Nerd Fun, Shakespeare Edition: Film Versions of Hamlet's "To Be Or Not To Be" Speech

I am still obsessing about the Patrick Stewart/David Tennant version of "Hamlet" that aired a few nights ago on PBS (you can see the whole glorious thing online now at PBS), and I was also mentally comparing this film version to all the other film versions of "Hamlet" that I've seen.

It's been very interesting, so I thought I'd share my nerdy pleasures with you, O gentle reader. I can't link to all the films in their entirety, so I've given you just the "to be or not to be" speech.

What do you make of these different actors as they tackle this famous soliloquy?

David Tennant (2009/2010)




Sir Laurence Oliver (1948)




Richard Burton (1964)




Mel Gibson (1990)




Kenneth Branagh (1996)




Ethan Hawke (2000)



I would be remiss, though, if I did not give you the entire text of the speech itself:

To be, or not to be : that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.--Soft you now!
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember'd.

(I dedicate this post to those lovelies La Parisienne and California Dreamer -- fellow fans of Shakespeare and David Tennant alike!)

Oh, I can't help myself. Here's more nerdy fun with (Sir!) Patrick Stewart:



UPDATE 1: I nearly forgot to remind you of this! Or this.

UPDATE 2: La Parisienne, this one's for you.