Henry V (1944)
1/10
Awful
3 July 2011
This is an awful movie, really just awful. No one who has seen Kenneth Branagh's masterful Henry V (1988) can watch this turkey without cringing. For starters, the characters of Canterbury and Ely are such bumbling fools that they completely eviscerate Henry's reliance on churchly assurances that the war is just. At Harfleur, the film omits Henry's frightening "shrill-shrieking maidens, naked infants spitted upon pikes" speech. It also omits Henry's confrontation with Masham, Scroop and Gray (which Branagh does brilliantly), and turns Henry's court into a parade of fops. The French king is a weak-minded fool, and the soldiers appear to have been taken directly from a Laurel and Hardy movie. Really, it's awful. Yes, it was a propaganda film for the Brits in 1944, but still -- if you want the real Henry, bypass this and go for Branagh's masterpiece.
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