Paper 1

Jacob Bash

ENG 294 Shakespeare on Screen

1-29-12

Title?

Looking at Laurence Olivier’s 1944 version of Henry V, compared to Kenneth Branagh’s 1989 version, the viewer notices each directors different vision for the their respective films.  Both of these adaptations from Shakespeare’s play were box office hits, garnering both many ticket sales, along with recognition from critics.  Branagh was nominated for an Academy award as best director and best actor, while Olivier’s 1944 version was nominated for best picture, along with Olivier receiving an honorary award for putting Henry V on stage according to the Internet Movie Database.  Olivier created a patriotic movie to raise the spirit of the people of Great Britain during WWII, while Branagh’s goal was to create a realistic life-like movie allowing the viewers to see the inside thoughts and motives of Shakespeare’s characters.  

The largest and first noted difference in the opening scenes.  In the 1944 version the viewer is taken on a sky panoramic tour of London.  He or she is then directed into The Globe Theatre, where Olivier’s show takes place.  The interesting way the director chose to shoot this film is by having the viewer feel like an audience member inside The Globe.  The camera sits in the gallery making the viewer feel as though he or she is back in renaissance London watching a Shakespeare play performed live.  Back in 1944, England was in the middle of WWII, and Olivier wanted the viewer to escape reality and into the world of Shakespeare.  The viewer is able to see backstage into how the actors get ready for their roles, including getting into costumes, and even how the males dress as women roles.  Olivier truly takes his viewers out of the war time state into a much more peaceful time in Great Britain.  The music in the opening is even something more fun, getting the viewers in the mood to watch a patriotic play.  

Branagh on the other hand wishes to bring his viewers into the world of Henry V.  While Olivier wants to make going to the theatre a trip to a different time, Branagh wants to take movie goers into a trip into the mind of another character.  This begins in the beginning with the music setting the stage for the movie.  The viewer at first glance understands that this will be a more dark film than that of Olivier’s.  There also is just the chorus walking through an empty stage, showing that this is not a play, but rather a movie about Henry V.  Unlike Olivier’s, Branagh jumps straight into the times of King Henry.  He does not take any time to develop Shakespeare’s vision, but rather jumps straight into his own.

Another area where the films differ showing their intentions is through the chorus.  One of the areas that the chorus differ, is in Oliver’s version, the chorus is dressed in a costume similar to the other characters.  He has a bright yellow robe, and shows that he is a part of the cast and the play.  The chorus acts as Shakespeare intended, as one who comments to the audience about the play, and is the actor who moves the play forward letting the audience know where everything is taking place.  The chorus asks, “On your imaginary forces work./ Suppose within the girdle of these walls/ Are now confin’d two mighty monarchies,/ Whose high, upreared, and abutting fronts, /The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder” (Prologue, 18-22).  While watching the Olivier version, one will get the feeling that the chorus, played by Leslie Banks (IMDB), is asking the viewer to imagine as if he or she were back in the time of Shakespeare watching the show.  It is set up that the first few scenes are done on stage before jumping into the medieval time of King Henry V.  Banks also recites his lines in a very presentational manner, as if acting on stage live instead of for a camera.  

In Branagh’s version however, the chorus, played by Derek Jacobi, is much darker.  He wishes the bring the viewer into a world of darkness and violence.  This is the world of Henry V.  Both the chorus and Branagh as King Henry, wear dark clothing in the first scene.  Derek Royal notes in his essay titled, “Shakespeare's Kingly Mirror: Figuring the Chorus in Olivier's and Branagh's "Henry V.", “This link between Jacobi's costume and that of Branagh's helps to set the film in the dark and cynical tone that Branagh seems to have intended”(Royal).  

Another example of the main difference between the two films has to do with the camera angles and tones used throughout Henry’s war speeches in each film.  Olivier chooses to create King Henry into a patriotic hero.  He does this through showing the glory of England and that of Henry, instead of the ruthlessness of war and the king of England.  Writes Hindle, “Oliver was determined to project Henry as the kind of heroic figure wartime audiences would warm to and be inspired by, making it necessary for scriptwriters Olivier and Alan Dent to remove 50% of the play’s lines” (Hindle 141).  Olivier cut out lines pertaining to his men raping the French, and putting the heads on pikes.  Had Olivier kept these lines in the play, it would not be as effective as he hoped.  Again, Olivier wanted to make the English look innocent and glorious while the French look weak.  Another example is that there is very little detail shown of the battle scenes.  When Henry gives his famous speech to rally his troops, it is something happy and jovial in his voice.  It isn’t a speech given by someone who hates his or her enemy and wants to get ready to kill.  

Branagh however is dark and gritty.  He wants people to understand the true Henry V.  This includes him having flashbacks and soliloquies to himself.  This allows the viewer to get into the mind of Henry.  Branagh did not want to lessen the brutality of England and of Henry.  He wanted his audience to get to know the true king and be there as he battled the French at Agincourt.  In the famous speech outside the walls, there is fire on the outside, and it is dark.  Not daytime like in Olivier’s masterpiece.  Rather than have a wide camera angle showing the army, Branagh builds tension in his viewer by jumping back and forth between Henry and his army to show individual reaction.  This tenses the viewer and gets him or her ready for a bloody battle.

Ultimately, both these pieces were written for different reasons.  Olivier wrote and directed Henry V as a morale booster for Great Britain.  Branagh wrote his version as a cinematic version, wanting to get his audience involved with the King and sets the mood as if the viewer were in medieval England with Henry going to Agincourt.  His is a much darker and serious version not caring whether or not the king or old time Great Britain looked ruthless.  He wanted to portray it as close to reality as possible.  While Olivier kept true to Shakespeare’s idea of the play aspect and brought the viewer into the world of Shakespeare, Branagh stayed true to the text, trying to cut less and making Henry look as true to Sheakespeare’s vision as possible.  

Hindle, Maurice. Studying Shakespeare on Film. Print.

Royal, Derek. "Shakespeare's Kingly Mirror: Figuring the Chorus in Olivier's and Branagh's "Henry V."" Print.

The Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Web. 30 Jan. 2012. <http://www.imdb.com/>.

Shakespeare, William. Henry V. Print.

Jacob,

You do a nice job at staying focused on the scenes you analyze. Your central argument that Olivier and Branagh’s films are different is fairly generic but you do end up with a fairly tight analysis of the two versions of Henry V as patriotism and as art for art’s sake. I have comments for you in the marginalia, and while there are a number of places where your sentences could use a little more polish, this essay fulfills the assignment goals quite nicely. Your grade: 90 A-