Rating: 
Summary: Visually splendid
Review: I've seen this movie only once, and what thrilled me was the design -- the colors, the costumes, the amazing sets. The cavalry charge, done in a single tracking shot that lasts about a minute, is alone worth the price of admission. And I'm a guy who is most interested in plot.The plot, unfortunately, stinks. The propaganda plays are not Shakespeare's best, and Henry V is not the best of the propaganda plays. Forget the politics, and the really embarassing courtship scene (maybe just turn the sound off), and watch. Another reviewer complained that Olivier feminized the title role. I think this is likely a misunderstanding -- in the "play" part of the movie, Henry is an actor wearing stage makeup.
Rating:
Summary: Beautifully produced, but Branagh's version is better...
Review: It's impossible to say anything bad about Lawrence Olivier. For many years this movie represented the best that Shakespeare had to offer the silver screen. It was beautifully staged. Unfortunately, the movie was a victim to its time. During WWII, Olivier was told to make Henry V into a propaganda film that would boost English spirits during their darkest days. So, there was a little creative editing. Gone are any lines (in fact a whole scene) that refer to Henry's "English Traitors"...one of which was his first cousin! Gone is the six-month long seige of Hafleur (including Henry's violent but empty threat of doing awful things to old men, women and babies if the town didn't surrender). Gone is any doubt about the struggle and massive odds the English faced at Agincourt. The message is "Rule Britainia" from the start. I wish Olivier could have made this movie in another time. It would have been one of the greatest movies ever made. However, taking it as it is...it's a great film. But I would take Kenneth Branagh's epic and true version of Henry V first.
Rating: 
Summary: Horrendous version of a great play
Review: My parents bought this DVD for my brother for Christmas, an acting major at the time and a huge fan of Shakespeare. We were all excited in the house, all of us loving Shakespeare and Henry V and, hey, it's Laurence Olivier, it has to be amazing, right? ...wow, were we ever wrong. The movie opens with a performance of Henry V at the Globe in London. We figured it would start out in the theater and then go into the movie. Well, first off, it went through three or four scenes before it finally decided it wanted to be a film and not a recording of a stage production. Awkward, but okay, we could get over it. Unfortunately, it didn't get better once it decided to be a movie. The acting, for starters, is a joke. For some reason it was decided that the entire movie was going to be turned into a comedy. I had managed to never see Laurence Olivier's work before this and...well...I hope there's a better reason for his reputation. Because in this film, Olivier's idea of drama seems to only be getting louder. Not to mention his uncomfortably effeminate portrayal and the fact that he seems to enjoy hearing himself talk way too much. Since Olivier was already playing Henry in a slightly effeminate manner, the Dauphin, to be less manly than the English King, had to go for flamingly feminine. Actually, the entire French Court is really just a joke. Instead of being the powerful nation who really seemed like they should have been the victors, we are presented with a court of fops that couldn't defend their country from a couple angry citizens. And there, of course, you lose all tension and drama, because there's no WAY the French can even put up a fighting chance. The scenery is just so garrish its distracting. France looks like its completely made up of brightly painted cardboard cutouts and makes you wonder why Henry wants it to begin with. The entire air of the movie, really, is totally devoid of drama. Too many serious scenes are milked for humor and those left are badly done. It's all too silly to ever take it seriously, and it seems to WANT to be that way. It hardly seems pro-war but war is just a silly little game.
Rating: 
Summary: Pro Henry
Review: Sir Laurence Olivier's 1945 version of Henry V was not the first attempt to bring Shakespeare to the screen, but it was the first to be successful. Up to that point, filmmakers had tried to translate the Bard to film, but failed to achieve any success. Sir Laurence was given the task to create a film that would be pro war and pro England in order to bolster the spirits of the people during World War II. While his version of Henry V is far from a faithful adaptation, it captures the essence of the play and was a tremendous critical and commercial success. It showed Sir Laurence's tremendous talent not only as an actor but as a writer and director. The film is a visual marvel, shot in glorious Technicolor, it opens with the play being performed on stage at the Globe Theater circa 1600 and then dissolves into the actual battlefields of Agincourt. Through the years the film has come to be derided as just a piece of wartime English propaganda. The film definitely was made to serve that type of purpose, but to simply classify in that vein is take away from the masterful job of producing a visually stunning and well crafted film that was very much on the cutting edge of filmmaking in 1945. In fact, the Academy gave Sir Laurence an honorary Oscar for his achievements in creating the film in addition to nominating him for Best Actor and the film for Best Picture.
