Considered by John Gielgud and Kenneth Branagh to be the definitive screen adaptation of the play according to a New York Times profile of lead actor Smoktunovsky.
It took six months to build a life-size imitation of a medieval castle for the film. The castle was built of logs and veneer, then painted and decorated to mimic the ambiance of the Shakespearian play. The main film set decoration was built in Keila-Joa village, Estonia, then part of the Soviet Union.
Most of the filming took place in Keila-Joa village, Estonia. However, some scenes were filmed at the Lenfilm Studios in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg). Dubbing and post-production was done entirely at the Lenfilm Studios in Leningrad (Saint Petersburg) where Dmitri Shostakovich supervised the symphony orchestra recording his score.
This adaptation of Hamlet is one of the most cut (compared to the original play).
Some visual components of the movie (castle and its interiors), the placement of the actors and the set design (To Be or not to Be on the seaside, and some others) are taken from Laurence Olivier's [tt=tt0058126], who was never seen by Soviet viewers.