Richard II on Demand

Hello from the grave (of the semester? Bad analogy methinks. Oh well)!

I watched Richard II on the BYU Films on Demand site since I've been so interested in the successive history plays that start with this one and ends with the fifth King Henry. I didn't look into the background of this play, but after watching it I wonder very much if it wasn't a special filmed dress rehearsal type thing. The entire flow was done as it would have been if it were a stage play. There was no fading in or out, and the transitions between scenes was obviously done as a play would be.

The acting was good, but there weren't any outstanding ones in my mind. I didn't follow along with the text on hand, but this version of the play was obviously true to Shakespeare's script. This is a good thing because it's good to stick with the original because a feel of integrity or legitimacy usually goes along with it. However, the way many characters did their lines was obviously iambic pentameter. This was a bit distracting and not so attractive to me. The costumes were good, but I would have preferred a little less modern style. There was a cut very very short duel at the beginning, with swords, but later on in the play a minor character (about as important as the prison inmate #2 role that Tobias Funke gets), a guard, had a gun as a prop and I wasn't too keen on that. Yeah, I'm being picky, and I admit I'm biased with a love of medieval style anything, but it seemed out of place to me.

In the end I'm really glad that they seemed to be very true to the text. Honestly the main thing it did was greatly fuel my desire to watch the most recent 2012 version included in the BBC mini-series-type called "The Hollow Crown." Yeah, I've mentioned it about a million times now.