Discovering Hamlet (Theatre Documentary)

[@susannevollmer2347]

Christopher Plummers ideas about Hamlet are the best and intelligents I`ve ever heard!

[@LokRevenant]

The cut from John Simm to David Tennant at 4:12 made me really happy.

[@gavinrichardson6758]

I find John Nettles’s religious reading of Hamlet to be overstated. I’m surprised the producers of this documentary gave it so much oxygen. Do I believe Shakespeare was a closet Catholic? Actually, I do. Do I believe he wrote Hamlet, consciously or unconsciously, as some kind of extended allegory on the Catholic / Protestant divide in England? It’s too clever by half. Shakespeare’s not one for reductive and totalizing allegories. And much of the structure in Hamlet is suggested by source material that cannot have been influenced by the Reformation. I will say, however, that this allegorical approach demonstrates the rich critical possibilities of the play. My reading does not have to be his, and vice versa. But I think too many students are going to watch this documentary and think his view is the correct one. The “to be or not to be” speech as a goad for English Catholics to overthrow Elizabeth I? That reading impoverishes the greatest speech in English drama.

[@michaelshultz8973]

My jaw dropped when he said that this speech reads "quite all right" as an existential analysis of the human condition, but that it reads "very well" as a call to action to the Catholic community in England.

[@theostapel]

We need so many clever things - to be experienced and thought about - but not too clever. May it be so ! (Idea from Germany)

[@Lytton333]

It's nonsense filler to bulk out the programme. Just more contemporary preoccupation with Marxist style historiographical constructions on works of art. The meat and drink of the Uni lecture room. Likewise the predictable Freudian readings that enter every critical analysis in these kind of documentaries. Perhaps they will eventually be the victim of the same relativism that brought such tendencies to the fore in the first place.

[@janethayes5941]

Never seen nor read Hamlet but now I will.

[@theostapel]

You will encounter a special learning - from the author and within yourself. Good luck.

[@margaretfarquhar9567]

I was twelve when I saw Hamlet and I remember being profoundly effected by it and was fanatically interested in Shakespeare after that Thank you for posting

[@daviddemar8749]

Very interesting. Ive heard the allegorical interpretation of the play before. Christopher Plummer's comments are also very interesting as well

[@um22w22]

He should’ve been an academic. He blows my mind every time he speaks.

[@cheri238]

Professor Harold Bloom had great insight on Shakespeare and actors and directors. Professor Harold Bloom was a Sterling of Humanities at Yale University, Berg Professor of English at New York University, and a former Chales Eliot Norten Professor at Harvard. He wrote more than twenty books, including Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human. I actually would have loved to have seen Paul Roebus playing "Othello." 🙏❤️🌎🌏🌍🌿🕊🎵🎶🎵

[@cherryllcooper679]

So very interesting to hear the allegorical explanation behind the plot. I will never see Hamlet through the same eyes again, and glad of it.

[@chuckhainsworth4801]

Except that there are many allegorical explanations of the plot, just like there is a Hamlet for every actor / director who attempts the summit. Occult allegories are like that. I remember one allegoric interpretation based on Marxist principles from the early 70s that was particularly enlightening.

[@yohei72]

The Catholic allegory Nettles presents here is nonsense. It's based on the conspiracy theory that Shakespeare was a secret Catholic and scattered around clues to that in his work. Even Nettles admits the fact that some of the allegorical readings of characters don't actually fit their real characters, but perversely manages to twist that into an argument *for* his allegorical reading, rather than against that. That he gets so much screen time for this drivel is a blot on an otherwise fascinating program.

[@nevilleharris4466]

@@yohei72 It's hardly a "conspiracy theory". Sheesh already!

[@yohei72]

@@nevilleharris4466 This is hardly a rebuttal. And yes, it’s a conspiracy theory.

[@colonelweird]

​@yohei72 I don't know enough to have any opinion on the matter, but it did seem odd that the theory of "Hamlet as allegory of Catholic suppression" was presented as if self-evident, or even as explicit in the play. Which of course it is not, and could not have been. Even so, it provides an attractive lens through which to see the play, and a way to begin thinking about its issues. Maybe it is not actually a secret allegory, but thinking about the protagonist as a symbol of some larger oppression is surely helpful.

[@JJJulesToo]

Hamlet is about Grief, grief that rips open and exposes every pain and raw nerve of the human existence.

[@be1037]

I read Hamlet in 8th grade and the teacher showed us the Mel Gibson version. I was enthralled. I know there's other, better Hamlets out there.

