HENRY V - Laurence Olivier - 1944 - Remastered - 4K

Henry the V by William Shakespeare (Film 1944)- Laurence Olivier's second Shakespeare film (following his role in Paul Czinner's 1937 As You Like It) pushed adaptation of the Bard onto an entirely new plane. Fascinating not just for its approach to the text but also for its portrait of multiple facets of the British character, calibrated for explicitly propagandist purposes in the Second World War to be a call to arms as such formed a powerful reminder of what Britain was defending.

Directed by: Laurence Olivier

CAST
King Henry V of England: OLIVIER, Laurence
Chorus: BANKS, Leslie
Ancient Pistol: NEWTON, Robert
Lieutenant Bardolph: EMERTON, Roy
Fluellen, captain in the English Army :KNIGHT, Esmond
Princess Katherine: ASHERSON, Renee
Archbishop of Canterbury: AYLMER, Felix
Bishop of Ely: HELPMANN, Robert
King Charles VI of France: WILLIAMS, Harcourt
The Dauphin: ADRIAN, Max
Mountjoy, the French Herald: TRUMAN, Ralph
Duke of Exeter: HANNEN, Nicholas
Alice, a lady-in-waiting: ST. HELIER, Ivy
Mistress Quickly: JACKSON, Freda
Sir John Falstaff: ROBEY, George

This recording is for educational purposes only and is covered under Fair Use doctrine - Copyright - All rights reserved to their respective owners.

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Adapted by Maximianno Cobra, from Shakespeare's "Timon of Athens", the film exposes the timeless challenge of social hypocrisy, disillusion and annihilation against the poetics of friendship, love, and beauty.

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[ShakespeareNetwork]

Adapted by Maximianno Cobra, from Shakespeare's "Timon of Athens", the film exposes the timeless challenge of social hypocrisy, disillusion and annihilation against the poetics of friendship, love, and beauty.

[mr.dalerobinson]

Apparently this has the most accurate armour in movies.
Just came from a video with a historical armour expert commenting on inaccuracies and he couldn’t fault this. 10/10.

[pempotfoy]

The armor looks fantastic, so much color and detail, straight out of a medieval painting. Its a real shame we only get to see a grey muddy esthetic in the majority of medieval movies. I really don't get why directors don't care at all about this time period and all periods prior to the 16th century. This movie looks fantastic and its unreal to watch it in such high quality.

[Humans_Eh]

Nearly eighty years old and the colours, especially the costumes jump off the screen. Amazing quality.

[wilhiamas]

The model of ShakespeareanLondon is extraordinary at the beginning of the film. I hope it is in a museum somewhere! There was no CGI back then,

[john.highheels.]

One thing for certain. Nobody could recite the speeches better than Olivier. The rousing speech before the battle is always great to listen to, definitely stirs the blood and spirit of every Englishman!

[aldunlop]

Olivier, the ONE, the ONLY. The way he nonchalantly tosses the crown to hang on the throne is pure gold, what a cool cat.

[lemoi]

this blew my mind, i have never seen any Shakespeare before and i have never seen Laurence Olivier before! i am in awe of both. Olivier was great on that horse, looked like he was flying around

[TanChoonHong]

Amazing restoration of a classic film. The recreation of the performance at The Globe is priceless. Set decor and costumes deserve a truckload of roses. 5-stars.

[philipedwards]

It so nice to see Shakespeare presented plainly and in such clear English.

[JN-bupy]

Only Gone with The Wind and Titanic could rival this for costume accuracy. INCREDIBLE. Henry's FABULOUS Liripipe in the sailing scene is frankly an orgasm in silk.

[greyman]

Omg. An actual medieval movie with colorful scenery and armor and sunshine! Im so tired of that blue/greyish filter that they slap on nowadays.

[DaveandGinny]

I first saw this film as an 8 year old at the local Odeon with my Dad in the late 50's. I'm now 71. I still have the spoken word soundtrack LP 'Olivier', with Hamlet and Henry V which is pretty worn out as it was played so many times during my lifetime. I have both film versions but this one never fails to move me. It was a true masterpiece with an inspirational soundtrack by the great William Walton. Many thanks for uploading this version as I can clearly see it's benefitted from the 4k remastering. This story shall the good man teach his son. Many thanks Dad, you certainly did.

