Branagh’s Henry V film and Shakespeare’s Henry IV part 1 both cover major historical events. Shakespeare originally interpreted the antiquity events into exciting stories for audiences that have continued to be well-known for centuries. Both of the texts contribute stories of the royal family which was a large importance to people centuries ago.
The Shakespeare play, Henry IV part 1, focuses on the story of Prince Hal before he became king. The title character is known as wild undisciplined young man, which forces the reader to question if Hal is fit to be king. The main purpose in the play is to establish the nature and kind of man that it takes to be king. In the first scene King Henry, Hal’s father, says “Yea, there thou mak’st me sad and mak’st me sin” referring to the extent of disappointment and worry he has for his son being heir to the throne. This scene is given by soliloquy which is a scene in play that a character speaks their thoughts directly to the audience. The use of soliloquy establishes depth and emotion referring to how the character feels giving the audience a personal insight.
Kenneth Branagh is the director and plays the main role as King Henry V in the Henry V film produced in 1989 based on the Shakespeare play from centuries ago. The film received worldwide awards as being known to be the best Shakespeare film adaptations of all time. The film portrays the idea that Hal has accomplished his responsibility to become king and how far he has come to achieve it. Film techniques are used through flashbacks like this of the characters to give the audience a comparison of what Hal used to be like in the past when he was idling with peasant taverners. After the flashback scene the audience is brought pack to the present showing comparison with Hal’s mature state.
The film represents an important message of the responsibility that a king or leader has to come-by. The discouraging death of Bardolph gives the viewer a definite outlook on Hal as we visualise the characters emotion and hard decision that he made to hang the criminal that was once a good friend. With this decision, the other characters and the viewer can see how much King Henry has changed and matured to become king. With that maturity, comes the responsibility to hang all criminals by law to be respected by followers. Before the death, the viewers are taken back through a flash-back scene to Henry’s past where we view Bardolph laughing with him and saying “Do not thou,
