Word: hamlets
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Even in the final fencing scene between Laertes and Hamlet, a fencing vest is worn featuring fake pecs and six-packs that would make Batman jealous. Later, Branagh's vest is removed to uncover a skin-tight tank top, revealing, of course, Branagh's chest hair. Not only does Branagh seem to wish desperately that he be immediately lauded as sex symbol of the decade, but he also employs some heavy-handed Christ imagery when he is carried out after Fortinbras' coronation. Branagh seems to be going for much more than an Oscar here...
Unable to decide if he wants to scare us into being enthralled by the film, or present us with visual candy, Branagh falls short on special effects, particularly with those for the ghost of King Hamlet. Perhaps attempting to prove his knowledge of Saxo Grammaticus, one of Shakespeare's main sources for Hamlet, in which Hamlet Senior is more a demon than a shade, Branagh plays up Hamlet's first meeting with his father after his death like a campy horror film. Hamlet runs, panting, through a forest of wind-bent trees, while smoke bellows out of the ground seemingly...
When the dead King Hamlet himself finally does appear, he wears pale blue contact lenses, which make him look more frightening than the smoke would suggest. But King Hamlet's unfortunate run-in with Bausch and Lomb makes little sense and loses its effect when the living King Hamlet appears during one of the many flashback montages later on--wearing the same lenses and looking just as ethereal and possessed as he did when dead...
Branagh's spooky portrayal of King Hamlet commanding his son underlines his opinion that it is mainly the ghost who motivates the play's ensuing violence. Shifting the blame for Hamlet's sanguinary campaign of vengeance to the execution of King Hamlet's behest allows Branagh to play one of the more sane versions of the Dane seen in the last 20 years. His Hamlet is not moping and melancholy, but rather a clever and witty theater buff...
...Branagh foreshadows difficulties he will have with the film's conclusion through the clumsy manner in which he fades to intermission. Hamlet makes a speech reaffirming his zeal for revenge, above a field full of battle-ready Norwegians in the distance. The blue-screen contrivance of Hamlet's locale is obvious, and the soldiers in the distance resemble reassembling chromosomes. An oft-shouting, fiery character to this point, Branagh's Hamlet begins to scream at the top of his voice as the camera pans away. But the booming drums of the soundtrack drown out his already incoherent yelling...