Henry V is a 1944 film directed by and starring Laurence Olivier.
It is a big-screen adaptation of William Shakespeare's play Henry V. King Henry V of England (Olivier) thinks that he by right should also be king of France. The current King of France, Charles VI, is weak and feeble but still unwilling to just step aside and let an Englishman waltz in and take his crown. When Charles's son the Dauphin insults King Henry by sending him a gift of tennis balls, Henry mounts an invasion of France. Matters come to a head when the English and French armies do battle at a place called Agincourt.
This film was produced in England during World War II as a propaganda device meant to drum up English patriotic feeling. Compare Kenneth Branagh's 1989 film Henry V, a Darker and Edgier take on the same source material.
John Laurie plays Jamy, a Scottish captain in Henry's army. Leslie Banks is the Chorus.
Tropes:
- Adaptational Alternate Ending: Since this movie was wartime propaganda, the Chorus's All for Nothing comments at the end of the play about how Henry's son lost France is omitted. So the film upgrades a Bittersweet Ending to a conventional Happy Ending, as Henry wins the battle and Katherine's heart.
- Armor Is Useless: The excessive armor of all the French knights is commonly cited as a reason they were defeated at Agincourt; in this film it's demonstrated with a scene in which a French knight has to be lowered onto his horse with a rope-and-pulley rig. Allegedly, a friend of Olivier's who worked at the Royal Armouries begged him not to include this scene because of how inaccurate it was, but the visual was too striking to pass up.
- Art Imitates Art: Much of the scenes with the French court are staged to resemble scenes from the "Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry
", a famous illustrated manuscript that was produced around the time of Agincourt. Towards the end the movie stages a copy of the famous February illustration◊ from that manuscript, with Pistol in the place of the man warming himself by the fire. - Aside Glance: As with the play the movie opens with the Chorus giving his "O for a muse of fire!" speech in which he wonders "Can this cockpit hold the vasty fields of France?". In this movie the Chorus, who is delivering the speech to an Elizabethan theater audience in the Globe, looks straight at the camera as he delivers the line "on your imaginary forces work", urging the audience to Willing Suspension of Disbelief.
- Band of Brothers: The original play was the Trope Namer. In his speech before Agincourt, King Henry says he and his men are "we few, we happy few, we band of brothers," because anyone who fights with the king that day will be his brother no matter how common their status.
- Bilingual Bonus: The French princess and her nurse have a lengthy conversation in untranslated French in which the princess tries to find out the English words for different parts of the body. The sole point of this is to set up two extremely dirty puns: the resemblance in pronunciation of "foot" to "foutre" ("fuck" in French) and "gown" to "con" (French for "cunt").
- Book Ends: The film opens with a zoom across a miniature of 1600 London, ending with the Globe Theater. It ends with a zoom out from the Globe, showing the miniature of London again.
- Call That a Formation?: Invoked by one of the French leaders during the battle of Agincourt, who points out that while their ranks are in disarray, they still have enough men to outnumber and defeat the English if any order were to be established. He's ignored and instead the French nobles charge back into the fray, seeking death before dishonor.
- The Chains of Commanding: Henry has a long Inner Monologue after his King Incognito ramble through the camp, when he thinks about the stresses of sending men into combat and how random servants will sleep sounder than he will.
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: Fluellen wears a leek in his hat in observation of St. Davy's Day, and Pistol makes fun of it. After the battle, Fluellen smacks Pistol on the head with the leek and the makes him eat it.
- Disorganized Outline Speech: In the movie the Archbishop of Canterbury's speech about how Henry is entitled to the throne of France is even more disorganized than in the play, with the Archbishop repeatedly getting confused and referring back to his papers, until he finally just chucks them into the air.
- Fainting: The weakness of Charles VI is demonstrated by how he faints after Exeter, Henry's ambassador, arrives at court and summarily demands that Charles give up his crown.
- French Jerk: The Dauphin, who is an arrogant, preening jerk. Exeter personally insults the Dauphin after delivering Henry's message to Charles VI. The scene in the French camp where the Dauphin is bragging about his horse makes it clear that the other nobles regard him with contempt.
