Hamlet, son of the king of Denmark, is summoned home for his father's funeral and his mother's wedding to his uncle. In a supernatural episode, he discovers that his uncle, whom he hates anyway, murdered his father. In an incredibly convoluted plot—the most complicated and most interesting in all literature—he manages to (impossible to put this in exact order) feign (or perhaps not to feign) madness, murder the "prime minister", love and then unlove an innocent whom he drives to madness, plot and then unplot against the uncle, direct a play within a play, successfully conspire against the lives of two well-meaning friends, and finally take his revenge on the uncle, but only at the cost of almost every life on stage, including his own and his mother's.

Director: Kenneth Branagh
Writers: William Shakespeare (play), Kenneth Branagh (screenplay)

Cast:
Kate Winslet ... Ophelia
Kenneth Branagh ... Hamlet
Brian Blessed ... Ghost
Richard Attenborough ... English Ambassador
Richard Briers ... Polonius
Michael Bryant ... Priest
Julie Christie ... Gertrude
Billy Crystal ... First Gravedigger
Judi Dench ... Hecuba
Gérard Depardieu ... Reynaldo
Reece Dinsdale ... Guildenstern
Ken Dodd ... Yorick
Rob Edwards ... Lucianus
Nicholas Farrell ... Horatio
Ray Fearon ... Francisco
John Gielgud ... Priam
Rosemary Harris ... Player Queen
Charlton Heston ... Player King
Ravil Isyanov ... Cornelius
Derek Jacobi ... Claudius
Jack Lemmon ... Marcellus
Ian McElhinney ... Barnardo
Michael Maloney ... Laertes
Duke of Marlborough ... Fortinbras's General
John Mills ... Old Norway
Jimi Mistry ... Sailor Two
Sian Radinger ... Prologue
Melanie Ramsey ... Prostitute
Simon Russell Beale ... Second Gravedigger
Andrew Schofield ... Young Lord
Rufus Sewell ... Fortinbras
Timothy Spall ... Rosencrantz
Tom Szekeres ... Young Hamlet
Ben Thom ... First Player
Don Warrington ... Voltimand
Perdita Weeks ... Second Player
Robin Williams ... Osric
David Yip ... Sailor One

Released on: January 24, 1997

Posters, Promotional Stills, On the Set, Screen Captures and DVD Featurettes captures

Part of the movie was shot at Blenheim Palace, which is owned by the Duke Of Marlborough. He had a very small role in the movie as Fortinbras' General.

Julie Christie came out of retirement to play Gertrude.

Derek Jacobi who plays Claudius in this film, played Hamlet in Hamlet, Prince Of Denmark.

The first "full-length" film version of "Hamlet" ever made (using the Second Quarto (1604) text with additions from the First Folio (1623) to create an idealized "complete" Hamlet).

Kate Winslet didn't even audition for the role of Ophelia. Winslet had previously auditioned for the Helena Bonham Carter "Elizabeth" role in Kenneth Branagh's Frankenstein, and Branagh was so impressed that he offered her the role in Hamlet without so much as a reading.

Kate Winslet (Ophelia) learned on the day that she had to shoot the straitjacket scene that she had just been given the role of Rose in Titanic.

The title of Hamlet's play-within-a-play is "The Murder Of Gonzago", which may or may not have been extrapolated from an Italian prose work. However, when asked its title by Claudius, Hamlet responds by bestowing on it a new moniker, which reflects its purpose (to "catch the conscience of the King") - he calls it "The Mousetrap".

As of 2006, this was the last studio film to be shot in the 70mm process.

The first British film to be shot in 70mm in over 25 years.

Kenneth Branagh offered Gérard Depardieu a small part in the 4-hour version of the film out of gratitude for his active support on the release of his first feature Henry V in France (not only was he the main distributor of the film but also dubbed Branagh's voice on the French version).

"I hope I've made her strong, I really hope so. If you think about Ophelia, she's this girl who's never had a strong female presence in her life. And she's in that funny transition period, going from her teenage years into really becoming a woman. She's having this pretty full-on relationship with Hamlet, but she always seems to be suffering. She's the victim of everything, of everybody, this little floaty thing that's just sort of dancing about. She's hung on to herself and been terribly lonely. There's her brother whom she loves and he's buggered off to France to have a lovely life thank you very much. And her father Polonius—you know, stuffy old git who's trying to keep her wrapped up in cotton wool—has just been promoted to Prime Minister. And with her lover Hamlet, she's going through this awful time because he doesn't know what the hell's going on, and seems daft and you know that she's going to go mad from the minute you see her. So I thought no way, that's been done before, people are going to get bored. So I just tried to reverse the situation and give her a purpose."

While shooting, she told Kenneth Branagh: "Be as violent with me as you bloody well like. Twist my arms off if you want to."

"We have become used to seeing her as a whimsical, floaty female time and again. When I started to talk it over with Ken Branagh we discovered we were both on the same wavelength. As soon as you abandon all irrational fears of not being able to understand her you are 50% of the way there. And everyone was nervous and in the same boat - from Ken to Billy Crystal to Gérard Depardieu - so it made for a very team-spirited atmosphere."

"...A full-bodied, clear-headed, resplendently staged rendition of HAMLET that rewards the time required to experience it..." — Variety - Todd McCarthy)

"...It's like an Elizabethan version of The Shining... Kate Winslet does marvelous work..." — Entertainment Weekly - Owen Gleiberman

"...Handsome and compelling... Branagh brings the Bard's greatest tragedy passionately alive on screen... He has done it with remarkable clarity and meaning..." — Los Angeles Times - Kevin Thomas

"...We enjoy Branagh's visual showmanship: In all of his films, he reveals his joy in theatrical gestures....Kate Winslet is touchingly vulnerable..." — Chicago Sun-Times - Roger Ebert

• Original play ("The Tragedy Of Hamlet, Prince Of Denmark")