Henry V Movie Streaming
Lundi, août 30th, 2010 |
Henry V Movie Streaming.
Movie Title: Henry V Henry V is available for streaming or downloading. |
This is a sweeping statement, but true nonetheless: I believe that Kenneth Branagh’s HENRY V is the greatest screen adaption ever done of Shakespeare. Period. Better than Olivier (although he was great in a very diferent way). Better than any version of Hamlet (even Branagh’s, which is the best of the Hamlets). Better than anything else.
Why do I say this? Simply because no other film adaptation of Shakespeare has captured the essence of what the Bard was trying to say while adding a modern perspective in the process, all in a manner that is readily accessible to a mass audience. Yet that is precisely what this film does.
By sheer genius, Branagh was able to present HENRY V in all of its nationalistic glory, just as Shakespeare wrote it, while at the same time adding an anti-war footnote that serves both as counterpoint and commentary on the Bard’s message. The contrast betwen the St. Crispin’s Day speech as presented here (in which we are made to feel the real power behind Shakespeare’s words) and the gritty, realistic presentation of the battle itself which follows is proof of my assertion.
It’s all here: Lessons on history, loyalty, and the qualities of leadership, all wrapped in a fiercely entertaining package. Branagh’s great accomplishment is to bring the piece to life without the slightest bit of stuffiness or anachronism, and even to add his own touch to an unapproachable masterpiece. This, his first film, remains his crowning achievement. I think the Bard would approve.
This may be the best Shakespeare film ever made. In 1942, Laurence Olivier delivered a jingoistic, stylized wartime production of “Henry V” that nonetheless stood as the standard interpretation. Nearly fifty years later, Kenneth Branagh’s film appeared not only as a powerful and amazingly accessible recasting of the text, but a serious examination of the nature and the costs of the war that was Henry the Fifth’s only real achievement.
Although studded with a fine array of subsidiary characters, “Henry V” is essentially a one-man play, and Branagh’s performance informs and naturally influences all of the rest. His character has most of the lines, and he delivers them with a refreshing naturalism and candor that re-infuses the humor into the funny bits and cuts a lot of the potential for stilted jingoism out of the patriotic and warlike ones. If the real Henry’s delivery of the St. Crispin speech was anything like Branagh’s, it’s no wonder the English won.
Slogging through the mud and rain of Harfleur and Agincourt with Branagh is a masterful supporting cast, including the incomparable Judi Dench as Mistress Quickly, Brian Blessed as a marvelously solid Exeter, and Ian Holm, wonderful as the irreverent and sarcastic Fluellen. On the French side, Paul Scofield’s King is weary and indecisive rather than weak and mad; Michael Maloney’s Dauphin is entertainingly arrogant, and Emma Thompson delivers a small but charming performance in playwright-broken English and much better French than Shakespeare likely spoke. Tying it all together is Christopher Ravenscroft, who invests the herald Mountjoy with a sympathy that extends to both sides, and a phenomenal showing by Derek Jacobi as the earnest, mocking and informative Chorus.
“Henry V” was released and went to video before the heyday of production for DVD, and as such, a “deluxe edition” has not been produced- this disc contains no making-of documentaries, no in-depth interviews with the cast, no online screenplay. But at least in this case, that’s all for the best. The film is stunning enough on its own to need no such accompaniment, and its magic is thereby undiminished.
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