Rating: 
Summary: Here's Where The Real Shakespeare Lives
Review: The brilliance of this version is that those who have not yet found Shakespeare can do it in this one. The fidelity to the original script actually transports the viewer from the modern stage into the past (just as Branagh intended when Chorus opens the off stage door). The action, the human drama, the SHAKESPEARE comes roaring through just as the man himself intended when he wrote it. I've seen Henry done dozens of times (including at Stratford, the RSC, at the new Globe, etc.) and they are all lacking by comparison to this film. So if you only have one life to live, put this film into it.OK...but here's the critique...You absolutely must agree that Henry V is a front runner for the best film interpretation of any Shakespearian play. And of course Chorus is probably the best ever in any version, stage or screen (in fact better than I was ever able to imagine him). Plus I agree that Branagh's genius set the modern standard for all Shakespeare with this one. And yes, Agincourt is done so well that you can cry at the St. Crispian's speech and again when Branagh carries the boy through the killing field during the hymn....in fact it's good enough that it makes you want to sing God Save The King all by yourself. But nothing is perfect and neither is the DVD version of this great one. I was absolutely disappointed with the lack of a thundering soundtrack for the French knights' charge at Agincourt. Obviously Branagh wrote the script to build to what could be the greatest anticipatory moment in modern film....the chance to actually put every viewer onto the field at Agincourt was so well done that it has always leaped at you from the screen.....but without that thunder on the DVD audio mix, it's lost. Let's hope Branagh can become the anti-Spielberg and actually get this remixed with a crisp digital thunder on the next version.....and this may be the only film where a Director's cut dialogue would actually add insight into the interpretation (since most of us seem to agree that his debut as a Director was as good as his debut as an actor). Personally, I get a better sound from my VHS copy than the DVD (and I'm using $20K of equipment).
Rating:
Summary: A Stunning Adaptation - I'm just wild about Harry
Review: Kenneth Branagh breathes new life into "Harry". Branagh both
directed and stars in the film - a feat easily comparable to Orsen
Welles creating Citizen Kane - Branagh pulls it off as well (or should
I say - pulls it off as Welles). The supporting cast was made for
this film. The use of a modern Chorus on a soundstage draws the
viewer into a voyueristic struggle for the soul and "heart"
of France. Yes, there is strong visual atmosphere; but, the scenery
never detracts from the delivery of the dialogue or storyline. Branagh
takes the Bard's words, makes them his own and fills the screen with
his own style of visual magic. He creates the world of King Henry by
using the simplest of sets - but yet it doesn't lose the complexity of
the text. The feel good movie of the summer, winter, spring and
fall. "Let it be a muse" of film that fires the soul - and
let your imagination follow "Harry" as he become Henry the
fifth. The music soars and feels as natural as if Shakespeare also
wrote the score. A soundtrack must for the collector.
Rating:
Summary: "We happy few."
Review: This is the greatest film version of any Shakepear play yet made. Kenneth Branagh is truly inspired. As both the director and lead actor he is simply superb. Of all the Oscars this was nominated for, including Best Actor and Best Director for Branagh, all it walked away with was Best Costume Design. The costumes are great, by the way. But what makes this film work is the authentic emotional element that all the actors bring to their roles. This is a far cry from the days of simply mastering the language, hoping to make it coherent for the common man. Tears fall, hearts soar, and blood flows! This is easily my favorite film from director/actor Kenneth Branagh, it's just too bad he was never this inspired thereafter. This movie is brilliant, simply brilliant!
Rating:
Summary: Branagh at his best!
