Blood, Gore, and Fighting Words

My sister, Kristi, didn't have time to read the entire play of Henry V with me this week, so we watched a screen version together in chunks. We watched the first half of the Kenneth Branagh version of the play before I had started reading but after I'd done a little research to understand the basic plot line, characters, etc. A lot of it went over our heads. We were able to discern the gist of what was going on in each scene but our familiarity with the characters was difficult to establish.

It makes me think about how movie scripts are written now in a language that we've come to understand and familiarize ourselves with so that we can easily keep track of major players and plots. Shakespeare plays have a different language not just in that English has changed so much but the way screen-writers/ playwrights and audiences communicate things to each other. For example, today a slowly turning doorknob means something bad is coming through that door. I wonder what conventions from playwriting in Shakespeare's day go right over our heads.



Then, I read the entire play before finishing the screen version with Kristi. I spent the whole movie pausing after each scene to explain what was going on and what the joke was, etc but I think it helped me cement my understanding of the story better than if I had just read it. Has anyone else tried explaining the play to a friend as a way of understanding it better yourself?

Confession: We skipped the battle scene to save time and because ... ew?!