The film also features Glenn Close, Alan Bates, Paul Scofield, Ian Holm, Helena Bonham Carter, Stephen Dillane, and Nathaniel Parker.

Zeffirelli had set out to make a Shakespearian adaptation that would be accessible and appealing to younger viewers, and casting Gibson was considered an intent to lure said audience into seeing it.

[3] Gibson, who had grown up idolizing one of his costars, legendary Shakespearean actor Paul Scofield, compared the experience of performing Shakespeare alongside him to being, "thrown into the ring with Mike Tyson".

Nelson Entertainment, which held the North American distribution rights, licensed theatrical exhibition to Warner Bros. as part of an incentive to lure Gibson into making Lethal Weapon 3.

An hour-long educational video titled Mel Gibson Goes Back to School was released in conjunction with the film, showing the actor lecturing on Hamlet to a group of high-school students in Los Angeles.

J. Lawrence Guntner has suggested that Zeffirelli's cinematography borrows heavily from the action film genre that made Gibson famous, noting that its average shot length is less than six seconds.

[3] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three-and-a-half out of four stars, calling Mel Gibson's portrayal of the Danish Prince "a strong, intelligent performance.

"[10] Caryn James of The New York Times praised Zeffirelli's "naturalistic, emotionally-charged" direction and also commended Gibson's "visceral" performance, describing it as "strong, intelligent and safely beyond ridicule.