Hamlet (1964 Film) - Critical Reception

Critical Reception

When the film appeared in 1964, it received a number of prizes both in the Soviet Union and abroad (see below). Its reception among British and American reviewers was generally favourable, despite the fact that this version of a prized work of English literature was not made in English. The New York Times reviewer took up this point: "But the lack of this aural stimulation - of Shakespeare's eloquent words - is recompensed in some measure by a splendid and stirring musical score by Dmitri Shostakovich. This has great dignity and depth, and at times an appropriate wildness or becoming levity". The author noted the strengths of the film: "is concerned with engrossing the eye. And this he does with a fine achievement of pictorial plasticity and power.... Landscape and architecture, climate and atmosphere play roles in this black-and-white picture that are almost as important as those the actors play".

In academic literature, the film has continued to receive prominent attention in studies of the methods of filming Shakespeare, especially in a play which consists so much of internal thought.

The director Peter Brook regarded the film as being of special interest, even though he had reservations about its ultimate success: "The Russian Hamlet has been criticized for being academic, and it is: however, it has one gigantic merit - everything in it is related to the director's search for the sense of the play - his structure is inseparable from his meaning. The strength of the film is in Kozintsev's ability to realise his own conception with clarity.... But the limitation lies in its style; when all is said and done, the Soviet Hamlet is post-Eisenstein realistic - thus super-romantic - thus, a far cry from essential Shakespeare - which is neither epic, nor barbaric, nor colorful, nor abstract nor realistic in any of our uses of the words."

Only excerpts from the film have been shown on U.S. television. The complete film has never been televised in the United States.