- Greek Chorus: The Chorus, who opens and closes the play with his narration and provides further narration throughout.
- I Kiss Your Hand: Henry says this word for word to Katherine, who recoils in shock as French maidens do not kiss. Henry points out that they're royalty and so can do whatever they want.
- Indecisive Medium: The opening scenes of the film of an Elizabethan-era stage performance of Henry V; we get to see some glimpses of the backstage. As the film goes on, it gets less and less theatrical, presumably corresponding to the audience's increased immersion in the plot.
- Inner Monologue: Henry's speech about The Chains of Commanding, at the end of his King Incognito stroll around the camp, is presented as an inner monologue while Laurence Olivier stares off pensively into space.
- In the Hood: Henry borrows a cloak to disguise himself before wandering about his camp incognito.
- King Incognito: Henry takes a walk around his camp in the dark, pretending to be a common soldier, getting a feel for the morale of the men right before the battle.
- Lighter and Softer: Given that this film was meant as a propaganda piece to raise British morale, the bits of the play where Henry comes off as less than the perfect English hero were cut. So there's no "Southampton plot" in which the king condemns three traitors to execution, and the film also omits Henry allowing his old drinking buddy Bardolph to be hanged for looting. Additionally the movie cuts out the All for Nothing epilogue in which the Chorus notes that Henry V's son and his son's bungling ministers "lost France and made his England bleed."
- Macross Missile Massacre: At Henry's command all the English longbow archers fire at once, and a hail of arrows falls down on the French.
- The Oner: Notable Oners include Mistress Quickly's "cold as any stone" speech where she talks without a cut for four minutes about Falstaff's death (the Branagh film also stages this in a single take), the charge of the French cavalry across the fields of Agincourt, and Henry's big Band of Brothers St. Crispin Day Rousing Speech, done in a single take.
- Picture-Perfect Presentation: The filmed-play opening scenes give way to the more cinematic rest of the movie when a painted background transitions to an actual background.
- Pragmatic Adaptation: Like the Branagh film, this movie includes a scene of Falstaff on his deathbed with some dialogue from Henry IV, namely the shattering scene where Falstaff calls Hal "my sweet boy" and the new king devastates him with "I know thee not, old man." In the play, Falstaff is The Ghost.
- Rain of Arrows: The English longbow archers let off a hail of arrows against the French knights as the latter gallop towards them over an open field.
- Rousing Speech:
- First there's the "Once more unto the breach!" speech in which Henry exhorts his men to go through the breach in the wall at Harfleur.
- That's overshadowed by the even more famous St. Crispin's Day speech, in which Henry, right before Agincourt, tells his soldiers that they don't need any more men, that he wouldn't want any more, and that if anyone wants to leave they can. He tells the men that they are a Band of Brothers and that anyone who survives the battle that's about to happen can spend the rest of his life bragging about it.
- Rule of Funny: King Henry V absolutely would have been fluent in French but Shakespeare wanted some comedy, so we have the scene where Henry woos Katherine despite the fact that neither speaks the other's language.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Olivier lets Cambridge, Scrope, and Grey—the "Southampton Plot" traitors—appear in the scene where Henry says he'll show mercy to the drunk guy who insulted him. But Olivier cut out the part right after that where Henry exposes the plotters, so apparently in this universe Cambridge, Scrope, and Grey aren't executed.
- Sliding Scale of Shiny Versus Gritty: Very shiny indeed, with soldiers galloping across green fields on a sunny day at Agincourt, everyone looking dashing and clean. Contrast the Branagh film that was on the other end of the scale and portrayed Agincourt as a bloodbath in the mud.
- Suedonym: When a King Incognito Henry is challenged as he wanders about the camp, he identifies himself as "Harry LeRoy".
- That Makes Me Feel Angry: "I was not angry since I came to France until this instant!" Note that in the play Henry says this when he sees some of the English hanging back from the battle, while in this movie that line comes after he finds out about the French slaughtering the boys in the baggage train.
- Thunder Equals Downpour: A clap of thunder is followed by rain, as the elements interfere with the production of the early scenes of the play.
- War Is Glorious: In stark contrast to the Branagh film, this version makes Agincourt come off as a grand medieval pageant.
