To Thine Own Self Be True

Over the last two nights I watched Hamlet.

Hamlet
1948
Laurence Olivier
Basil Sydney
Eileen Herlie
Norman Wooland

I can't remember for sure, but I probably watched this in high school or even junior high school at some point. Everyone reads Hamlet and then watches the movie in school, right? But it had been so long that I couldn't say for sure that I had seen this, and shoot, I couldn't even remember all of what happened in it. So I'm glad I put this back on my list.

I won't really go into details about the plot - like I said, we all read this in high school. I will say that I had forgotten how good Shakespeare's stories were - I started knitting while watching the movie, but I ended up putting the knitting down and just watching, because it sucked me right in.

I'll also say that if I had ever become a writer, like I always wanted to, I would NOT have been able to write tragedies. I'm far too kind hearted for that. I went to bed thinking about the movie last night, and it all could have been so happy! If only Claudius hadn't killed his brother. If only Hamlet hadn't killed Polonius. If only...well, if only it had been a whole different play. That's my problem, really - I want everyone to be happy, but it's a far more interesting story when they're miserable.

Anyway, I really enjoyed watching this, and I think for the first time since I started watching these old Oscar winning movies, I'm giving it 5 stars. It deserves all five of them.