Review: Unfortunately, Kenneth Branagh's career thus far has been somewhat hit or miss, but "Henry V" is a solid hit. In fact, it is far and a way the best film adaptation of Shakespeare I have ever seen, surpassing even Polanski's "Macbeth". Through the use of lavish sets, beautiful costumes and old fashioned blood and guts battle scenes, Branagh brings the work alive in a way no one else could have. I particularly enjoyed his conception of the narrator as a modern day man wandering around the sets in between takes. Furthermore, the cinematography, is outstanding. By using many tight shots, Branagh captures the feel of a play being acted out. Branagh himself offers a mind-blowing performance as Henry, bringing tremendous emotion to the role. Finally, "Henry V" features, to my mind, the greatest original score ever recorded for a movie. While the DVD doesn't offer much in the way of features, it does bring you the film in beautiful widescreen with outstanding sound, so you can experience the film the way it was meant to be. This is a must have for any DVD collection.
Rating:
Summary: Branagh does Shakespeare: Outstanding!
Review: It takes a bit of pretentious audacity to take on a play that William Shakespeare penned. It takes further boldness to undertake this production and transform the play to a motion picture. But, in 1989, a full 380 odd years after Henry V was written, Kenneth Branagh managed to pull it off with grace, class, and style! Both directing and starring as Henry V, Branagh makes an absolutely brilliant debut in this incredible film. Branagh has three other outstanding Shakespearian actors in this film that most certainly aided him, and probably helped inspire him, to make this film. They are Derek Jacobi, who plays the narrator Chorus, and Brian Blessed, who plays Henry V's uncle Exeter , and the aged John Scofield, who plays the French King. All of their performances, espeically Branagh's and Jacobi's, are some of the most inspired and brilliant that I have ever seen! Emma Thompson plays the French princess, and does a fine job as well. I went back to see Sir Lawrence Olivier's performance of Henry V, and this compares very favorably with it. I would venture to say that Branagh does a better job than Olivier, but maybe that would be debatable and going a bit too far. Remember that most Shakespeare plays put to motion picture aren't the entire play, they are edited, and this is no exception. All in all, this is one of my all time favorite movies, and I highly recommend it. If you like this, check out Branagh in the 1995 version of Hamlet, and the other Shakespeare plays Branagh has put to film, including Much Ado About Nothing, and Othello.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Film, Less than Great Transfer
Review: Kenneth Branagh's splendid Henry V is the best Shakespeare film of the last forty years. Unfortunately, the picture quality of this DVD is only so-so. MGM really needs to do a better job than this.
Rating:
Summary: Great Film
Review: I've always been a fan of Branagh's work, so I had been looking forward to watching his film interpretation of Shakespeare's "Henry V." After watching the film, I had several conflicting opinions about the film in general. While I enjoyed much of the acting and the choices Branagh made with the flashbacks, I still found some of it to be boring and it seemed like Branagh didn't really deliver the character the way I thought he would. I'm used to Branagh showing more of a variety of emotions and facial expressions, but in this film he seemed to portray King Henry as a brooding individual that only changes character when he needs to boost the moral of the army. This seemed to be a bit of a contradiction in the character, and I was disappointed to some extent. However, his decisions regarding the chorus make up for any flaws I found with his acting. Probably my favorite part of the film was played by Derek Jacobi...I thought the chorus was the most interesting and unexpected part of the film. From the beginning scene when he's walking around backstage to the battle scene where he was walking in front of the wooden spikes, the chorus added background and clarity to everything that was happening in the play/film. I'd always pictured the chorus as having an off-stage presence that lacked emotion and was simply providing the facts, but Branagh far exceeded by expectations for the Chorus. By using a strong actor and fitting him into and amongst the scenes, the chorus seemed less of an impartial observer and more of a passionate historian or story-teller. While Jacobi walked amongst the troops and scenery of the film, he was still obviously separated by his more modern clothes and apparent lack of fear regarding his surroundings. This gave the film more life and was an excellent way to incorporate the chorus directly into the film rather than having a narrator or voice-over giving us the information. Besides the chorus, my other favorite part was played by Emma Thompson. The scene between Katherine and Alice was one of my favorites from the movie. I know very little French, but I still think they communicated the scene very well through their expressions and movements. The scene was very amusing, and I enjoyed it a lot. I think I'll probably enjoy the scene between Katherine and Henry, but I can't pass judgment on it until I've seen it.
