Day 670: 5 Minute Freewrite: Wednesday - Prompt: red curtain

For @mariannewest in #freewrite

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This one should have been a 5-minute freewrite, but it won't be. So bare with me ...

Red curtain reminds me of theater and theater reminded me of the scene from Henty V that my son Gabe and I tried to film for his portfolio.

First, a short historical excursus. In 1415, shortly before the Battle of Agincourt, the English king Henry V made a brief speech to the army under his command, emphasizing the justness of his claim to the French throne. Then, because of the smart tactics that he employed his small English army, composed mostly of peasants, defeated a numerically superior French army of armored knights. More than 150 years later Shakespeare wrote a famous play that carried the name of that king.

Before Gabe selected this monolog as a part of his future reel, he saw several actors playing it on YouTube. Frankly, he thought he could do a much better job. It seemed like some of these actors spoke it with pompousness or presence.

The others sounded like a theatrical chatterbox.

It was hard to imagine that after saying these words they were going into a battle - let alone raise other people to join him. It seemed as though they’d go behind the curtains, have a shot of Bourbon and get ready for the next scene.

Gabe thought that Henry should not have spoken eloquently “like men in tights,” but with wild conviction scream his lungs out, like one of those wild Norseman warriors in Game of Thrones. He thought that if he’d say these words from the depth of my heart, with emotional sincerity, his Henry would easily be ten times better. In reality, however, the task turned out to be not so cut and dry.

After the first read, Henry seems to be a demagogue and a manipulator. Hearing his cousin Westmorland noting that French troops greatly outnumber them, Henry turns the tables on him, presenting the upcoming battle as a great honor of overcoming tough odds.

“…and if to live the fewer men the greater share of honor.”

He also was attempting to put his soldiers on the same level with him by calling them “gang of brothers” and, finally, offering them nobility.

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:

Considering that most of Henry’s troops were of “yeomen” class (or peasants) this was a great bargaining chip. Also, considering how wickedly Henry went about the battle, this interpretation seemed justified.

And it made it difficult to present Henry as a hero, the way this character was intended by Shakespeare and thus portraying him exuding righteous eager.

Was he really a hero? Henry V was, obviously, Elizabethan ancestor and Shakespeare, who completely depended on the queen‘s benevolence, most likely had to kiss her ass. From the point of view of the modern political correctness, Henry is an aggressor, conquering a neighboring country, ahem…, hardly a hero. Also this concept of honor…

In a way, you can understand it. Often modern boxers or UFC fighters beating themselves on a chest stating that they’d fight not for money but for honor, legacy, etc. Yeah, ok. But, what’s so honorable in killing a bunch of French and English peasants for the sake of one gangster warlord, replacing another one on the throne of France? Thus, portraying Henry as a hero was a challenge while seeing Henry correctly is really important, in creating your own approach to a character.

What helped Gabe was the realization that criteria of political correctness drifted over the centuries. During medieval times, English and French nobility intermarry so often, that all high nobility of both sides of La Marché was related and, in certain situations, could have had claimed the throne of the neighboring country. Also, in the early 15 century, France and England weren’t sovereign states as they are today, but were broken down to small dukedoms. So Henry only laid claims on a small portion of France, by the way of his great grandmother Isabella being the French princes. Thus, actual Henry V was, most likely, genuine in thinking that he had legitimate rights for the French throne. Also, as a king, he equated himself with the country, thus felt entitled to risk lives of thousand other people.

Ultimately, the way you portray Henry is really a matter of your choice and, in a way, a matter of your audience cultural background. Shakespeare’s script allows you to render his image, at least, in two different ways: as a boisterous hero or as a manipulative asshole.

Another concern was Elizabethan English. Not only is it harder to memorize because it constructs sentences unlike modern English, but also some words and expressions changed the meaning and it takes an effort to understand what exactly they meant and mean.

That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made
And crowns for convoy put into his purse:

I note in parenthesis that the first time in my life I reflected on the meaning of the word “passport.” Henry was suggesting to give those “not so brave people” a pass through the port where an English vessel could take them back to England.

In addition, a Shakespearean verse is written in a certain poetic style – iambic pentameter. If you adhere to the rules of Shakespearean Theater, you have to read his verses in a certain way, that so many actors that you see in YouTube fragments, do. So these actors had to compromise between the real-life speech and the way how in Shakespearean actors spoke in a theater.

What Gabe chose to portray was based upon what he thought the real Henry V would do, had he been speaking the way Shakespearean Henry V spoke and have he really been cheering up his soldiers before the bloodiest battle of Agincourt.

Finally, there were huge purely technical challenges. We bought the armor, sword, and chainmail in the pawnshop in Burbank for fifty bucks. But they hardly reminded the armor of English knight. So in the actual clip, we tried to make a smooth transition from a historical picture of Henry into Gabriel in those pawn shop armor.

It turned out that they even look a little bit alike. To my eye though Gab is a bit better looking. But maybe it’s a biased parent speak in me.

And those armors... I tell you, they stunk like they were really 500 years old so when you see Gabe sneer, it’s, partially, because of that smell.

Secondly the place. At first, we tried to film it in one of LA’s recreation parks. Yet as we started to film, a ranger told us that we have no right to do so without paying a fee. He didn’t care whether we did just home production.

Luckily we have a decent chunk of land in our Burbank home and a nice large Christmas tree that hopefully could pass for one of the trees in Agincourt forest.

However, the problem was that above our property there are many power lines and we had to place Gabriel in such a way under the tree that those damn could not be been. Thus he stood up on an old “improve your vertical jump” platform and I filmed him from down up.

Another problem was “John Wayne” airport that is located near us and thus every 10 to 20 minutes we had to stop letting it pass by.

We didn’t want our little scene to look fishier than it already looked by adding a flying aircraft in the fifteenth century. Not mentioning that our sound recording equipment by far wasn’t top-notch and the airplane noise did not contribute to the theatrical suspense.

Next problem was also connected to the sound recording, but inversely proportional to the airplane noise. Some of the lines that Gabe had to say, in a frame of mind that his character was, required quite a passionate delivery.

Well, guess what several times the neighbors came over to check whether we are not exercising child abuse or domestic violence.

In the end, I was beaten. We took so many takes that I thought I could already play Henry V.

Allow me to close the red curtain with this comment. )