Director Kenneth Branagh
Staring Kenneth Branagh, Derek Jacobi, Simon Shepherd
Rated PG
Score 6/6
King Henry V of England is insulted by the King of France. As a result, he leads his army into battle against France. Along the way, the young king must struggle with the sinking morale of his troops and his own inner doubts. The war culminates at the bloody Battle of Agincourt.
Before I get too far into things, for those of you who have ever wondered October 25th was Saint Crispin’s Day.
Okay I’ll admit I love Shakespeare plays even though I might not always understand all of the dialogue, and considering that Shakespeare’s work is several hundred years old it would be safe to say that it is ‘tried and tested’ work and you’re bound to come across one or two plays that you enjoy and it would take an idiotic director (the type of director who should possibly consider another profession) to really botch a production of Mr. William Shakespeare’s work.
Sir Ken Branagh’s 1989 adaption of Henry V contains a veritable list of who’s who, who’s that and they were in that? (the ‘they were in that?’ being a 15-year-old Christian Bale). This is the kind of movie that is constantly able to get under your skin and bring you a sense of joy because you are watching something special. Derek Jacobi was brilliant and on a personal note, Branagh’s St Crispin’s Day speech is one of the movie moments that I go to when I need a kick in the pants. I might have talked about this before but one thing I look with really really good movies or in a pinch movie moments (for the record this doesn’t happen with every movie that I watch) is that they should be able to bring about a physical reaction, with me it’s a warm tingling sensation. Branagh’s Henry V is a movie that everybody should watch at least once.
According to IMDB As of 2015, Kenneth Branagh (King Henry V) is the last actor to receive an Academy Award nomination for his role in a Shakespearean film. He was nominated for Best Actor but lost to Daniel Day-Lewis for his performance in My Left Foot (1989).