Overall I think I liked the film a lot, it really helped me understand the emotions and reasons behind many of King Henry's decisions and it definitely gave me a better and more complete understanding of the play as a whole. This probably isn't a film I'd watch for fun on a weekend with friends, but it is a film that I'd like to own to help complete my Branagh collection.
Rating:
Summary: Stunning
Review: This may be the best Shakespeare film ever made. In 1942, Laurence Olivier delivered a jingoistic, stylized wartime production of "Henry V" that nonetheless stood as the standard interpretation. Nearly fifty years later, Kenneth Branagh's film appeared not only as a powerful and amazingly accessible recasting of the text, but a serious examination of the nature and the costs of the war that was Henry the Fifth's only real achievement. Although studded with a fine array of subsidiary characters, "Henry V" is essentially a one-man play, and Branagh's performance informs and naturally influences all of the rest. His character has most of the lines, and he delivers them with a refreshing naturalism and candor that re-infuses the humor into the funny bits and cuts a lot of the potential for stilted jingoism out of the patriotic and warlike ones. If the real Henry's delivery of the St. Crispin speech was anything like Branagh's, it's no wonder the English won. Slogging through the mud and rain of Harfleur and Agincourt with Branagh is a masterful supporting cast, including the incomparable Judi Dench as Mistress Quickly, Brian Blessed as a marvelously solid Exeter, and Ian Holm, wonderful as the irreverent and sarcastic Fluellen. On the French side, Paul Scofield's King is weary and indecisive rather than weak and mad; Michael Maloney's Dauphin is entertainingly arrogant, and Emma Thompson delivers a small but charming performance in playwright-broken English and much better French than Shakespeare likely spoke. Tying it all together is Christopher Ravenscroft, who invests the herald Mountjoy with a sympathy that extends to both sides, and a phenomenal showing by Derek Jacobi as the earnest, mocking and informative Chorus. "Henry V" was released and went to video before the heyday of production for DVD, and as such, a "deluxe edition" has not been produced- this disc contains no making-of documentaries, no in-depth interviews with the cast, no online screenplay. But at least in this case, that's all for the best. The film is stunning enough on its own to need no such accompaniment, and its magic is thereby undiminished.
Rating:
Summary: Oh, for a muse of fire...
Review: For a first effort at feature-film direction, now-veteran director/writer/actor Kenneth Branagh provided an astonishing introduction to his many talents in filmmaking with his 1989 production, 'Henry V'. There is a gritty realism brought to the screen in this production that combines in dynamic and interesting ways with the Shakespearean dialogue and situations. The battle scenes are some of the best in cinema for depicting the kind of royal and knightly battles. A special commendation goes to cinematographer Kenneth MacMillan, art directors Martin Childs, Norman Dorme, John King, and costume designer Phyllis Dalton for combining elements of stage and screen together to complement the story perfectly without overpowering it. Indeed, the picture won the Oscar for Best Costumes; Branagh was nominated for Best Leading Actor and Best Director. The film and crew were nominated for and won many other awards as well. One of the problems of Shakespeare on the silver screen is that the situations, settings, and acting often ends up somewhat contrived. That rarely happens here, because of this remarkable team. The principle writing credit of course goes to William Shakespeare, but as is always the case, the play is recast to make the film medium more natural for the story. Kenneth Branagh is the one credited here, and has shown himself several times after this film as a master of adapting Shakespeare faithfully to the screen. The play itself is one of Shakespeare's history plays -- remember the broad three categories of Shakespeare: history, drama (some say tragedy), and comedy. Like most of the history plays, there is creative license taken with the actual history, as it is invariably adapted to make the present regime look good, credible and more legitimate. This explains why Richard III in Shakespeare is far more villainous than in actual life; in Henry V, the country had a great and (for the period) uncontroversial hero - the last king of England to be acknowledged the dominant power in Britain and in France, succeeding in unwinnable situations, and, as befits a good historical