And rule it does. Few filmed versions of Hamlet have so perfectly captured the relentless doom of Hamlet's predicament. He's too terrified to accuse his uncle of murdering the rightful king, yet he's equally scared not to. The film was made in a Cold War-era Russia steeped in fear. The prince is a prisoner in his own country, deemed dangerous because he won't play along.
Waves rise and fall at sea.
Slowly the gate is lowered and, with a reverberating click, locks into place. The prison theme shows up throughout the film. Later, Ophelia is shown being locked into a stiff iron corset that looks more like a torture device than a piece of apparel. Smoktunovsky plays Hamlet with a heartbreaking openness, his overwhelming grief and anger made profoundly clear in his haunted eyes. All the performances, in fact, are magnificent, somehow transcending the muddling effect of the subtitles.