170. Henry V (1944)

Directed By Laurence Olivier

Synopsis


*H3nry_5 has entred the room.

H3nry_5 - Does the Sallic law apply to the French throne?
Da KaRdInAl - Not really, my liege.
H3nry_5 - Well by golly let's get France for us then! Kick some froggy ass!
H3nry_5 - Hey Kate m/f?
K4t3_V4l0i5 - La hind, les nayls, le ilbou...

Review

So we all know the story, Henry V... how can the 4th sequel still be good? Well it can. Laurence Olivier was taken from active duty in WWII to come and produce, direct and star in this epic film.

One thing that you immediately get form this film is the idea that it is the direct ancestor of the great Technicolor epics of later decades. It lasts for hours, it has loads of extras and some pretty good battle scenes.

This film does however do more than the average epic. There are some pretty good effects here, firstly there's the interesting setting of the film in the Globe theatre, which has a pretty good diorama of London which you fly over at the beginning of the film closing in the theatre. Then there's the constant scenery made to look like Medieval illuminations. It doesn't look realistic but it doesn't need to and does manage to evoke an interesting idea of the time the work is set in. Then the acting is great.

There are a couple of minor gripes I have with the film, parts of it are excised, like the traitors. This is a patriotic British film, there are not British traitors. The problem with the film is that it attempts to be even more nationalistic than the original play, and that at times comes across as crass. But we have to report ourselves to the times the film was done in 1944, it is only natural that this should happen.

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The original setting was inaccessible, as it was located in German-occupied France at the time, so the film was shot in Enniskerry, Co.Wicklow, Ireland. The chain-mail armour was actually spray-painted wool knitted by blind women. Many of the extras were servicemen, and it is said that you can tell the American servicemen as they wear their helmets at a jaunty angle.

Olivier agreed not to appear in a film for 18 months to encourage this one to attract as large an audience as possible. In return, he was paid £15,000, tax-free (about £460,000 in today's money).

In 2007 the film was digitally restored to High Definition format and re-released.

As the first of many Shakespeare films on here, here's a tribute to Shaky on film, there's a couple of images from Henry V: