This blunts the effect of the mad scenes which in themselves are beautifully presented and played. This Ophelia seems fully capable of being earthy and vulgar even before she loses her mind. And even if she could, her crass new self is no longer sharply contrasted with a meek former self. Bonham-Carter's Ophelia could never go mad. The director and actress probably thought they were being good little feminists, but the idea is psychologically and dramatically disastrous. (Then again, Richard Briers gives us a smart Polonius in Kenneth Branagh's 'Hamlet,' and there it worked.) The painful mistake: Helena Bonham-Carter changes Ophelia from a meek victim to a strong-willed, independent-minded young woman.

We have no idea why this sharp-witted, not-very-old man is prating to the king and queen instead of coming to the point about Hamlet's madness. One scene demonstrates the badness of this choice. When this Polonius babbles about plays that are 'pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral' he is being deliberately comic. The interesting mistake: Ian Holm changes Polonius from a doddering old man to someone evil-minded and fully possessed of his wits. In directing his actors, Franco Zefferelli makes two big mistakes, one interesting and one painful. What a joy this adaptation is! Its main virtues are a fine performance from Mel Gibson as Hamlet a script that makes full use of the movie medium while giving Shakespeare sufficient scope to enrich and entertain us with his people and his words two great performances from Alan Bates as Claudius and Paul Scofield as the Ghost two good performances from Nathaniel Parker as Laertes and Glenn Close as Gertrude and a fine music score from Ennio Morricone that anticipates and amplifies our emotions.

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