Rating:
Summary: Pro Henry
Review: Sir Laurence Olivier's 1945 version of Henry V was not the first attempt to bring Shakespeare to the screen, but it was the first to be successful. Up to that point, filmmakers had tried to translate the Bard to film, but failed to achieve any success. Sir Laurence was given the task to create a film that would be pro war and pro England in order to bolster the spirits of the people during World War II. While his version of Henry V is far from a faithful adaptation, it captures the essence of the play and was a tremendous critical and commercial success. It showed Sir Laurence's tremendous talent not only as an actor but as a writer and director. The film is a visual marvel, shot in glorious Technicolor, it opens with the play being performed on stage at the Globe Theater circa 1600 and then dissolves into the actual battlefields of Agincourt. Through the years the film has come to be derided as just a piece of wartime English propaganda. The film definitely was made to serve that type of purpose, but to simply classify in that vein is take away from the masterful job of producing a visually stunning and well crafted film that was very much on the cutting edge of filmmaking in 1945. In fact, the Academy gave Sir Laurence an honorary Oscar for his achievements in creating the film in addition to nominating him for Best Actor and the film for Best Picture.
Rating:
Summary: Larry is the Man!
Review: Stung by the lack of commercial success of As You Like It, Olivier undertook to make a popular success of a film version of a Shakespeare play. This film is definitely the predecessor of all such undertakings. For fans of Shakespeare or Olivier, this film is a must see. Also, before you watch Branaugh's version, it is most instructive to watch Olivier. That is because Branaugh's version is both a tribute and a reaction to Olivier's.
Rating:
Summary: Olivier breaks new ground
Review: The first succesful Shakespeare film adaptation, Laurence Olivier's HENRY V dazzles. He took many liberties with the original text, many to move the story along, and some to excise entire elements. Olivier begins the film in a re-creation of the Globe Theatre in a 1600s production of Henry's story. We stay watching the play for the first 25 minutes or so (with Olivier taking extreme liberties with the Shakespeare work). The on film audience responds to the stage work in realistic reactions. Literally, it helps the movie viewer appreciate the language barrier and highlight the humor so often overlooked. The film eventually breaks from the Globe stage environment but, the setting remain beautifully painted colorful set backdrops. The music by Wiliam Walton is grand although it does not resemble modern film music. The story leads to the Battle of Agincourt in France. Much has been noted of this huge element. However, by today's film standards, the battle is very confusing and looks more like a crowded city square then a fight to the death. Still, its the Bards words that drive the story and they are well presented here. The film culminates with a brief return to The Globe theatre production, a nice bookend to a classic film. The Criterion DVD has a couple interactive text offerings as well as a caring Commentary done by a scholar. Henry V was re-imagined again by Kenneth Branagh in 1989, a brilliant film itself. Both take many liberties with the work. If you have never seen Henry V, I would watch the Branagh version as it has a greater visual splendor and reality.
