[Quick Summary: Young Henry V attempts to conquer France in 1415.]
Q: You've never read this play before.
A: No.
Q: So given that, how was the adaptation? Could you follow it?
A: It IS exactly the play, but well-edited. And yes, I could follow it.
Q: So how was it as a script?
A: Honestly? I was bored. I tend to agree with P. Mosdell who wrote, "Henry V is not particularly significant in the history of cinema," because it's a film of a play.*
Q: This was a well regarded film, done for cheap after the war. Did the script have any cinematic merit for you?
A: I'm unsurprised by the absence of narrative flourishes that are common today. After all, this was written by Olivier, for himself to direct and star in.
I did like how the script breaks illusion with a silent, visual cue to convey, "We know this is a play." At the beginning, it is a boy with writing on a placard.
Here is how they did it at the end, simply with make-up (underlined):
Henry and Katharine are crowned and joining hands walk away from the camera to two thrones in the b.g. CAMERA TRACKS FORWARD following them.
C.U. Henry turns round on reaching the throne. He is wearing the crude Globe Theater make-up.
APPLAUSE IS HEARD.
CAMERA PANS R. to show a boy made-up as Katharine acknowledging applause.
M.S. Henry and the Boy as Katherine, CAMERA TRACKS BACK to reveal the Stage of the Globe Theatre. Chorus enters L. and pulls the curtain across.
WHAT I'VE LEARNED: Plays are heavy on the auditory, and films on the visuals. So when transferring a play to film, find where the visuals can carry for the auditory.
Henry V (1944)(continuity script)
by William Shakespeare and Laurence Olivier & Dallas Bower
*Canadian Forum, Oct. 1946.
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