Having just finished reading Henry V, I watched Kenneth Branagh's film version with some trepidation as Shakespeare can be so impenetrable on the screen. Quite the opposite here as Branagh directs and acts with a stirring interpretation that had me glued throughout.
Everything, the amazing cast, the atmosphere of 15th century England, the costumes, the choreography of Agincourt, the photography, all just stunning. It's sad that this outstanding, thrilling movie wasn't seen by more people at the time as I think it lost money, barely clearing it's budget.
Kenneth Branagh delivered a magnificent performance as the King and drew other stunning performances as director, from actors like Ian Holm, Paul Schofield, Derek Jacobi, Emma Thompson, Brian Blessed, Richard Briars, Judi Dench and Michael Williams. There's an impressive 14 year old Christian Bale added in to watch out for too.
A glorious adaption of a wordy play that cuts out the verbosity to a great extent and concentrates on the action. Shakespeare as it should be depicted on the big screen in my view and I loved it.
I saw Olivier's version years ago but didn't understand it back then so I decided to buy a recent copy of the complete works of the Bard's and try to just read through it in spite of the difficulties of the English language at that time but found that I could still get the gist of the stories by doing it that way. This enabled me to follow this magnificent film of Branagh's much more easily and was so rewarding.
Everything, the amazing cast, the atmosphere of 15th century England, the costumes, the choreography of Agincourt, the photography, all just stunning. It's sad that this outstanding, thrilling movie wasn't seen by more people at the time as I think it lost money, barely clearing it's budget.
Kenneth Branagh delivered a magnificent performance as the King and drew other stunning performances as director, from actors like Ian Holm, Paul Schofield, Derek Jacobi, Emma Thompson, Brian Blessed, Richard Briars, Judi Dench and Michael Williams. There's an impressive 14 year old Christian Bale added in to watch out for too.
A glorious adaption of a wordy play that cuts out the verbosity to a great extent and concentrates on the action. Shakespeare as it should be depicted on the big screen in my view and I loved it.
I saw Olivier's version years ago but didn't understand it back then so I decided to buy a recent copy of the complete works of the Bard's and try to just read through it in spite of the difficulties of the English language at that time but found that I could still get the gist of the stories by doing it that way. This enabled me to follow this magnificent film of Branagh's much more easily and was so rewarding.
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