Hamlet is often regarded as the Renaissance narrative which has most aggressively been put to film. Franco Zeffirelli's 1990 entry marks yet another entry into that series of films.
Based on William Shakespeare's play of the same name, Zeffirelli's version doesn't alter much from the plot of Shakespeare's play. Fundamentally, Hamlet tells the story of the eponymous Prince Hamlet, who is involved in a power struggle in his country of Denmark with his uncle, who had just murdered Hamlet's brother to seize the throne and take control of the kingdom. After a strange encounter, Hamlet decides to fake madness and plot revenge on his uncle.
Upon release, Zeffirelli's Hamlet received mixed, skewing positive, reviews. Famed critic Roger Ebert was one of the few critics that loved the film, awarding it 3.5 out of 4 stars and calling Gibson's portrayal "strong" and "intelligent" and calling the film "robust." Variety, however, didn't particularly enjoy the film, saying that its "Performances all fall in a middle range between the competent and the lackluster."
