HENRY V Movie Review
1989 Kenneth Branagh
Kenneth Branagh boldly challenges Lord Laurence Olivier's screen interpretation of Shakespeare's great History. If his version of the play isn't as technically innovative, it is tighter. It takes different risks and—for my money—it's even more moving. Branagh cuts to the core of the story and finds a coming-of-age tale about a young man who is not at all sure about what he is doing and finally realizes that he has involved two nations in that decision.
Like Olivier, Branagh takes an unconventional approach to the translation from stage to screen. The famous opening line, “Oh, for a muse of fire,” is spoken by a Chorus (Derek Jacobi) in modern clothing. In a long tracking shot that will be echoed later, he walks through a soundstage, then throws open two tall doors. There, in a heavily shadowed room slouches young King Harry (Branagh), surrounded by older clerics and lords who tell him that he has every right to invade France. As they interpret history, it belongs to him, but when the French ambassadors show up, they have a different opinion and are scornfully disrespectful of him. In fact, they piss him off big time.
Meanwhile, Sir John Falstaff (Robbie Coltrane) is dying. Flashbacks taken from Henry IV, Pt. 1 reveal the wild times that he and Harry shared with Ancient Pistol (Robert Stephens), Mistress Quickly (Judi Dench), and Bardolph (Richard Briers). But they're no longer part of his life. Instead, Harry has found the bear-like Lord Exeter (Brian Blessed) and Fluellen (Ian Holm) for military advice and guidance.
Though Branagh liberally cuts lines of dialogue to their essence, and even rearranges scenes, he leaves in two key elements that Olivier cut out. The first involves three treacherous aristocrats; the second has to do with crimes committed by one of his old pals. Both are key moments in Harry's maturation, and they set the stage for the film's final act, which is made up of the night before the Battle of Agincourt and the battle itself. Those long wonderful scenes are the point of the play and of both screen versions. The moment begins with the king in disguise, walking among his men, listening to them, and coming to understand their fear and their sense of duty. His long dark night of the soul ends with the literary equivalent of a prayer made in a foxhole.
When the sun comes up, Harry realizes that it is St. Crispin's Day. As the French knights ready themselves, thinking that they're prohibitive favorites, King Henry delivers the most rousing, kick-ass stem-winder in the English language. Branagh, the actor, wrings every drop of emotion out of the words. Branagh, the director, backs himself up with Patrick Doyle's stirring score, and from there, without missing a beat, the dramatic momentum sweeps into the battle itself. Unable to recreate the wide, panoramic fields that Olivier used for the charge, Branagh takes Kurasawa's Seven Samurai for his model. The Battle of Agincourt is staged in mud and rain, where the focus is on individual fights, not sweeping masses. It's brutal stuff, and it ends with a scene of true horror—the massacre of the boys accompanying the English army. In the Olivier film, that act ends the battle. Branagh takes it a step further to a more fitting conclusion with his famous 3-minute 48-second tracking shot. Though it can be dismissed as showing off, the shot is the right way to end the scene—actually to end the film—with a moment that stretches and heightens the emotions. If the director couldn't add words, he could add the right image, and that is the primary difference between the stage and the screen.
In the end, after questions in style and audience expectations are accounted for, the main difference between the two films comes down to Olivier and Branagh's interpretations of Henry. To Lord Olivier, he's a king who is forced by circumstances to lead his people in a just war. To Branagh, he's a much less confident figure, a young man—by turns hot-tempered and fearful—facing the first tests of maturity and leadership.
Both interpretations are completely justified and both result in masterful films that are worth watching more than once.
Cast: Kenneth Branagh (King Henry V), Derek Jacobi (Chorus), Brian Blessed (Duke of Exeter), Alec McCowen (Bishop of Ely), Ian Holm (Fluellen), Richard Briers (Lt. Bardolph), Robert Stephens (Ancient Pistol), Robbie Coltrane (Sir John Falstaff), Christian Bale (Falstaff's boy), Judi Dench (Mistress Quickly), Paul Scofield (King Charles IV of France), Michael Maloney (Dauphin), Emma Thompson (Princess Katherine), Patrick Doyle (Court), Richard Clifford (Duke of Orleans), Richard Easton (Constable of France), Paul Gregory (Earl of Westmoreland), Harold Innocent (Burgundy), Charles Kay (Archbishop of Canterbury), Geraldine McEwan (Alice), Christopher Ravenscroft (Mountjoy), John Sessions (Capt. MacMorris), Simon Shepherd (Duke of Gloucester), Jay Villiers (Grey), Danny Webb (Capt. Gower); Written by: Kenneth Branagh; Cinematography by: Kenneth Macmillan; Music by: Patrick Doyle. Producer: Bruce Sharman, David Parfitt, Stephen Evans, Samuel Goldwyn Company. British. Awards: Academy Awards '89: Best Costume Design; British Academy Awards '89: Best Director (Branagh); National Board of Review Awards '89: Best Director (Branagh); Nominations: Academy Awards '89: Best Actor (Branagh), Best Director (Branagh). Boxoffice: 10.6M. Running Time: 138 minutes. Format: VHS, LV, Letterbox, Closed Caption.