Henry V

Henry V is Shakespeare's most patriotic play, a declaration of British pride and glory. All of his other kings are weak, like John, Richard II, or Henry VI, or villainous, like Richard III. But Henry is a king everyone can follow willingly.

It was this angle that had Laurence Olivier, in 1944, film a production as a rallying cry for the U.K. during the war with Germany (the British government partially funded the film). While the French or no Nazis, the British army includes men from all of the kingdom, notably Wales, and leads to the Battle of Agincourt, one of the most stunning and lopsided in the Hundred Years' War.

Olivier starts the film as if we were watching a production of it at the Globe Theater in 1600, complete with an audience. Intriguingly, Olivier coughs before his entrance. After a few scenes the play opens up and is filmed at the dock of Southampton and then as Henry marches through France, intending to take the French crown, which he thinks is rightly his.

The colors are bright, the backdrops, purposely I think, look artificial, as if we were still watching a play. There are numerous speeches that Henry gives to rally his troops, such as “Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; Or close the wall up with our English dead" and then, before Agincourt, "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he today that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother.

The battle is a complete success, as the French have 10,000 casualties while the British only about thirty. This was largely due to the innovation of the longbow, which created a cloud of arrows that rained down on the French. But the play doesn't end there; the last scene has Olivier wooing the French princess, Katharine (Renee Asherson) who speaks little English (an earlier, delightful scene shows her learning English words for parts of the body). Perhaps Shakespeare thought that was the tougher challenge for Henry.

There have been two excellent film version of Henry V, the other one is Kenneth Branagh's 1989 film. The latter was more anti-war, showing the mud and blood, but Olivier's features more patriotism and duty. Both are excellent in their own way.