Hollow crown henry iv part 1 full#
Hollow crown henry iv part 1 series#

The biggest thematic resonance of the first series of The Hollow Crown is the seriesвЂ™ commitment to the sense that war is bad, whatever side you are on. ItвЂ™s efficient storytelling, the local tragedy being measured out in clear steps and feeding back directly into the broader political arc. But clichГ© is avoided by turning the burial into a moment of truce, as Warwick stands between York and Somerset and informs them that they must join their armies together. GeorgeвЂ™s cross being lowered into the ground, Exeter looking sadly into the distance, soldiers crossing themselves.

Hollow crown henry iv part 1 full#

Talbot and his sons get a full montage of sadness to mourn them вЂ“ twin coffins draped in the St. While the scenes happen quickly, the adapters are sympathetic to the human stories that can be pulled from the trilogy and under the inevitable influence of Game of Thrones, Joan appears out of nowhere to stab Talbot in the back while he kneels grieving over his son. The French lords are almost entirely cut, but Joan gets some evocative flashback scenes of weeping statues and moments of inspiration before she rallies on the armies from battlements. Talbot and his son gather themselves under the walls of a French city, establishing genuine feeling in a precious few sentences through sympathetic close-ups and heavy breathing before they rush out, Butch-and-Sundance style. While the back and forth of the wars is cut short by skipping straight to the final battle, Glennister and Laura Morgan as Joan do great work establishing the opposing sides of the army. Perhaps the most exciting aspect of this adaptation is that the French wars actually get airtime. HenryвЂ™s choice of the red rose happens as part of an excellent fluffed attempt at reconciliation between York and Somserset, in which he picks both symbols but drops YorkвЂ™s that moment of carelessness leaves York seething. His innocence and delicacy do more than his words to restrain open conflict, but the nobles are otherwise unguarded вЂ“ York speaks freely in front of Anton LesserвЂ™s Exeter, for instance, and ExeterвЂ™s soliloquy about YorkвЂ™s arrogance is spoken directly to Stanley TownsendвЂ™s Warwick. The film crafts fabulous moments of tension in the court scenes, over which Tom Sturridge presides as a long-haired Henry, dwarfed by the throne in which he sits and doing his best to play the king with slightly awkward speeches and appeals to his menвЂ™s hearts. Yet the conflict is established beautifully, with a silent opening to Henry VIвЂ™s court catching the rose emblems being worn by each faction, the conflict seeping into the court before anyone gets to establish themselves. SomersetвЂ™s promise of horses is returned to in the next scene as the camera cuts between Philip GlennisterвЂ™s Talbot fighting bloodily and Somerset getting a massage and refusing to send them (only villains get massages during battles). York has the performative evidence of an elaborate scroll to do the visual work of showing he is the right, and Ben Miles has such a wonderfully malicious scowl as Somerset that no conscientious viewer could possibly take his side. The film jumps straight into the political conflict, seeming to take YorkвЂ™s side by having Dumbledore himself ( Michael Gambon) as Mortimer explaining to Adrian DunbarвЂ™s York the veracity of his claim. My political qualms aside, this is a beautiful and sensitive adaptation, and in the hands of Ben Power and Dominic Cooke the complex story makes an enormous amount of sense. If those pesky commoners donвЂ™t challenge anything, weвЂ™ll all get along happily, and fortunately for the BBC, the Jack Cade rebellion is being cut from this Henry VI trilogy (in an unfathomable decision вЂ“ why cut the best scenes of the whole sequence, unless the BBCвЂ™s legal team really canвЂ™t stand to hear вЂLetвЂ™s kill all the lawyersвЂ™?), so thereвЂ™s no real challenge to monarchy in this adaptation, just a question over which monarch should wear the crown.

I find it hard not to read this, in the context of English civil wars, as a message to вЂrespect your bettersвЂ™ or вЂSay what you like about structural inequality and inherited privilege, but it keeps people in lineвЂ™. With a slight pause before them, the words вЂњTake but degree away, and mark what discord followsвЂќвЂ™ hang over this new trilogy as an epigraph. Given the relative monarchism and conservatism that often marks the BBCвЂ™s Shakespeare adaptations, itвЂ™s quite something to hear the new Hollow Crown beginning with Judi Dench in voiceover intoning choice excerpts of UlyssesвЂ™ famous вЂdegreeвЂ™ speech from Troilus and Cressida. May 9, 2016, by Peter Kirwan The Hollow Crown: Henry VI Part 1 The BBC