[@PhilMace]

Fabulous. In all of us but none of us are it

[@guitaoist]

The greatest piece of fictional literature ever devised by mankind

[@theostapel]

To add something important - the author: I cannot see Shakespeare - in this role, not ever. It is legitimately - the created gem - of Francis Bacon. May this solemn and yet joyous reality - be the gift for all - who love English/theatre and higher being - that Bacon - so easily represents. We are the fortunate ones, indeed. Thank you.

[@asielnorton345]

the idea that hamlet is an allegory for the church is fairly harebrained. but i love that people come up with all these ideas about it, creating their own interpretations.

[@kathydent2116]

Wow. John Nettles's take on this play is one that I've never heard before but it makes so much sense. The religious switchback ride of the Tudor period must have loomed large in people's minds, yet they weren't allowed to discuss it openly. To hide this allegory within a revenge tragedy is genius.

[@ANutterwitch-wq1gj]

Agreed. Especially given the 6-page Catholic spiritual testimony dad John Shakespeare signed and hid among the roof rafters (discovered in 1757 by a bricklayer re-roofing the Shakespeare house). With Extreme unction abolished, John Shakespeare set the testament in the roof, perhaps as a confession of his sins. Laertes: "What ceremony else?" and "Must there no more be done?"

[@margo3367]

Shakespeare respected his audiences’ intelligence. He left certain things unsaid , as do all great authors, so that the audience could have their own interpretations. Which leads me to the question, do you think Hamlet really saw the ghost of his father (bearing in mind ghosts do not exist), or was he just so pissed off that his mother was in love with his uncle, the new King, who had taken his father’s place completely?

[@geraldqueener7861]

Maybe Shakespeare just made the best play he could with the world around him in religious turmoil that he could not effect or change. It was simply a great play in a tumultuous world that reflects both reality and imagination 😮

[@hamakua484]

As below, weaving speculation is fun. It would be nice to know if any academic work has been done. Within the presentation there is speculation that Shakespeare may have been partially motivated to write the tragedy Hamlet in reference to a potential Catholic majority uprising against the imposed Church of England. It would also be possible that Shakespeare realized the horror of a religious/civil war in England or in greater Europe. If so, he was proven correct with the horrors of the 30 Years’ War starting 1618 in Europe.

[@paulkossak7761]

I have always gleaned more out of reading the play than any production I've seen.

[@skandababy]

oh wow... really... Let me guess, you also have a girlfriend... but she lives in Canada. Ignoring your pretention, your "gleaning" skills are no different than your average hobo... it's like saying water is wet. Acting and writing are apples & oranges. Gleaning isn't necessary, the words are written right in front you... This is the same old pretentious drivel as "the book was much better than the movie" or "oh, I listened to them way before they were famous, when they actually sounded good" Maybe stop gleaning and just enjoy it... only maybe.

[@John-xk2sd]

My favourite Shakespeare play is On the Waterfront

[@johnmchugh8049]

Hamlet was pretty unraveled for sure 😂

[@TheStockwell]

When you see a good production of a Shakespeare play, that's when you discover what all the fuss is about. 😐

[@markstahura6194]

Why does the description describe a different, quite interesting video?

[@theostapel]

With all these comments - mostly personalised - there is a reply - one can supply, from pop culture. 'Well, that's your opinion . man. ' (The Dude ..... Big Lebowski.) To be expressed - in a laconic/half sleepy way. Everything is quite alright. It is a great philosophical retort - truthful/universal and has a certain long validity. Been waiting - to put such a comment in - for a long time. Hee hee.

[@steveshorter]

I would have loved to see of seen Heath Ledger play Hamlet.

[@hamakua484]

Well done! I watched this excellent program twice. The speculation that Shakespeare might have written Hamlet in reference to the Church of England's elimination of the Catholic Church in Britian was way off my radar. Has any serious academic work been done on this thesis?

[@sutapabanerjee2294]

SHAKESPEARE'S MA WAS A CATHOLIC,MARY ARDEN,REFERENCES TO BARE RUINED CHOIRS,IN DA SONNETS,COULD B A STEP IN THIS DIRECTION..😊😊

[@fburton8]

What is the production shown at 3:12? I'm not sure the caption is right.

[@kathydent2116]

You're right. Philip Saville directed the Christopher Plummer one. I'm mystified by the clip shown at 3.12. A completely unknown version starring a completely unknown actor, as far as I can see.

[@Jeffhowardmeade]

I don't know which production it is, but the actor is Cal Seville.

