Unfinished: Every Version of Hamlet, Ranked Worst to Best
Well, not EVERY version, but everything either with a rating, or in the silent era, and maybe a couple other curiosities.
Note that I've only watched maybe 3 versions, and they were the most famous ones (the ones starring Kenneth Branagh, Mel Gibson, and Ethan Hawke), at least in my circle of influence. Also, there's an awful lot of unrated ones... along with a version by Georges Melies which HAS to be better than a 5.x rating, because he's fantastic.
Note that I've only watched maybe 3 versions, and they were the most famous ones (the ones starring Kenneth Branagh, Mel Gibson, and Ethan Hawke), at least in my circle of influence. Also, there's an awful lot of unrated ones... along with a version by Georges Melies which HAS to be better than a 5.x rating, because he's fantastic.
List activity
1.6K views
• 62 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
81 titles
- DirectorRoland KenyonRod MacDonaldStarsTricia HitchcockMelanie RevellRichard SpaulHamlet suspects his uncle has murdered his father to claim the throne of Denmark and the hand of Hamlet's mother, but the prince cannot decide whether or not he should take vengeance.
- DirectorJotaarkka PennanenStarsHeikki KinnunenEero MelasniemiSeela SellaHamlet set partly in spectacular natural caves and partly in modern dress in contemporary Helsinki.
- DirectorJosé Rubens SiqueiraCircus child already has to deal with Hamlet's question: "To Be or Not To Be".
- DirectorBrian LargeStarsThomas HampsonNatalie DessayJosé van DamHamlet suspects his uncle has murdered his father to claim the throne of Denmark and the hand of Hamlet's mother, but the prince cannot decide whether or not he should take vengeance.
- DirectorGrigoriy KozintsevStarsInnokentiy SmoktunovskiyMikhail NazvanovElza RadzinaAfter the death of the King of Denmark - Hamlet's father - his brother Claudius ascends the throne, who takes his widow Gertrude as his wife. Hamlet meets the ghost of his father and learns that he was killed by Claudius.
- 1978–19853h 30mTV-148.0 (669)TV EpisodeDirectorRodney BennettJohn GorrieStarsDerek JacobiClaire BloomPatrick StewartHamlet suspects his uncle has murdered his father to claim the throne of Denmark and the hand of Hamlet's mother, but the Prince cannot decide whether or not he should take vengeance.
- DirectorGregory DoranStarsDavid TennantPatrick StewartPenny DownieThe RSC puts a modern spin on Shakespeare's Hamlet in this filmed-for-television version of their stage production. The Prince of Denmark seeks vengeance after his father is murdered and his mother marries the murderer.
- DirectorLyndsey TurnerRobin LoughStarsBenedict CumberbatchCiarán HindsSian BrookeHamlet, Prince of Denmark, finds out that his Uncle Claudius killed his father to obtain the throne, and plans his revenge.
- DirectorRobert IckeRhodri HuwIlinca RadulianStarsAndrew ScottJuliet StevensonJessica Brown FindlayHamlet, Prince of Denmark, returns home to find his father murdered and his mother remarrying the murderer, his uncle. Meanwhile, war is brewing.
- DirectorBill ColleranJohn GielgudStarsRichard BurtonHume CronynAlfred DrakeThe highly successful 1964 Richard Burton Broadway production of "Hamlet", deliberately staged in the style of a "dress rehearsal", but performed in front of a live audience.
- DirectorSimon GodwinRobin LoughStarsPaapa EssieduTanya MoodieClarence SmithHamlet's father, the King of Denmark, dies. His mother marries his uncle Claudius, the new king. The ghost of Hamlet's father claims Claudius killed him. Hamlet seeks revenge against Claudius for his father's murder.
- DirectorTony RichardsonStarsNicol WilliamsonJudy ParfittAnthony HopkinsAcademy Award-winning director Tony Richardson brings Shakespeare's tragedy to the screen - with searing performances from Nicol Williamson as the melancholy Dane and future Academy Award-winner Anthony Hopkins as the deceitful Claudius.
- DirectorAlexander FodorStarsWilliam BelchambersMax DavisAlexander FodorSet in a surrealistic, nightmarish, Kafkaesque no man's land, this version of the famous Shakespeare play centres on the ghostly, supernatural aspects of the play. The text is the original Shakepearean, but the characters' personalities are changed, so for example, Polonius (originally a doddering old man) becomes Polonia a scheming femme fatale, who is plotting to get her younger sister Ophelia (who she controls through the use of addictive drugs) married into the royal family. It's dramatically shot, and is not so much a modern version (there are no references or images of the modern world at all) as a lateral concept.
