There are some good things about this film and some bad things. I guess the good this that this play was actually filmed, and that it is available to view for free on Youtube. Many of the history plays (with the exception of Henry V and Richard III) actually appear as film, as well as live performances, so being able to see this play performed is a benefit in and of itself. The other thing is that they stick to the play very faithfully. The scenes are film in order and the are complete. The only addition to this play was the death of Richard II, which occurs at the end of the previous play (which is also available on Youtube).
The thing that I did not like about this is that the effort seemed to be half-hearted at best. It is not that the acting was bad, but rather that the actors did not seem to put that much passion into the roles. Maybe it had something to do with the era in which it was made because many of these earlier Shakespearian performances were average at best. However Sir Lawrence Olivier's production of Richard III was, to put it bluntly, brilliant, and it was released quite some time before this play.
Many of the more modern plays seem to have much more life in it than these earlier performances, even though they tend to chop and change and delete parts of the play. Personally I don't mind this because the filmmakers are experimenting with the play using the television medium, which allows a lot more than a stage. For instance, the use of surveillance cameras in the recent release of Hamlet starring Patrick Stewart and David Tennant added to new dimension to the play (suggesting that what was initially done in private may not actually have been done in private).
I expected a lot more from Falstaff (though knowing that this was a BBC production I wasn't actually expecting all that much) and also a lot more from the scenes set in Eastcheap. In this film it is set in the basement which seems to be disconnected from the pub as a whole, in a way a sort of private gathering, while when I read the play I imagined that it was set in the main part of the pub. In a more modern setting, it would be in the main bar, with Falstaff being the dominant patron in the pub (as a number of pubs tend to have). This part of the play though does remind me of my days hanging around the Uni Tavern with our group and our 'members only' area.
The thing that I did not like about this is that the effort seemed to be half-hearted at best. It is not that the acting was bad, but rather that the actors did not seem to put that much passion into the roles. Maybe it had something to do with the era in which it was made because many of these earlier Shakespearian performances were average at best. However Sir Lawrence Olivier's production of Richard III was, to put it bluntly, brilliant, and it was released quite some time before this play.
Many of the more modern plays seem to have much more life in it than these earlier performances, even though they tend to chop and change and delete parts of the play. Personally I don't mind this because the filmmakers are experimenting with the play using the television medium, which allows a lot more than a stage. For instance, the use of surveillance cameras in the recent release of Hamlet starring Patrick Stewart and David Tennant added to new dimension to the play (suggesting that what was initially done in private may not actually have been done in private).
I expected a lot more from Falstaff (though knowing that this was a BBC production I wasn't actually expecting all that much) and also a lot more from the scenes set in Eastcheap. In this film it is set in the basement which seems to be disconnected from the pub as a whole, in a way a sort of private gathering, while when I read the play I imagined that it was set in the main part of the pub. In a more modern setting, it would be in the main bar, with Falstaff being the dominant patron in the pub (as a number of pubs tend to have). This part of the play though does remind me of my days hanging around the Uni Tavern with our group and our 'members only' area.