[@brutusalwaysminded]

Who cares about DEFINITIVE? Life is improvisation and variety. Why should Shakespeare be crystalized? Thanks.

[@billdeng9665]

Shakespear wrote one Hamlet, but readers knew more than 100. To be or not to be , is the question.

[@susannevollmer2347]

To be is Hamlet - not to be is the ghost.

[@sutapabanerjee2294]

EVERY YOUNG MAN IS A HAMLET,HOW MANY YOUNG WOMEN RELATE TO ELECTRA?

[@QueenBoadicea]

39:20 This bitterness about fleeting beauty is a recurring theme in his sonnets and some of his other plays. Beauty is a commodity to be sold, presumably in love and eventually into marriage. A woman who tries to hold on to her chastity too long is risking being cast by the wayside in favor of some other lovely. Making herself up is a stopgap measure at best. Sooner or later, she'll wind up like Yorick.

[@sutapabanerjee2294]

SELL WHEN U CAN,U R NOT FOR ALL MARKETS!!AS U LIKE IT😊

[@susanwozniak6354]

I watched this last night because I began revising an act in a play featuring two women known to Shakespeare (his daughter Susanna and Amelia Bassanno Lanier) as well as 6 of his female characters.. I wanted to see this as a review of Hamlet, which I have seen 12 times, because Gertrude and Ophelia are in my play. I should add that I was raised Catholic but left the Church as soon as I could. I could not disagree more with John Nettles' interpretation of Hamlet. I read Charles Beauclerk's Shakespeare's Lost Kingdom, which I think is ridiculous, but not as ridiculous as the videos here of Anti-Avonians drawing triangles on the texts of Shakespeare's plays to prove they are Masonic tracts. Change the typeface and those triangles can not be drawn. I am certain that -- as the Anti-Avonians call him -- "the man from Stratford" is giggling in the afterlife. I first heard of the Shakespeare did not write Shakespeare movement in a lecture given by John Simon when I was in college. My immediate reaction was that to claim a glover's son from the boondocks could not have written these plays is sheer snobbery and ignores the fact that attending university does not and can not make someone a renowned writer. Think of all the popular and hailed writers who never went to college.

[@Johnconno]

Marcello Mastroianni would have been great as Hamlet.

[@ArielGulluni78]

There is a tv italian movie of Hamlet with Mastroianni.

[@OstblockLatina]

If I was Kate Winslet, I'd be really upset about your choice of a thumbnail for this video.

[@guitaoist]

I disagree with the whole Catholic/Protestant explanation, sure that is part of it, but it goes much deeper than macro politics

[@skandababy]

I hate break it to you Skippy, but religion itself goes much deeper than "macro politics". This was during the height of the protestant reformation / revolution. You cant just flippantly ignore that... there was NOTHING else "deeper" in Europe {and especially England) than religion. They were literally burning people alive as a way to execute people for simply being Catholic or protestant. There is nothing deeper... its effects are still felt today, and you comment is evidence of that. Your comment would have been more than enough for you to be executed back then...

[@piushalg8175]

In those times religion was an all encompassing part of life (personal, social, political etc.) and certainly not a private thing. And yes, people really believed that practising the wrong religion was not only perilous for a concrete person but a danger for the good of the whole community. (That is why in Islam apostasy is seen as treason and punishable by death.)

[@stephenjablonsky1941]

Hamlet is a very unhappy fellow with no idea how to find happiness. All of us have been in that place at one time or other.

[@6249review]

I could have done without John Nettles comments.

[@DJCoolK1d]

I enjoyed this thoroughly but what was up with the guy that thought the whole play was an allegory for religion? lol. I guess you can interpret Hamlet or anything any which way you want. Still hilarious.

[@miloseveggies8064]

9:30 "there's no definitive text" Interesting, how so?

[@Jeffhowardmeade]

Several editions of Hamlet were printed. The second (1604) and third (1611) editions were substantially similar to the First Folio version (1623) but there were some notable differences. The first edition (1603) was probably the result of one of the minor actors copying the play down from (bad) memory to sell to a rogue publisher. Some of the lines are totally butchered. "To be or not to be, aye, there's the point." Nobody pays it much attention. Editors must pick through the differences between the various editions and decide which one serves best. Editors have been arguing for centuries whether Hamlet meant to say "Oh that this too too SALLIED flesh would melt" (2nd ed.) or was it "too too SOLID flesh" (Folio)? Some claim "sallied" makes no sense and Shakespeare must have meant "sullied". Whenever I watch Hamlet, my ears prick up at that scene to see which version the director chose.