[duicic]

It is a fascinating contrast to the 1989 Kenneth Branagh version. Both are very clearly products of their time and very specific in their message. Olivier's version clearly comes with the political mood of late WWII - very glorious, about an indomitable England winning with gleaming colours against an enemy with a leader who easily lends himself to ridicule. Branagh's version is rather a coming-of-age tale, showing Henry as more of a military gambler battling the demons of his not-so-savoury past, who almost pays the ultimate price but overcomes it by sheer force of leadership, which is what eventually breaks the enemy's back - as Branagh had the luxury of not having to serve a larger political context.

Both have radically different approaches, too. Olivier is classically Shakespearean, really - his movie could (battle scenes excluded) pretty much be set on a theatre stage, as Shakespeare intended. Branagh decided to play more with the medium that was available to him. For one, the flashback scenes were a stroke of genius, but at the cost of not being translateable into normal stage play. The same goes for Branagh's extensive usage of non-verbal clues - for instance, when the two bishops leave the audience hall at the end of Act I sc2, you can clearly see them exchanging glances as if to say "Told you this would work", or in Act 2 sc3, when the Dauphin bores everybody with his oh-so-clever advice, and Constable d'Albret exchanges looks with the dukes as if to say "Dear me, the lad has a LOT to learn". Good luck making that work without the camera focus. But that also served its purpose well; you can tell Olivier, like many before him, doesn't really know what to do with the Falstaff story arc which the Bard concluded here a bit haphazardly. Making that work is probably Branagh's greatest achievement.

And with WWII in mind, Olivier really wanted to portray war as a clean and heroic thing, to entice people to serve. Make no mistake, this IS also a propaganda piece. Note how, for one thing, it isn't really shown how outmatched the English are. In real life, the English had nowhere near that amount of cavalry at Agincourt; the movie really echoes two classical WWII adages ("We beat 'em before... We will beat 'em again!", "em" being "those who would threaten England", and the "Mightier Yet" propaganda campaign for all branches of the British armed services, meant to somewhat desperately paint over the material shortages against the Nazi war machine).
Branagh was a lot more drastic; when you can hear the French army thundering towards them, you can see an "Oh sh*t, we're all gonna die!" type of expression on the English faces. He also deserves credit for depicting the battle as this ungodly mire of muck and confusion - which is a lot more accurate, historically. Medieval war was bloody enough, and Agincourt particularly so. Seriously. It was a fricking mess.
However, Branagh in my opinion went a bit overboard in showing the English as so bedraggled and as counterparts of the armoured french that Henry wears nothing but riveted gloves (not gauntlets!) and a leather bevor... and I will never get over the fact that he doesn't wear a helmet! Likewise, most of the dukes also go even without wearing the mail coif they have pointlessly flopping from their necks (not counting Brian Blessed as the Duke of Exeter, but no way you could talk him out of that suit of plate, obviously). Basically, Olivier was more accurate in the depiction of the combatants, but Branagh more accurate in the depiction of the combat.

[metgirl]

We watched this 20 years ago one wet rainy cold afternoon with our the 11 and 14 year old
THEY LOVED IT ….my daughter went on to do drama doing Shakespeare … Beatrice from Much ado about nothing …… just love this ♥️

[Johnnybravo..]

I've probably watched it a 100 times, but this movie never fails to amaze me. What a masterpiece. The acting, costumes, amount of colors, the armor and decore!😍 It's a shame we don't see quality like this more often.
Thank you for uploading!

[jerryterwase]

A true classic. A wonderful gem of a film.
Thank you for this.

[goodlookinouthomie]

Such a charming movie. I love how the whole thing is bookended by the actors on the stage at the globe - and throughout the movie it's as though the audience forgets they are watching a play and is transported onto the fields of Agincourt. Wonderful.

[robinghosh]

Laurence Lord Olivier has made a Great Spectacular movie with Stupendous Performences which are etched in our Mind for All Eternity ..Unbelievably Perfect of Shakespeare's Immortal plays❤❤❤

[TheVCRTimeMachine]

The scale model of London with the matte paintings was magnificent and far more believable than if it had been done with modern CGI.