- DirectorLaurence OlivierStarsLaurence OlivierJean SimmonsJohn LauriePrince Hamlet struggles over whether or not he should kill his uncle, whom he suspects has murdered his father, the former king.
- DirectorAlf SjöbergStarsEdvin AdolphsonBirgitta ValbergBengt EkerotPrince Hamlet returns home from the university of Wittenberg to attend his father's funeral. His uncle Claudius, the new King, has announced his brother's widow queen. Claudius asks Hamlet to stop mourn his father.
- DirectorAlf SjöbergStarsEdvin AdolphsonBirgitta ValbergBengt EkerotPrince Hamlet returns home from the university of Wittenberg to attend his father's funeral. His uncle Claudius, the new King, has announced his brother's widow queen. Claudius asks Hamlet to stop mourn his father.
- DirectorJustin ClowStarsJason EmanuelBonny GirouxDes HusseyA version of the classic Shakespeare play performed in Vancouver in 2005.
- DirectorAnya RoseStarsAnya RoseErin HaydenJenny Hayden
- DirectorKenneth BranaghStarsKenneth BranaghJulie ChristieDerek JacobiHamlet, Prince of Denmark, returns home to find his father murdered and his mother remarrying the murderer, his uncle. Meanwhile, war is brewing.
- DirectorPhilip SavilleStarsChristopher PlummerRobert ShawAlec ClunesHamlet suspects his uncle has murdered his father to claim the throne of Denmark and the hand of Hamlet's mother, but the Prince cannot decide whether or not he should take vengeance.
- DirectorSvend GadeHeinz SchallStarsAsta NielsenPaul ConradiMathilde BrandtDanish silent movie-star Asta Nielsen formed her own production company to make this film, in which new elements are combined with features (and a few lines) familiar from Shakespeare's version of the legend. The most important of these changes sees Hamlet made into a female character - a princess forced to masquerade as a man by her scheming mother; from this follows Hamlet's secret passion for Horatio and rivalry with Ophelia for his love. Queen Gertrude is here presented as conspiring in her first husband's murder, and the old king's ghost does not appear - young Hamlet merely hears a voice from the tomb and (apparently) dreams of him. In addition, Hamlet now kills Claudius (in a fire) immediately upon returning from Norway with an army led by old school- friend Fortinbras, and it falls to Gertrude to engineer Hamlet's death in the fencing match as well as kill herself by accidentally drinking the poisoned wine.
- DirectorDavid GilesStarsIan McKellenFaith BrookJohn WoodvineHamlet suspects his uncle has murdered his father to claim the throne of Denmark and the hand of Hamlet's mother, but the Prince cannot decide whether or not he should take vengeance.
- DirectorAntoni CimolinoShelagh O'BrienStarsTim CampbellJonathan GoadAdrienne GouldHamlet, Prince of Denmark, is in mourning for his dead father, the king. He's also disturbed by how quickly his mother, Gertrude, has remarried - and by the fact that her new spouse is Claudius, her late husband's brother (and thus Hamlet's uncle). Hamlet's disgust at this incestuous union, which has also robbed him of his succession to the throne, turns to fury when his father's ghost appears and reveals that he was murdered by Claudius. Vowing revenge, Hamlet decides to feign madness until an opportunity presents itself. Polonius, the lord chamberlain, thinks that Hamlet's strange behaviour springs from love for his daughter, Ophelia, but Claudius soon begins to suspect otherwise. The arrival of a travelling theatre company gives Hamlet the idea of re-enacting his father's murder to startle Claudius into revealing his guilt. Claudius is indeed shocked by the performance, but Hamlet's triumph is short-lived; while arguing with his mother in her bedroom, he stabs an eavesdropper hiding behind a curtain, only to discover that it is Polonius he has killed, not Claudius. Claudius sends Hamlet to England, secretly intending to have him put to death there. Meanwhile, Ophelia, driven mad by grief, commits suicide. Hamlet escapes, however, and returns to Denmark, whereupon Claudius urges Laertes to challenge him to a fencing match, in which Laertes will secretly poison the tip of his sword. But when both combatants receive mortal wounds, the dying Laertes reveals the plot, whereupon Hamlet kills Claudius before succumbing to his own inevitable fate.