The film also features Derek Jacobi as King Claudius, Julie Christie as Queen Gertrude, Kate Winslet as Ophelia, Michael Maloney as Laertes, Richard Briers as Polonius, and Nicholas Farrell as Horatio.
Other cast members include Robin Williams, Gérard Depardieu, Jack Lemmon, Billy Crystal, Rufus Sewell, Charlton Heston, Richard Attenborough, Judi Dench, John Gielgud and Ken Dodd.
[2] The film received four Oscar nominations for the 69th Academy Awards for Best Art Direction (Tim Harvey), Best Costume Design (Alexandra Byrne), Best Original Score (Patrick Doyle) and Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay (Kenneth Branagh).
As the court gathers the next day while King Claudius and Queen Gertrude discuss affairs of state with their elderly adviser, Polonius, Hamlet watches glumly.
During the court, Claudius grants permission for Polonius's son, Laertes, to return to school in France and sends envoys to inform the King of Norway of Fortinbras.
As Laertes prepares to depart for a visit to France, Polonius offers him advice that culminates in the maxim, "to thine own self be true".
Hamlet admits that he is upset at his situation but refuses to give the true reason, instead commenting on "What a piece of work is a man".
Hamlet, after welcoming the actors and dismissing his friends-turned-spies, asks them to deliver a soliloquy about the death of King Priam, as witnessed by Queen Hecuba, at the climax of the Trojan War.
After seeing the Player King murdered by his rival pouring poison in his ear, Claudius abruptly rises and runs from the room; for Hamlet, this is proof positive of his uncle's guilt.
Horatio has received a letter from Hamlet, explaining that the prince escaped by negotiating with pirates who attempted to attack his England-bound ship, and the friends reunite offstage.
Back at Elsinore, Hamlet explains to Horatio that he had discovered Claudius's letter with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's belongings and replaced it with a forged copy indicating that his former friends should be killed instead of him.
A foppish courtier, Osric, interrupts the conversation to deliver the fencing challenge to Hamlet, who, despite Horatio's pleas, accepts it.
As the poison takes effect, Hamlet, hearing that Fortinbras is marching through the area, names the Norwegian prince as his successor.
Fortinbras, who was ostensibly marching toward Poland with his army, arrives at the palace, along with an English ambassador bringing news of Rosencrantz's and Guildenstern's deaths.
Horatio promises to recount the full story of what happened, and Fortinbras, seeing the entire Danish royal family dead, takes the crown for himself and orders a military funeral to honour Prince Hamlet.
Nothing has been cut from this text, and some passages absent from it (including the soliloquy "How all occasions do inform against me ...") have been supplied from the Second Quarto (an edition of the play which exists in copies dated 1604 and 1605).
We have also incorporated some readings of words and phrases from this source and from other early printed texts, and in a few cases emendations from modern editors of the play.
[12] Branagh chose Victorian era costuming and furnishings, using Blenheim Palace, built in the early 18th century as the seat of the Dukes of Marlborough, as Elsinore Castle for the external scenes.
Harry Keyishan has suggested that the film is structured as an epic, courting comparison with Ben-Hur, The Ten Commandments and Doctor Zhivago.
Doyle composed three primary themes for the film to accompany the characters of Ophelia, Claudius and Hamlet, which are varied throughout the score.
The theme for Hamlet was considered by Doyle to be "the most daunting and elusive" to conceive, before settling on a more "simple" motif to accompany the contemplative character.
[17] The soundtrack album was released on 10 December 1996 through Sony Classical Records and features 26 tracks, with a running time of more than 76 minutes.
A Blu-ray was released on 17 August 2010 in the United States and Canada with similar additional features, including an introduction by Kenneth Branagh, the featurette "To Be on Camera: A History with Hamlet", the 1996 Cannes Film Festival Promo, and a Shakespeare Movies Trailer Gallery.
The consensus reads: "Kenneth Branagh's sprawling, finely textured adaptation of Shakespeare's masterpiece lives up to its source material, using strong performances and a sharp cinematic focus to create a powerfully resonant film that wastes none of its 246 minutes.
"[23] The New York Review of Books praised the attention given to Shakespeare's language, "giving the meter of the verse a musician's respect";[24] Branagh said that his aim was "telling the story with utmost clarity and simplicity".
[28] Leonard Maltin, who gave the film a positive three stars in his Movie and Video Guide (and gave the Olivier version of Hamlet four stars), praised the cinematography by Alex Thomson, but stated that "Branagh essentially gives a stage performance that is nearly as over-the-top as some of his directorial touches".
[6] A spin-off game titled Hamlet: A Murder Mystery, directed by historian Jean-Pierre Isbouts, was a co-production by Pantheon and Castle Rock Entertainment.
[37] Shakespeare Studies, Volume 38, thought that the game shows the film's potential as a middle ground for digital works by offering a sound narrative that can be manipulated by player choices.
[38] "Shakespeare's Hamlet In An Era of Textual Exhaustion" felt that the game offers a reworking of the plot that gives the player agency and a sense of immersion.