The Hollow Crown - Henry VI, Part II [2016]

Welcome back to My Year of Shakespeare, the blog series where I pretend I'm qualified to talk about Shakespeare in any way. Since this is a composite of all three parts of Henry VI, a synopsis is in order; bear with me on the brevity, a lot of my writing time this week is being eaten by my Hallowatch.

The Lancaster cause is in rough shape. Somerset and Suffolk are killed in the First Battle of St Albans. Lord Clifford, son of the Duke of Suffolk, finds his corpse and swears revenge. Margaret de Anjou finds Somerset's decapitated head and hardens her heart. The Duke of York's countless pile of sons proves advantageous.

York, with Warwick, takes Henry's throne room, and upon return, the King comes to a settlement with the York faction — upon his death, the crown goes to the York line. Everyone on the Lancaster side is pissed about this situation, except for Henry. The Queen swears revenge on York, on behalf of her now-disinherited child son; the revenge, with Clifford, includes killing the Duke of York.

York's sons, Edward, Edmund, and Richard, are joined by Warwick and other supporters and decide to declare Edward king; York's head is on a pike back in London, which Henry despairs at, then undercuts his own despair as he joins Margaret and company to war, once again, with York; Richard defeats Clifford, leaving him scarcely alive, then leaves him choking on his own blood without delivering a final blow, to let him suffer more. Henry, finding Clifford, also leaves him alive despite Clifford asking for him to administer the coup de grace; this is framed as an inability to commit to a choice to shed any blood. Henry watches a son loot and mourn his father's body, and a father mourn his son. It's not terribly subtle, the message that this civil war is tearing the kingdom and its constituent pieces (families) apart. Henry throws the crown in the river.

As Edward is coronated, Henry is captured and locked in the tower, in an echo of Richard II. Ten years later, Warwick departs for France, to find a wife for Edward. A messenger arrives after he and the king arrive at an agreement; Edward has married some random someone. This so enrages Warwick that he, Margaret, and King Charles join their forces and houses together to retake England. Warwick's men fish Henry's crown out of the river and they travel to find him in the tower. Edward and Henry agree to clash; York wins, killing Warwick, Richard executing Ned (Henry's son, the prince) before departing for London to execute Henry, monologuing the whole way. He does, then kubrick stare soliloquys to the audience more talking about how he won't let blood or the line of succession get in his way.

The language in this one feels more put together than the first part, like the kingly people (Henry, Richard, to a lesser extent Edward and Louis) get speeches and speak in verse more than the others like Warwick or even Queen Margaret.

Henry's conception of the nation state — a crown won by conquest, not rebellion, that represents a territory that waxes and wanes — seems very different than everyone else's, to his detriment. He seems to see it as the governance of people and everyone else seems to see it as the governance of land. The disagreements and contradiction from that then inform everyone reactions; this drives the gripe about the dowery, everything.

Some of the action shots in this are very goofy, almost Raimi-esque; this contrasts weirdly with some of the "this is in the play because we needed to have an illustrated example" bits like the father and son.

I'm excited to see the conclusion next week with Richard III.

A reminder of our schedule:

• October 18 - The Hollow Crown, S02/E03: Richard III
• October 25 - The King (2019)
• November 1 - Chimes at Midnight (1966)
• November 8 - My Own Private Idaho (1991)
• November 15 - Henry V (1989)
• November 22 - The Black Adder [series one] (1983)
• November 29 - The Goodbye Girl (1977)

Thank you for reading along with My Year of Shakespeare