Henry V
2012: Rupert Goold, Thea Sharrock

This forms a part of the BBC series “The Hollow Crown”. As a viewing experience, it is vastly different from any of the more stagey versions of the play. It is fully cinematic, with location shoots, a cast full of cinematic stars, rich and careful art direction, and a compelling score. It also has a severely cut script, with a few explanatory lines added, and a few scenes (often wordless ones) that don’t represent anything in the original play. There is no laugh track, either; accordingly, unlike almost any of the stage versions (especially the Globe one by Dromgoole), viewers are not dragged along willy-nilly into compulsory comic reactions every thirty seconds or so, but can find the emotional level for themselves without instruction. To me that seems like a good thing, though opinions may vary.

Balancing its relative strengths and weaknesses, it is faithful to the core story, and for a student unfamiliar with Shakespeare or the dynamics of English history of the time, it will afford a good and exceptionally engaging introduction. It is not preoccupied with symbolic vocabulary or high-concept artistry; it is merely deeply involving storytelling. Along the way, it also serves as a superb repository of visual imagery that is more realistic in many ways than anything that can be done on stage. Because the language is so truncated, and because there really are some rich philosophical discussions in the play that effectively fall through the cracks here, I would recommend following it up with some other more complete version. But there’s nothing to prevent anyone from doing that.

Henry himself is played by Tom Hiddleston, who is surely much more widely known for his portrayal of Loki in the Avengers movies; Hiddleston also plays the same character (known as Prince Hal in Henry IV, Part 1 and Henry IV, Part 2) for the episodes of The Hollow Crown leading up to this one. That in and of itself provides greater continuity, which will improve the experience for the novice, but also for anyone else who is tracking the whole sequence of plays and wants to discern the character arc of this exceedingly interesting man. But even irrespective of the larger context, Hiddleston is an actor of very considerable range, who knows how to play a complex character in a cinematic context. As Peter Brook noted in his comments about his Hamlet, film allows a much wider expressive range — both in volume and in nuance — than does a stage production; it probably also goes without saying that this is something that involves its own skill set, both for the performers and for viewers. Stage and screen acting, while similar, are not identical. Hiddleston here brings small-scale variations of expression into play that reveal the nuances of a character fighting hs way to self-understanding and clarity. There are and probably always will be a variety of ways of interpreting Prince Hal/King Henry, but a consistent through-line for the sequence helps make sense out of one, at least.

People may also recognize Geraldine Chaplin (The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers), Richard Griffiths (Harry Potter’s Vernon Dursley), Simon Russell Beale (Falstaff here and a variety of of other Shakespearean characters), Julie Walters (Mollie Weasley in the Harry Potter films), and John Hurt (Olivander in the Harry Potter movies and Richard Rich in the 1966 A Man for All Seasons). These identifications are to some extent incidental, but they enrich the experience for some.

This is not and cannot be the definitive Henry V. It’s not clear that such a thing ever can be, but altogether too much is missing to make this a stopping point. But it is a fine viewing experience: exciting, engaging, and superbly acted at almost every point. One hopes that people will come back for other versions, or (best of all) read the play in addition, but it’s a very decent place to start, and not at all bad on reviewing it as well.

Buy the BBC series The Hollow Crown at Amazon. This is the first of two projected series, containing Richard II, Henry IV, Part 1, Henry IV, Part 2, and Henry V.