(Rated 4/5)
And this time...
Not quite perfectly excellent so I'm taking a mark off ;)!
Still great cast, great writer, great production! But perhaps in a strange way it can't quite match up in emotion and drama with its prequel. Reports on Shakespeare's own writing history differ; some say he planned the entire Hollow Crown series - in effect as the story of the legacy on Henry V of his father's gaining the thrown by killing Richard II, others that Henry IV Part 1 was so well received by the audience, that William wrote a sequel. And are sequels ever as good?! In my experience of current movie sequels usually not.
Still, this is powerful drama. What does it really mean to Henry IV to die and how is he coping with the guilt of the manner of his gaining the thrown? What is he feeling about the prospect of his errant son, Hal, becoming King? How do they resolve things between father and son if at all? And does Hal really banish "plump Jack" and his other non-Royal friends? Or instead does he favour them and honour them?
Life as a royal at the time of these Henrys, and even later in Shakespeare's time was so different to today. Watching Tom as Hal in Part I, I couldn't help thinking of our young Prince Harry and how he would face these issues? He is happily interacting with 'common people' but these days that is so encouraged! (Of course it is his brother William, who we expect to be in Hal's position, but I'm sure William will also not even consider banishing anyone or stopping his friendships with his more lowly subjects! The very idea may seem farcical to us now.) The pressure on them is so much less in that sense. They have been part of revolutionising the monarchy in any case. The crown is perhaps not such a heavy burden as it was. The responsibility and power less. But monarchs still a sacrifice of normal life and cope with being celebrated (or not!).
And so Hal fully becomes Henry V next Saturday...
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