Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Yash Wade Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Lucia Ayala It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Abegail Noëlle While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

classicsoncall I'm not a big fan of period costume dramas (or musicals for that matter), but what Kenneth Branagh did here as screenwriter, actor and director served to bring Shakespearean verse to life in a way that would have made using modern dialog an injustice. I'm not that familiar with Shakespeare apart from cursory study in high school, and with that being so far in the past, the film was a welcome departure from more traditional movie fare for this viewer. One mention in particular was surprising to hear, that of a 'band of brothers' referred to in Henry's St. Crispin's speech, only to learn a short time later that the verse actually inspired the title of that acclaimed World War II mini-series. I thought Branagh's Henry was quite eloquent in motivating his men to battle, and no less so in wooing the French Princess Kate (Emma Thompson). The film itself and Branagh's delivery is decidedly pro-England, but then again, so was William Shakespeare, and with this film one gains a measure of the bard's rich language and emotion.

Filipe Neto This film is an adaptation of a play written by William Shakespeare, and was the cinematographic debut of Kenneth Branagh. Although the purists continue to think that cinema is no place for Shakespeare, Branagh has shown that they're wrong. This film does full justice to Shakespeare's text, keeping dialogues with a fairly small margin of modification. Of course this is a risk, in cinema adaptations are truly imperative, but the fact is that there were very few moments when I felt the spoken text getting heavy, boring or left over. So it was worked well.The focus here is the military incursion that Henry V of England makes on French soil, determined to end the Hundred Years War by joining the French and English crowns over his head. By exploiting the weakness of the French king, Charles VI, who suffered from dementia, and the little military experience of the Dauphin (future Charles VII), the English succeeded in defeating a numerically superior force in the Battle of Agincourt and forcing a highly favorable peace in 1415, by the marriage of the English king with the daughter of the French king and an agreement, in which both crowns would be inherited by the first son to be born of this marriage. Of course, as we know, this union would never happen... Henry V dies too early, his heir is crowned in diapers and a girl, Joan of Arc, would provoke a decisive turnaround that guaranteed the breaking of these agreements and protected French independence.The film is visually great and historically accurate, both in the choice of sets and in the making of costumes, which are excellent. For me, the battle and the final scenes were the best part of the film. I liked the way the battle was recreated by the great historical care shown, and to avoid falling into the error of appealing to English patriotism. War is never good for anyone. The only people who can find war a good thing are those who have never seen one, or who expect to profit at their expense. Thus, some nostalgia is felt here, especially in the scenes in which the dead are buried. The rest of the film is also good, but dark scenarios and somewhat hazy cinematography didn't help. Branagh reserved the main role for himself and shone with a very good performance. Judy Dench was wonderful too, but this veteran is almost always flawless. Derek Jacobi masterfully secured the role of narrator.

Eric Stevenson It's kind of weird how what many people consider to be one of the best Shakespeare movies ever made was actually based on one of his lesser known plays. Scratch that. It was based on a true story based on one of the lesser known kings. To be fair, I'm pretty sure Henry V was probably the second most famous kind to bear that title, after of course Henry VIII. This is a story about the Hundred Year's War. Most people are probably unfamiliar with this apart from the fact that it made Joan of Arc famous. It was known for how the English won most of the battles, but the French won the war.Historically, that actually does happen sometimes. This movie/play focuses on pretty much every historical aspect you could imagine. I thought that the only thing it was truly missing was some sort of romance and at the end, guess what I got? What makes this film a classic is how beautiful everything looks. It makes you appreciate everything about Shakespeare and classic literature in general. Well, classic theater. I guess that can count as literature, right? I've noticed that Shakespeare used the word "thrice" a lot. People should use that more! It's quite long, but it's worth every minute. For all the drama, we also get some great authentic action scenes. The slow motion is used very well and it's great to see it being used in a battle before guns were invented. That was quite unique. We get a lot of discussions about royalty, religion, and many other relevant topics. It's great that there's so much going on. This is a great representation of history and all its violence. I'm still going to say the 1948 Hamlet version was my favorite Shakespeare film but this is the second. ****

ShibanPD The greatest adaptation of a Shakespearean play to the screen, Henry V, adapted by, directed by, and starring Kenneth Branagh, bridges the gap between faithful reproduction and innovative representation in an extremely exciting, most cinematic way. Branagh has certainly done his homework, and we are the benefactors of his erudition. For the most part, he has reduced Shakespeare's text to those elements which are not only screen-worthy, but the meanings of which ride easily on tone, gesture, and action, so that Shakespeare's poetic, though metaphorically dense language presents little obstacle to the understanding of the modern ear. Remaining—and out of place for such a successful transition between mediums—are unnecessary lines delivered by the Chorus (played by a fiery Derek Jacobi), which beg us to pardon the meagerness of the presentation and beseech us to use our imaginations to fill in the resulting holes. Famous lines to those familiar with the stage, but strangely redundant from within the context of a film of such high production value, grandness, and beauty—with a visual and aural realization that rises to match the quality of the bard's text. On the side of embellishment, Branagh interweaves lines, characters, and scenes from parts of Henry IV, through clever flashbacks. The purpose of this device is to summon Hal's past relationships with old friends who are now his subjects, and to elucidate the duality of Hal/Henry; for Hal was not always king, and in his younger days, he caroused with commoners, drunkards, liars, and even thieves. The effectiveness of this device varies: the hanging of Bardolph draws additional emotional impact from it, but, in spite of it and several fine, heartfelt performances, the reminiscing after Falstaff's death falls flat, since we, unlike the audience of Shakespeare's time, have not come to know and love this Sir John Falstaff through Parts 1 and 2 of Henry IV and other works. Now the betrayal of Falstaff by Hal, though moderately effective in the use of this same device, is one of the most interesting scenes in the film, as it employs a flash forward within a flashback, in which we hear Hal think what he will eventually say to Falstaff, and Falstaff responds to his disavowal. Hal's transformation into Henry V is really the heart of Shakespeare's story, as it requires him to sever connections to his "wilder days" in order to lead his countrymen in worldly pursuits. Branagh's handling of it is quite remarkable. Branagh's own acting performance as the title character is smart and passionate, commanding and stirring. It does suffer slightly from that same ailment that afflicts other zealous students of Shakespeare: he knows his lines so well that they, at times, lose their spontaneity and/or authenticity. That penetrating knowledge, which detracts slightly from his performance, overcompensates as an asset to his bold, definitive adaptation and assured direction. Additional assets are an unforgettably powerful score by Patrick Doyle and a solid surrounding cast, which includes Paul Scofield (as King Charles VI of France), Brian Blessed, Ian Holm, Judi Dench, Emma Thompson, and a young Christian Bale. Most notable among the supporting players are Robert Stephens as Auncient Pistol and Christopher Ravenscroft, who, as Montjoy, turns a messenger part into a key role through his earnest, telling reactions to both Henry and the French Dauphin.