[@sutapabanerjee2294]

​@@JeffhowardmeadeMUCH IS GAINED/LOST IN REDACTION,ACCRETIONS,LOCAL ADAPTATIONS,PIRATED COPIES(COULD B WELL WORTH SERIOUS STUDY,WHO KNOWS WHAT NEW ILLUMINATIONS MAY EMERGE??😊

[@Mg023]

17:30

[@Mg023]

37:23

[@Sophiedorian0535]

Oi. I have a question about the soliloquy. As long as I can remember, I have always put the pause after 'whether', which word I deliver with a rising tone, not a falling one. To put it after 'question' feels so (fucking, I daresay) wrong! I am a music teacher, pushing sixty, and my native language is not English. Has anyone else had this feeling? It is very strong with me. Musically, and by extension poetically, it's just not right ... but I am reporting a feeling here, not an opinion or a judgment. Can someone school me a bit, here?

[@lindarinnyo6239]

IMHO To be or not to be: that is the question. (A statement) Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows....or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing, end them-There’s the respect....(also a statement, not a question)

[@Sophiedorian0535]

@@lindarinnyo6239 Thank you very much Linda. I appreciate your reply enormously. xxx

[@Sophiedorian0535]

@@lindarinnyo6239 Good evening. I just got out of Ponder Mode. It took myself and a couple of more learned compatriots over a week to learn what I needed to learn, in order to come up with a reply worthy of both you, and Shakeman Bill. First off: I am Belgian, former Catholic convent school brat, and have been a teacher of convent school brats of Hamlet's age, for over three decades. Hamlet is a Catholic convent school brat, alright. He practically exudes Ignatian upbringing with every breath he takes, throughout the entire play. I love hamlet. Not just the play, but the character. I have met a few Hamlets in my life, and witnessed some of these children fall apart under too much education at too early a stage in their maturation. They experience lengthy and horrible psychotic episodes. The territory of Belgium had been a Spanish possession during Shakespeare's day. My city Antwerp served as a fortress of Catholicism, and a marketing HQ for the Counter-Reformation. Some of the first Jesuit Schools had been instituted in Antwerp, by the followers of Ignatius of Loyola, the Spanish founder of the Jesuit order. Their first pupils had been the male children of the rich and the powerful. Female children started receiving the Ignatian brand of education some time later, when the Ursulines and Annunciades adopted the method. The Belgian University of Louvain developed the method into higher education, as early as the end of the 16th century. And finally, Belgium has lived its own Hamlet, in the guise of King Albert the First, who emerged from his own to-or-not-to-be episode telling Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany to go fuck himself, August 1914. We got slaughtered in the process of taking up arms against seas of troubles, at Liège. To suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune within the confines of our minds, was deemed the least noble of answers to question 'to be or not to be'. It took the Kaiser four more years to fuck himself completely, but the Belgians made sure he started off his invasion of France, decisively fucked. "The Belgians put the Kybosh on the Kaiser" (What a Lovely War). So far my perspective. Over to the soliloquy. The shit with Shakespeare is that most of his plays constantly cross-fade from verse into prose, and back again, but I have always had the impression that most interpreters of Shakespeare's characters seem to be early leaving verse mode. I have that same feeling with the Soliloquy. To my musical ear, it starts off entirely as verse. Soliloquy is the right term for the passage, since it is not a monologue. It's a dialogue spoken by one speaker alone. And that is EXACTLY how Ignatian teachers used too teach, and how their students were supposed to ponder their teachings. To summarise: I hear (and therefore read) verse from "To be" ... to "end them" , not prose, and I hear a dialogue, not a monologue. "To be or not to be" is the start of a didactic interrogation, and is spoken by the teacher during interrogation (it's what we called 'tests' and 'oral exams') The student is supposed to explain the question, not answer it. When you prepare for interrogation, you start by the questions you are likely to be asked, and you recite your explanation of these questions, in response. We called these lines 'questions', but they weren't questions, nor were they statements.They were concepts that prompted explanation. It went like this: Good Morning Hamlet --Good morning Reverend Mother Let us commence: "To be or not to be" -"That is the question whether it is nobler to suffer thy fate in silence, or to defy it with all thy might in the hope of resolving it." Correct. Albeit scarcely more than correct, Hamlet. You passed.

[@brentblake8306]

@@Sophiedorian0535 Wow! How you write and think! You burst outta "Ponder Mode" riffin' and chain-thinking like Hamlet, like Joni Mitchell. She called him "Willy the Shake" ( after Lord Buckley). After watching the doc your comments have my head spinning. Thanks for taking the time to write them.

