“From the author of Romeo and Juliet … ”
Gee, who could that be? His name is never mentioned in the poster! Maybe they thought his name would imply that the film was just for stuffed-shirts, and would turn off mainstream filmgoers just looking to Hamlet for a merry time!
“… comes the love story of Hamlet and Ophelia.”
Translation: “Here’s another great romance from that same horny author. We can’t recall his name, but he was the Jackie Collins of his own day!”
At last, somebody who truly gets the point of Hamlet! Nothing says romance quite like “Get thee to a nunnery!”
When I first saw this, I thought it was a joke from the National Lampoon. I guess it was meant to capitalize on the immense popularity of Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet, which reached a far larger market than the small, elite group that loves Elizabethan theater.
One other note on the poster. One of the reviews describes Hamlet as a young firebrand bringing down the institutions of his elders. More marketing held hostage by 1969! What else could he be in the summer of Woodstock? The Prince of Denmark was really the Abbie Hoffman of his day, a true student radical, sticking it to the man. (Oh, yeah, and he also happened to have some unresolved family issues in a messy, unimportant subplot.)
Other notes on this Hamlet:
The poster doesn’t reflect the attitude of the actual film. It is a legit, if eccentric, interpretation of Hamlet, but it creates an unusual dynamic between Hamlet, his mother and Uncle Claudius. Anthony Hopkins (as the uncle) was 32, but looked very youthful, Nicol Williamson (Hamlet) was 33, looked older, and was balding. The actress playing Hamlet’s mother looked (and was) about the same age as Hamlet!
Very Oedipal! Freud himself argued that Hamlet’s inability to kill Claudius arose from an unconscious recognition that Claudius had fulfilled Hamlet’s own repressed wishes: to eliminate his father and possess his mother. That interpretation certainly works better if he and his mother look the same age.
Nicol Williamson didn’t declaim and often ignored meter to speak as conversationally as possible. He speaks rapidly, and aggressively. In general, he was a scheming, fidgety, mature and sarcastic character from the outset. (Certainly not a callow, indecisive youth, and decidedly not a sweet prince.)
Director Tony Richardson made an unusual artistic decision. Instead of “opening up” the play for film, he “closed it down.” A very high percentage of the film consists of facial close-ups with a black or dark background!
Richardson used Nicol Williamson’s voice as the voice of the ghost, which makes sense to me, but would work better if they had cut the scenes where other people see the apparition. I think the play would work better if the “ghost” is just Hamlet’s own suspicions confirming themselves. I think it would work even better if the ghost were only seen in Hamlet’s dreams, but there I go, telling Shakespeare how to write. Talk about presumptuous!
Oh, yeah — for you guys who just come for the boobs – Marianne Faithfull, as Ophelia, had a terrific set of knockers (but did not take them out)
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At first glance I thought it was a poster for a vampire movie.