Translating Shakespeare to Film

In 1944, Olivier's Henry V was a landmark film, the first screening of a Shakespearean play to succeed brilliantly as a cinematic work of art. Olivier's Henry V became the standard by which all subsequent Shakespearean films have been measured. Accordingly, when Kenneth Branagh . . . undertook to make a new film of Henry V, numerous skeptics proclaimed him audacious for daring to compete with Olivier. When the new Henry V was released, it confounded the skeptics and received universal acclaim as a new masterpiece, not competing with Olivier but reinterpreting the play in a way meaningful for the late 1980's (Magill's Survey of Cinema).

Branagh used numerous film techniques to shape the narrative, differentiate the characters, explain the history, and highlight the drama in keeping with his interpretation of the play.

Consider the importance given to the battle scenes in this film. Battles in Shakespearean drama take

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than the French. Tracking shots follow the soldiers around the French camp, while the camera holds on the small group of English officers as Henry approaches and speaks to them, after which he is tracked across the camp, leading to a long shot of the panorama of assembled soldiers before a cut to the messenger who tells that the French are ready for battle. The music in this scene is rousing and bright as the knights are placed on their horses and prepare for battle. A line of drummers adds to the merriment, and the soldiers drink a toast before heading into battle. Olivier shows the two armies as opposing lines rushing at one another across a huge green field on a bright morning. Both armies seem vast as they stand and wait before the battle. Olivier emphasizes the pageantry. The 1989 version of the same battle is part of a very different overall vision of the play, a much darker vision of both the play and history. Branagh recreates the play in a real world setting, not on a stage. The army in this film is much more ragtag than that in the Olivier version, and pageantry is not the order of the day. The music is darker and more ominous from the first. The clothing is dark and rough-hewn, and the weather is dank and
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Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)