Sir Lawrence Olivier and Hamlet
Perhaps the most famous of twentieth century Hamlets was that of Sir Laurence Olivier; the 1948 movie version in which Olivier starred won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor. For that version a very great deal of the play is cut; the focus is very strongly on the lead character.
Olivier first played Hamlet in 1937 at the Old Vic Theatre in London; as he has observed, for his generation, "determined upon realism, the burning question was, of course: 'What makes him what he is?'" Olivier recounts how he, director Tyrone Guthrie, and co-star Peggy Ashcroft went to see Professor Ernest Jones, an academic whose Freudian interpretation of the character of Hamlet as suffering from an Oedipus complex was influential at the time. He was persuaded that "Hamlet was a prime sufferer from the Oedipus complex--quite unconsciously, of course, as the professor was anxious to stress. He offered an impressive array of symptoms: spectacular mood-swings, cruel treatment of his love, and above all a hopeless inability to pursue the course required of him."
Olivier also saw a "weakness for dramatics" as being central to the character of Hamlet. As Olivier put it, it "is as if [Hamlet's] shows of temperament not only exhaust him but give him relief from his absorption in his purpose like an actor who, having spent his all in rehearsal, feels it almost redundant to go through with the performance." Olivier's portrayal of Hamlet on film, which foregrounds this "weakness for dramatics," remains highly interesting, and is widely available.