[@Sophiedorian0535]

@@brentblake8306 Joni Mitchell is one of my favourite artists, and influences as a musician. Her top album in my view is ‘Mingus’ (1981). Best track: ‘The Dry Cleaner from Des Moines’. How did you know? Are you a Mitchell fan, too?

[@QwertiusMaximus]

"We go to Shakespeare plays to recognize the quotes." Possibly Oscar Wilde

[@kathydent2116]

Really? I think Oscar would have used the noun, 'quotation', not the verb, 'quote'.

[@Mg023]

11:00

[@EricaNernie]

The cutting between interviews every 30 seconds is just annoying. If the audience is interested in Hamlet, they probably have longer attention spans than that.

[@guitaoist]

Francis Bacon the “concealed poet” wrote the plays and knew Elizabeth personally, he was a lawyer and scientist who knew 8 languages and read every mythological text written, usually in its native language.

[@theostapel]

FB cannot be hidden again - the truth will always arise, out of the darkness - bringing its light - and his contribution and his person - will be recognised and honoured appropriately. May it be so !

[@oobrocks]

I would have greatly preferred a lot more clips and a lot less talking heads

[@terrycloth6380]

KB is so overblown.

[@peteg475]

I like him in other things but I think KB's Hamlet is a bit over the top. Underplaying it in more places would have helped. But I LOVED the setting in that one (Europe - 1900).

[@emmanuelwinner4149]

Half the interviews are given over to John Nettles with his Big Theory about Catholicism and the Reformation, and frankly he's an ass. His theory answers everything - and yet also nothing, because it cannot account for the details. Not that the Reformation of the era isn't important, but it just doesn't cut and dry out what is most compelling - and most intriguingly unanswered - about the character of his actions. Nettle's theory seriously weighs down the second half of this film, and I'm not sure why the film makers let it.

[@Althom1990]

I didn't agree with a single thing David Tennant said. Also 'living out a fantasy' means acting on the fantasy not living vicariously through it. Plummer is wonderful.

[@susanwozniak6354]

I'm not a fan of Tennant. The second time I saw Hamlet was Plummer's Hamlet, broadcast as Hamlet from Elsinore.

[@barrycrump6189]

When productions of Hamlet set the drama in more modern times, why do they not insist on updating the antiquated and arcane language?

[@peteg475]

Because you don't "update" Shakespeare's language. It's freakin' Shakespeare. Changing the setting can make it interesting, so THAT you can do. If you want to go further, change it completely into a different form, like "West Side Story" did with "Romeo and Juliet". At that point it's almost a whole new thing, so you can change the language then.

[@madameversiera]

Because if you take away the language of Shakespeare it's not Shakespeare anymore? You can't simply translate Shakespeare to our language and make it interesting. You people should read something in your life, it doesn't hurt you...

[@lindarinnyo6239]

Sure, and the Mona Lisa would look better if you got rid of all that old paint

[@rolandhawken6628]

Mel Gibson playing Hamlet what a laugh ,he can't act

[@skandababy]

aww you poor little sheep... one day, maybe you think for yourself... maybe.

[@rolandhawken6628]

@@skandababy Your are the worshiper they are the sheep ,sheepy

[@barrycrump6189]

I was hoping that this was going to be a feature about the Hamlet cigar adverts rather than this overwrought drama with its sprinkling of homespun philosophies on life and death.

[@giselematthews7949]

I don't like Shakespeare

[@madameversiera]

Shakespeare couldn't care less whether you like him ahahah

[@lindarinnyo6239]

You don’t know what you’re missing

[@PilotVBall]

Hamlet...again? Good lord find something new.

[@madameversiera]

There is nothing new under the sun

[@lindarinnyo6239]

Reverse snobbism is a curse

[@TheMarshmelloKing]

Hamlet, like much of Shakespeare’s work, is always fresh- always relevant. That’s what makes it, (and him) so special. We’ll never stop performing Hamlet because it speaks to us on deep, instinctive level, regardless of how much time has passed or how many performances there are.

[@bimbo-yw6ny]

wouldn't like to play Hamlet, you 've to get in the part of a broken man, i'am already a looser myself, do i need to watch a tormented man, torturing himself. I would prefer a commedy let me avoid revenge, hate, destruction; at least not in this moment of my life.

[@Mg023]

20:50

[@Mg023]

40:22

[@Mg023]

22:11