Just finished watching this film/taping of Hamlet (DVD available from Netflix) and found it to be quite interesting on many levels. Of course, Christopher Plummer is a great Hamlet, but I was not as hot on Michael Caine. Really enjoyed Robert Shaw's Claudius and Jo Maxwell Muller (apparently deceased in 2010) as Ophelia. This version focuses the plot by cutting and editing (such as Laertes' overt challenge to Claudius on his return from Paris), but enough of the play is left for an enjoyable visit. All around the performers handled the verse with great clarity and that is very welcome. I have appeared in four productions of Hamlet, and teach it as part of my curriculum at a community college in Los Angeles and so am very familiar with it.

It is out of a long memory I write this review and the score of ten is biased as my late Father was the recording engineer. How dearly I would love to have a copy of this. If somebody has this on tape from a TV screening, check the credits for Palle K Rasmussen. He was in charge of "Dubbing" - the audio side - of DR, the Danish equivalent of the BBC. As the BBC did the video side my Dad was boss of the audio side. The old Elsinore Castle, known as Kronborg by the locals, was not electrified and the BBC paid several thousand pounds to have it done. There is a beach in front of the castle looking across the Sound to Sweden, and as a kid went fishing there (I live in Australia). Now my sister lives in the outskirts of Elsinore and works in the bank near the shadow of the castle. Also Joern Utzon, the designer of the Opera House here in Sydney, lived nearby but passed away just recently. If you ever go there, do go to the castle and see the famous 200 feet long great Knights Hall where the final scene of the duel and Hamlet's death was filmed, the very place Shakespeare had in mind. Walk through the grottoes as well and see the sleeping Holger the Dane. It is well worth it. As for Plummer's performance, it is a very sensitive and reflective one. Quite authentic in its own way. Now can anybody help with a copy... ?

The contrast with Olivier's version was stunning to viewers: a non-bombastic thoughtful Hamlet with none of the perverse undertones of Olivier's Prince of Denmark. Honest indecision oozed from this Hamlet. Further the text was less butchered than in Olivier's movie; here we at least get to see Rozenkrantz and Guildenstern. [Footnote: I am frequently surprised at people who will rave over Olivier's Hamlet and fail to notice the severely edited script.]

I saw this "Hamlet", my first, on television about 35 years ago. It helped hook me on Shakespeare, so I cannot really be objective, but scenes from it have seemed to linger, seemed to stand up to other Hamlets.