England, early 1400s. After killing Richard II, the new King Henry IV has to battle rebellions against his rule. He is annoyed that his son Prince Hal spends a lot of time with overweight, sloppy knight Falstaff, drinking at taverns and sleeping with prostitutes. Hal and Falstaff even rob some travelers in a forest, and Hal plays a trick on Falstaff, robbing even him under disguise. In the Battle of Shrewsbury, Hal kills rebel Henry Hotspur, dispersing his army. When Henry IV dies from a disease, Hal is proclaimed as the new King Heny V. Falstaff is overjoyed of the news at first, but Hal feigns to not know him. Saddened by the rejection, Falstaff dies.
Included in Roger Ebert’s list of Great Movies, Orson Welles’ 10th feature film is an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s plays “Henry IV” part 1 and 2, yet due its archaic, overlong and ponderous dialogues, it does not feel as fresh nor as alive anymore. The audio aggravates the intention of the viewers to try to understand the film, since the dub has problems, and thus subtitles are needed to decipher what the protagonists are saying at certain time. Welles was drawn to the character of the overweight, mumbling knight Falstaff who seems to mirror some of the director’s private traits, including the famous betrayal by Prince Hal when the latter becomes King Henry V, and cuts all ties with his immature past, and thus rejects Falstaff. However, Falstaff’s and Hal’s friendship never had that truly strong of a bond, since Hal acts more as if Falstaff is his butt of jokes and pranks. One great sequence shows them dressing up as monks, and as Hal tries to put on a white cloak on the corpulent Falstaff, he remarks: “How long is it Jack, since thou saw thine own knee?”
After the robbery, Hal and his friend prank Falstaff and his entourage by dressing up in a black cloak and robbing their stolen money, only to later meet in a tavern and enjoy listening to Falstaff’s excuses and exaggerations in trying to justify how he was himself robbed: “There lives not three good men unhanged in England - and one of them is fat and grows old, God help the while.” Falstaff claims he fought four robbers, then seven, until the number grows to eleven. Finally, when Hal reveals it was he who robbed them while disguised, Falstaff tries to find even an excuse for that, by twisting it that he deliberately ran away because he recognized him: “Was it for me to kill the heir apparent? Should I turn upon the true prince?” This is a great little comedy scene, yet the movie doesn’t have that many of them. The famous Battle of Shrewsbury sequence is a little bit overhyped: it has realistic details (one knight pounding another one on the ground; several men in armor wiggling in mud like worms), yet all this is not half as interesting as the deliciously funny scenes of Falstaff, in his fat armor, peeking behind a tree, and then hiding again until all is over. The film has some traces of Welles’ sense for cinema in the well placed shot compositions and mise-en-scene (Hal standing next to his dead father on the throne, illuminated by a beam of light coming from the window of the castle), yet it never truly comes together as a whole, as if the whole story is, except for the ending, distant, schematic and too artificial to truly ignite.
Grade:++
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