[MR] Youtube: More St. Crispian Speeches

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble Friends,

Last week I posted a text to Henry V's St. Crispian's Day speech from
Shakespeare's play. There are a whole helm-full of versions on Youtube. I
viewed several, and found some to be pretty good, some just awful. If you
would like to explore a few, try this search: st crispin's day speech
youtube .

>From memory, I thought Laurence Olivier's 1944 speech to be among the
worst, but actually it isn't all that bad. Some of the sound is poor, the
blocking is awful, and the set is far too lavish for believability:
https://youtu.be/P9fa3HFR02E . Keep in mind that this was filmed during
WWII, and was a Churchill-endorsed propaganda and morale piece which tried
to show England at its nobelist.

The Hollow Crown version was recommended to me by Lady Julia, and it comes
off pretty well: https://youtu.be/oz_IBbvcRao . I'm a bit confused by the
video editing, but it would probably be more meaningful if I saw the whole
film.

One of my favorites is the scene from Renaissance Man, which (likely
purposefully) is not quite correct to Shakespeare's text, but fits the
story very well: https://youtu.be/UzIyExlEcyk . I highly recommend this
really enjoyable comedy/drama film in general. It is one of my all-time
favorite movies.

Perhaps the worst is the Richard Burton version, which seems to have been
recorded from a live stage play (there is no video action). It is perhaps
the truest to Shakespear's text, but the dialogue is too conversational and
hardly inspiring: https://youtu.be/TU7NrnLsr5g . Burton gets five "Zs" from
me.

I still think that Kenneth Branagh's version is one of the best, both for
his delivery and for the set and costumes: https://youtu.be/A-yZNMWFqvM . I
like this clip because it adds Henry's conversation with the French herald.
The following battle scenes are shockingly realistic, except that all the
principal actors are dashing about without helmets and many are on
horseback (according to all accounts the English fought on foot from a
carefully chosen defensive position behind stakes):
https://youtu.be/uBH4hyiF1Lo . Did you ever notice that Kenneth Branagh has
almost no lips?

Yours Aye,


Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆
Continuing a crusade to keep Merry Rose relevant and in business.