I think it’s important to note that I don’t evaluate a film in the Shawn and Shakespeare Film Review Series solely on its own merit, but also on how effectively, and how faithfully, it presents Shakespeare’s original play. In the case of Henry V, I realize that I am expecting a lot: I want the film to have everything I love in the play, and to be as faithful as possible to it – allotting, of course, for a reasonable degree of change in the transition from stage to screen; yet I also want all the bells and whistles that a motion picture can deliver. I would indeed like my cake, and the privilege to eat it too. In short, I know myself to be placing a pretty tall order.
Having said all that, there is no question in my mind that Kenneth Branagh’s 1989 production of Henry V is a great film (though I do ultimately have some complaints). The greatest strength of this adaptation is a number of excellent performances. Branagh himself is dynamic as Henry, and was even nominated for an Academy Award for the role (as well as for Best Director). Derek Jacobi is awesome as the Chorus, and Branagh weaves Jacobi’s narration between scenes brilliantly.
Despite a number of other strong performances here, the ever-alliterative Shawn and Shakespeare Show Stealer Award goes to Brian Blessed as the Duke of Exeter. Blessed easily makes for the fiercest member of Branagh’s English army, scaring the proverbial crap out of the French court as he delivers Henry’s threat of “bloody constraint” in his booming voice, and looking like a force to be reckoned with decked out in a suit of armor so cool that apparently the English army only had enough metal to make the one. The rest of Henry’s troops may look a hot homeless mess, bloody and dirty in tattered rags and thin leather gauntlets, but trust that nobody wants to mess with the armored-out Duke of Exeter. While giving the crazy eye as Branagh delivers the awesome battle speeches, and looking very much like he’s ready to literally tear the French apart, Blessed skillfully sells the ferocity. His SASSSA is well deserved, and I hope he enjoys it.
And speaking of enjoyment, I really enjoyed seeing Robbie Coltrane in Henry V’s flashback bar scenes playing Sir John Falstaff. Coltrane had me at Hagrid. Being so much, in my mind, Harry Potter’s large and loveable ally, he was a great cast for Henry’s large and loveable former father-figure. Falstaff’s only involvement in Shakespeare’s play is to die offstage, so Branagh does well here to cut in a couple scenes from the Henry IV plays in which Shakespeare details the important relationship between Henry V and Falstaff.
Despite the commendable cut-in scenes, the great deal of back story leading up to Henry V remains a tough nut to crack, even for Branagh. Without prior knowledge, I’m not sure the audience can grasp the full gravity of Falstaff’s death or the importance of Henry’s other former companions. While Branagh gives a moving performance in the scene of his old friend Bardolph’s execution, and despite a well-placed flashback to explain, I worry that someone unfamiliar with the story might not understand how pivotal the moment is when Henry looks Bardolph in the face and gives the order for him to be hanged. Furthermore, I can only imagine that the reference to the overthrow and killing of King Richard II in Henry’s eve of battle monologue, being chronologically three plays prior to Henry V in (surprise) Richard II, has to go right over most people’s heads.
While Branagh’s Henry V doesn’t really suffer for what is here, I do think that it suffers a little for what isn’t. One thing that isn’t here as much as I would like is the true scale of the battles. If Harfleur is too “great a siege” for the Dauphin to lift, and if Agincourt really involved over seventy thousand soldiers, then I need at least a couple shots that give me the sense that these conflicts really are that big. It’s not that the battle scenes aren’t done well here; they are, but the problem is that based on the cinematography itself, the English force seems to consist entirely of a couple dozen ragged dudes – hardly the twelve-thousand plus that both Shakespeare’s play describes. And the French force hardly seems any bigger, though they should number sixty-thousand strong – though, in fairness, the French side does get a few more horses than we see in the proverbial English stable.
The effect of these missing numbers is that a clearly epic conflict winds up looking relatively minor. And I know that we’re supposed to be working on my “imaginary forces” here, and they were doing excellent services, but they just needed a couple well-placed, full-battlefield shots of help.
Honestly, the small-scale battlefield isn’t even that big of a deal, but there is a major element of Shakespeare’s play that I was sad to see missing here: comedy. The play itself has action and adventure, drama and tragedy – those things are all done really well here; in and of themselves, they make this a great film. My problem is that the play is also laugh-out-loud funny, and unfortunately comedy didn’t make the cut here. The thick Welsh accent of Shakespeare’s Captain Fluellen and the humor it brought with it, are both gone from Ian Holm’s comparatively well-spoken performance. A great scene highlighting Pistol’s poor French was also linguistic levity left out. There is so much fun in the play that might have balanced out the film’s fatalities.
Perhaps the most notable comic piece missing here is in Herny’s former Eastcheap friends (Pistol, Bardolph, Nym, and the dying Falstaff). These characters are so dynamic in the play, alternating between the tragedy they experience and the comedy that makes them so enjoyable. In Branagh’s film, they are all just kind of sad. That tone works for the sense of drama that is done so well throughout the picture, but it costs big in terms of the great balance of Shakespeare’s original play.
The bottom line is this: I wanted a great film out of Branagh’s Henry V and I got one, but I would’ve liked a few more bells and whistles, and the great comic element that I loved so much in the play.
P.S. Let me also say that I have the greatest respect for Kenneth Branagh – frankly, I’m a Branaghmaniac. I know that Henry V was his first directorial foray into cinematic Shakespeare, and having already seen the later films I know that he comes to masterfully handle the demands of the big screen, creative vision, and faithfulness to Shakespeare’s original plays. So I know there was a learning process at work in Henry V, and one which clearly held great value for Branagh, who has had an undeniably brilliant career – one which I greatly hope will entail more exceptional Shakespearean films.
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