Note: it is helpful when referring to specific scenes in the film for you to cite them by either a time code — for example, “At 38:20” in a sentence or (38:20) in parenthetical citation form.
Again, Shakespeare did not write his plays with an eye towards publication and a wide readership. He was an actor, writer, part-owner of a theatre company, and — though no one used the term at the time — director. He wrote his plays to be seen, not read. How does seeing a film of this play alter your experience of it? Where does Branagh’s realization of the play fulfill or exceed your expectations, surprise you, or disappoint you?
Branagh cuts a significant number of lines over the course of the film, and rearranges the order of a couple of scenes. He takes two brief scenes from Henry IV, Part I and adds them to this plot. He combines a number of characters into one, and — though you cannot know this unless you have finished reading the play — makes one significant change in the plot towards the end. Discuss any of these changes. Do they add to or detract from your experience of the play?
Virtually all major characters in Shakespeare’s plays are complex and can be played a number of ways. Robert Stephens, who plays Pistol in this film, once said that the role of Hamlet was so complicated that an actor could never really play it but only give an opinion of it. While not quite that complex, Henry is not a simple character. Some of his words and actions are contradictory, and of course the text does not tell us how he speaks various lines. What kind of Henry does Branagh play? Is he heroic? Machiavellian? Loyal? Cold-hearted? How does he convey these qualities?
Branagh managed to gather a spectacular cast of English stage actors for this film. Which performances other than his own stand out to you (positively or negatively) and why? Do any of the performances change your understanding of a character?
This is clearly a film, not merely a filmed play. At many points, Branagh presents the material in a way that would be impossible to stage in a theatre. (Given the multiple apologies the Chorus makes for the inadequacy of the venue — possibly the Globe Theatre, where tradition says it was the first production ever staged there — for presenting the events the play describes, we might imagine that Shakespeare would not have objected to the possibilities film creates.) Examine one or more scenes that Branagh films in a way that takes advantage of the cinematic medium and discuss the various cinematic elements that you think increase the effect the play has on an audience.