1945 drama. Starring Laurence Olivier, Renee Asherson, Harcourt Williams, Robert Newton.
Directed by Laurence Olivier. (Not rated. 137 minutes.)
Newspaper clipping submitted by Cara Carlsdottir
For only $2 million, Laurence Olivier, working from a script by William Shakespeare, brought off something more daring than Francis Ford Coppola achieved in his $40 million post-Vietnam war epic, Apocalypse Now. In the darkest days of World War II, with Great Britain fighting for its very life, those two Englishmen not only rallied the nation to defend itself, but questioned the deepest meaning of war for the ordinary soldier.
In an extraordinary campfire scene the fears and doubts of men about to embark on a foreign invasion are memorably expressed in this premiere revival of Henry V, now available on home video. The splendidly staged Battle of Agincourt (shot in Ireland), with the French cavalry swooping into the fray against the almost defenseless British archers, stirs one's martial blood as hundreds of arrows streak through the air.
Olivier's Henry is transformed into a more idealized, heroic figure than the complex Shakespearean monarch who was not about to countenance treachery from the Scots when England was at war, or offer any mercy to French prisoners.
Henry V was Olivier's first Shakespearean film, and he directed it with brilliant imagination and elegance. Although the production has moments early on of dullness, they are more than compensated for in the pleasure of watching that magnificent young Olivier rally his troops or pay proud court to Katherine of France (Renee Asherson).
