Hamlet

Hamlet (1990) is Franco Zeffirelli's film adaptation of Shakespeare's tragedy, which you can watch online on iFILM. Mel Gibson takes the title role, with Glenn Close as Gertrude, Helena Bonham Carter as Ophelia, Alan Bates, Paul Scofield, and Ian Holm rounding out the cast.

The Prince of Denmark learns from his father's ghost that the new king murdered him for the crown — and for Gertrude. Revenge needs proof. Proof demands a performance of madness. And the performance gradually bleeds into something harder to control. Zeffirelli stripped the text to its dramatic core, cutting the passages that slow theatrical productions to a crawl, and the result moves like a genuine film rather than a recorded stage play.

Zeffirelli had already shown what he could do with Shakespeare — his 1968 Romeo and Juliet set the template for passionate screen adaptations of the plays. Gibson brings a grounded, physically present anger to the role that makes the philosophical weight land without the usual classroom gravity. Stream Hamlet (1990) online on iFILM.