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Simply Perfect

How sad is this?

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

The beginning of Henry V is actually pretty cool. 1500s England is shown in an aerial view-using an extensive, carefully created model set-and the audience is brought back to Shakespeare's time. The production of Henry V is being shown in the Globe Theatre, and audience members saunter inside, make small talk, buy snacks, and spit on those in the lower levels. Then, the play starts, and the audience is treated to a view of the actors getting ready for their entrances backstage. Young boys are getting prepared to play women, actors rush through costume changes, and Laurence Olivier stands in the wings, coughing, until he steps onstage. After that sequence finishes and all that's left is the dry, boring play, the movie goes downhill. Laurence Olivier tries to punch up the story by taking the audience away from the Globe and out onto the battlefield or inside a castle, but I just can't pay attention to Shakespeare, so it didn't really help me. My favorite actor among the cast was Leslie Banks, who seemed so authentic it was as if he'd really lived in the 1500s, even though I'd already seen him in several other films.Miraculously, I made it all the way through this Laurence Olivier Shakespearean drama. His Hamlet put me into a deep sleep. Unless you love the main actor and the original playwright, I wouldn't watch this one. The famous "Saint Crispin's Day" speech wasn't even very exciting. It seemed like it was the tenth take and Laurence Olivier was a little tired.

The individuals works of William Shakespeare are probably the most studied works of fiction in history. Then again, a lot of his stories were based on real life. Here we get a great movie based on one of his lesser known plays, "Henry V". I feel bad for not being more familiar with the time period this takes place in. I know that it's in the Hundred Year's War. Most people remember this as the war Joan of Arc fought in, but this takes place long before that. Well, it is a hundred year's war after all. I remember reading about Edward, the Black Prince.The set up of this film is great. It's actually put up exactly like a play. As the story goes on however, this aspect disappears and it does get more serious. It was hard to make a truly great movie while World War II was being fought in real life. You can see the dedication these people put into portraying their roles. We get a lot of epic scenery and battles. My only complaint is that there a few times where the backgrounds look fake. Still, it's great that we've always had practical effects. ***1/2

This is a good film for the over 25 crowd. It is always good to see Shakespeare come to life as it did in this movie. The old English has life and feeling and spirit in this film. The actors did a good job in making the old English work. The sets and costumes looked great. It is amazing that the armor is aluminum painted wool. The movie must have lifted the spirits of the English as they were full into WWII. The movie was made in England during the war and one would never know it. All hail to the spirit of Laurence Olivier as he inspired those to follow him into battle. It must have been a good film for British morale. Thumbs up.

This is an awful movie, really just awful. No one who has seen Kenneth Branagh's masterful Henry V (1988) can watch this turkey without cringing. For starters, the characters of Canterbury and Ely are such bumbling fools that they completely eviscerate Henry's reliance on churchly assurances that the war is just. At Harfleur, the film omits Henry's frightening "shrill-shrieking maidens, naked infants spitted upon pikes" speech. It also omits Henry's confrontation with Masham, Scroop and Gray (which Branagh does brilliantly), and turns Henry's court into a parade of fops. The French king is a weak-minded fool, and the soldiers appear to have been taken directly from a Laurel and Hardy movie. Really, it's awful. Yes, it was a propaganda film for the Brits in 1944, but still -- if you want the real Henry, bypass this and go for Branagh's masterpiece.