Rating:
Summary: This is the Gold Standard
Review: This is a brilliantly conceived movie-within-a-play-within-a-movie that showcases the genius of Laurence Olivier. Today's audiences are exposed mainly to Olivier the movie star. But if you want to see a purer form of acting, see Olivier the stage actor. This is possible by watching his Shakespeare plays on film. And these films are by Olivier the "auteur," long before the title was coined. Olivier's is the legacy to which Branaugh, the darling of the current generation, fancies himself the pretender. And lest you're expecting a camera pointed at a stage, don't worry. Olivier, who produced and directed most of his Shakespeare films, has actually used the film medium to enlarge his plays' visual scope, while maintaining the intimacy that is the essence of live theatre. Moreover, Olivier is mindful of how daunting the language of Shakespeare is for modern audiences and has modified much of the original script to be more comprehensible, while preserving the feel of Elizabethan English. Olivier's "Henry V" was to England what Eisentein's "Ivan the Terrible" was to Russia - a familiar history rendered as a national epic, for morale purposes, while audiences were fighting off the Germans during World War II. There are other parallels. For example, both use static, formalized composition, in Henry V's case, meant to resemble the images in medieval illuminated manuscripts and books of Hours. (In Ivan's case, according to Kael, like Japanese Kabuki.) Thus, a soundstage "exterior" backdrop becomes a tableau that serves to enhance, with its flat perspective and subjective scale, the view we have of that fabulous Age of Chivalry, for which the play's Battle of Agincourt was the closing act. I've always sneered at the extravagant accolades which show business gives its own. But after seeing this film, or the equally brilliant "Hamlet," I can understand why this man was so good that a knighthood wasn't enough, and why he was raised to the peerage. By the way, the Criterion DVD is beautiful.
Rating:
Summary: This is the Gold Standard
Review: This is a brilliantly conceived movie-within-a-play-within-a-movie that showcases the genius of Laurence Olivier. Today's audiences are exposed mainly to Olivier the movie star. But if you want to see a purer form of acting, see Olivier the stage actor. This is possible by watching his Shakespeare plays on film. And these films are by Olivier the "auteur," long before the title was coined. Olivier's is the legacy to which Branaugh, the darling of the current generation, fancies himself the pretender. And lest you're expecting a camera pointed at a stage, don't worry. Olivier, who produced and directed most of his Shakespeare films, has actually used the film medium to enlarge his plays' visual scope, while maintaining the intimacy that is the essence of live theatre. Moreover, Olivier is mindful of how daunting the language of Shakespeare is for modern audiences and has modified much of the original script to be more comprehensible, while preserving the feel of Elizabethan English. Olivier's "Henry V" was to England what Eisentein's "Ivan the Terrible" was to Russia - a familiar history rendered as a national epic, for morale purposes, while audiences were fighting off the Germans during World War II. There are other parallels. For example, both use static, formalized composition, in Henry V's case, meant to resemble the images in medieval illuminated manuscripts and books of Hours. (In Ivan's case, according to Kael, like Japanese Kabuki.) Thus, a soundstage "exterior" backdrop becomes a tableau that serves to enhance, with its flat perspective and subjective scale, the view we have of that fabulous Age of Chivalry, for which the play's Battle of Agincourt was the closing act. I've always sneered at the extravagant accolades which show business gives its own. But after seeing this film, or the equally brilliant "Hamlet," I can understand why this man was so good that a knighthood wasn't enough, and why he was raised to the peerage. By the way, the Criterion DVD is beautiful.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting but Propagandistic
Review: This is described often as the first successful screen version of a Shakespeare play. I'd have to disagree, there is a Max Reinhardt version of A Midsummer Night's Dream antedating Henry V and at least as good. This version of Henry V was produced during WWII and was intended as a morale booster. The screenplay is an edited version of Henry V with portions that show Henry's ruthlessness excised. These include his orders to execute English traitors, the famous speech before Harfleur in which he threatens to kill all the inhabitants of the town, and this orders to kill French prisoners after the battle of Agincourt. While one-sided, this is a successful production. Henry is portrayed by the young and glamorous Olivier in a tremendously attractive performance. The play is staged theatrically and in full Technicolor glory. The other actors are very good. This version is definitely worth seeing though the more recent Kenneth Branagh version is much closer to the original play. If you're going to see or own one version, use the Branagh version. If you enjoy differing versions of Shakespeare, then seeing this version is a reasonable use of time.
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