Some years ago I read a history of the 100 Years War and it was by a British author named Desmond Siward who advanced the notion that Henry V was one of the great tyrants in making of English history. Had it not been for his early death that's how he would have gone down in history. Thinking on it, imagine if you will how history might have regarded him had he lived another decade and had been in power for the British occupation of over half of France and had been the man in charge when Joan Of Arc was burned at the stake?
When Winston Churchill gave all aid and assistance he could to Laurence Olivier;s Henry V during World War II it was to show the glory of English arms at a high point in their history. Even if it was at the expense of France whom the British were now allies with. Olivier played Henry V in true heroic mold, but in this production of Henry V, Kenneth Branagh gives Henry V a touch of the tyrant as in current historiography.
This Henry V was not guided by wartime necessity, but could be closer to the truth. I did like the inclusions of those flashback scenes from Henry IV where we see merry Prince Hal cavorting with his low companions like Sir John Falstaff. Those might have been some invention of Shakespeare, but certainly the man who was Henry V was all business when he was on the throne.
This newer Henry V received several Oscar nominations including one for Kenneth Branagh to match the one that Laurence Olivier got over 40 years earlier for Best Actor. It's certainly a different Henry that Branagh gives us. You can hardly see a Prince Hal in this king.
When Winston Churchill gave all aid and assistance he could to Laurence Olivier;s Henry V during World War II it was to show the glory of English arms at a high point in their history. Even if it was at the expense of France whom the British were now allies with. Olivier played Henry V in true heroic mold, but in this production of Henry V, Kenneth Branagh gives Henry V a touch of the tyrant as in current historiography.
This Henry V was not guided by wartime necessity, but could be closer to the truth. I did like the inclusions of those flashback scenes from Henry IV where we see merry Prince Hal cavorting with his low companions like Sir John Falstaff. Those might have been some invention of Shakespeare, but certainly the man who was Henry V was all business when he was on the throne.
This newer Henry V received several Oscar nominations including one for Kenneth Branagh to match the one that Laurence Olivier got over 40 years earlier for Best Actor. It's certainly a different Henry that Branagh gives us. You can hardly see a Prince Hal in this king.