symonds

    We saw the first night of the live stage version of this production in 2008 at RSC Stratford. Tennants performance was excellent .The whole play was well acted and directed.We got to meet Tennant himself afterwards and congratulate him .Brilliant ,& memorable .

  • http://www.facebook.com/MaestroBabs Robert Babs

    It’s not the Kenneth Branagh version, but it’s still pretty great. Tennant and Stewart, you can’t go wrong.

  • Karen Duplissie

    I very much enjoyed this episode of “Shakespeare Uncovered” but am wondering why K. Branagh and his version of “Hamlet” were not represented.

    • CitizenE

      The thing about the Branagh version was that it marked a change in understanding of Hamlet’s character, for whom the term “melancholy” had long meant morose and indecisive, while Branagh’s Hamlet is decidedly bi-polar, manic and depressed by turns, and very, very angry, spitting mad, in literal fact, yet determined to do the right thing. Not a man flawed by a wishy-washy temperment at all. After Branagh’s film production, I saw at least 2 stage productions following that tack.

  • Catherine

    I have seen many versions of this play on film, but I have never seen it live. Up until watching this version, Mel Gibson was my preferred Hamlet. David Tennant is a genius!

  • CitizenE

    There is so much in Hamlet, so it is not surprising that this one lens was as good as it was a bit narrow. My one complaint is that the To Be or Not To Be speech was only discussed in the most cliched understanding of it–a contemplation of suicide. But that is not the only way to look at it. Derek Jacobi once suggested that a way to look at it is that it is something said for Ophelia, whom Hamlet is supposed to meet, to overhear–a statement of the situation he has found himself in–between a rock and a hard place–since she last saw him leaving her room, one shoe on, one shoe off. Another, especially given the idea that Hamlet’s fate is sealed is that this soliloquy rather than suggesting suicide, as the earlier “O that this too too solid flesh” far more aggressively and directly presents the possibility, that Hamlet is really asking himself whether he can be, taking arms against a sea of troubles, or not be, suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, given that death, inevitable to his situation, puzzles his will. The soliloquy exists not as a stand alone, but in the context of play, act, and scene, so Jacobi’s idea is especially poignant, given Ophelia’s betrayal, his outraged reaction (remember he warns Ophelia and it can be inferred Polonius to keep his nose out of Hamlet’s business, and Ophelia will in the same scene hear Polonius tell Claudius he will be hiding in Gertrude’s closet after the play, but does not immediately before the play warn him), and the whole interplay between a broken-hearted, almost cosmically dismayed Ophelia, who gives the full measure of Hamlet as the man of his age gone mad and undone, Polonius and Claudius. It is a delicious scene of which the soliloquy is only a part, and better understood thus, I think.

  • disqus_UiAJgmsXAV

    “I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself the king of infinite space.”

  • Rachel

    Marvelous! I was totally dazzled by this performance. Great actors, excellent setting! Quite interesting to see it in present-day Denmark instead of the 7th century. This story has much about it that is truly timeless!