hero, dies young before he has the chance to destroy his image. The play has always been popular in times of national crisis - see Olivier's production of Henry V during World War II depicting the king as a national saviour against continental foes. The action of the play and film turns on the legitimacy of Henry's rule in France (an issue still for Elizabethan audiences, as Elizabeth was crowned with supposed rights to France). The French are depicted as haughty and disdainful of the young king (interesting how some things don't change), and the battle lines are drawn. The film here sets the stage for a far more ambiguous justification for war than is often depicted in the play, leaving the viewer wondering if, for all the glory of the battles, was there a real point, or was it legalistic/diplomatic trickery? There is also the interesting scene with the conspirators against the king, unmasked as the forces are about to depart for France. Cambridge, Scrope and Grey are exposed, but the dialogue and acting hints as a more intimate relationship with Henry V - possibly this references obliquely the rumours of homosexuality, or at least bisexuality, in the historical Henry. The players are excellent here, from Branagh himself as Henry V, and Brian Blessed his strong right arm Exeter. Paul Scofield (Thomas More in 'A Man for All Seasons') plays the ancient French king, Charles VI, and his son the Dauphin is played by Michael Maloney. This is, on the whole, a rather 'young' film, as Branagh himself was not yet 30 at the time of production, and most of his aides and friends in the play are similarly young, save for a few senior advisors. Emma Thompson, a staple in Branagh's films, plays the only significant female role, the princess Katherine, to whom Henry will be wed. Her part is almost entirely in French. Her maid, Alice, is played by Geraldine McEwan (perhaps best known from 'Mapp & Lucia'). The famous speeches here are preserved; Branagh does a fantastic job with his spirit-raising monologue for the troops prior to the battle of Agincourt, on Crispin Crispian day. The speech on horseback in the early seige of Harfleur, 'once more into the breech!' is also remarkable. The lines delivered by all the actors are done with care and precision - Exeter's report to Henry at the opening ('tennis balls', said with great sneer) and to the French party ('scorn', said with so much scorn the word need not be spoken) are but a few examples of this. The film expands upon the play's use of Falstaff's companions as a comic relief, by incorporating what would be flash-back scenes from events in the Henry IV play cycle, premonitions of events currently in the play. Robbie Coltrane turns in a good performance as Falstaff; look for Judi Dench in a minor role as the Mistress, and a very young Christian Bale as the boy. The music for the film is triumphant, foreboding and dark. This is a wonderful score produced by Patrick Doyle, known for work on other Branagh films such as 'Dead Again' and 'Much Ado about Nothing', as well as other films such as 'Indochine' and literature-based films like 'Gosford Park' and 'Great Expectations'. Derek Jacobi, veteran Shakespearean, portrays 'Chorus', the narrator of the action, one who casts the right spirit from beginning to end, and appears throughout. There are few Shakespearean asides done by the actors here (a few under-the-breath comments that might qualify), but Jacobi's role is always directly to camera, directly to us as the spectators. The ending portrayed by Chorus is both victorious and tragic, much as the cycle of history must be. This is a glorious film.
Rating:
Summary: "Cry Harry! England! And Saint George!!!"
Review: Kenneth Branagh is truly inspired. As both the director and lead actor he is simply superb. Of all the Oscars this was nominated for, including Best Actor and Best Director for Branagh, all it walked away with was Best Costume Design. The costumes are great, by the way. But what makes this film work is the authentic emotional element that all the actors bring to their roles. Tears fall, hearts soar, and blood flows! This is easily my favorite film from director/actor Kenneth Branagh. There is a huge cast of name actors, such as Ian Holm, Judi Dench, and Emma Thompson, and all acquit themselves with honorable performances worthy of singular recognition. There are complex tracking shots and finely tuned film editing, all adding to the immense grandeur that envelopes this film. It is easy for me to recommend this outstanding Shakespearean adventure. If you love Shakespear, this film is an absolute necessity for your collection. Thank you.
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