Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, learns that his father was murdered by his uncle — and must decide whether, and how, to take revenge.
In Hamlet (1948), Laurence Olivier both directed and starred as Hamlet, whose father, the King of Denmark, has died and whose mother, Gertrude, has married his uncle Claudius. When the ghost of his father tells Hamlet that Claudius murdered him, Hamlet feigns madness, stages a play to test his uncle’s guilt, and sets in motion a tragedy that destroys the court.
Olivier’s Hamlet is thoughtful, witty and tormented. He speaks Shakespeare’s soliloquies, including To be, or not to be, with a naturalness that makes them feel like real thought, and he films the play in deep, shadowy black and white, with the castle at Elsinore as a place of stairs, corridors and secrets.
Hamlet is a landmark Shakespeare film, and Olivier’s performance as the prince is one of his greatest: a hero who thinks too much, feels too much, and cannot act until it is too late.