Confession time: About fifteen minutes into this film I had to go get my copy of the play and follow along. I could hardly understand what anyone was saying, and it was difficult to understand the plot. There are a lot of people in these plays, and none of them go by their real names! If they’re the duke of Gloucester, they’re just called “Gloucester,” and sometimes there is more than one person with the same name–I’m looking at you King Henry, Prince Henry, and Henry Percy…
After about thirty minutes, though, I settled into “Shakespeare mode” and managed to follow along. I still kept my book out to make sure I was on track.
This adaptation rearranges some of the scenes, which is normal for a Shakespeare adaptation; I thought that the rearrangement actually helped the story make more sense. I had the same feelings during this adaptation that I had when I read the play. I didn’t find Falstaff as funny as some people do, and I still had a hard time sympathizing with Prince Hal. I will say that this version did a really good job at showing his “reformation” through a lot of visual symbolism.
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