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Henry V Customer Reviews (1 - 3 of 38 Reviews)

Be careful of all these excellent reviews.
This movie is a Shakespeare play. The dialog is impossible to understand for MUCH of this movie. Anyone who says that they understand everything these actors are saying must be lying. No one speaks this way now and it is very hard to follow. I wish I had known that it was Shakespeare before I bought it, but for some reason I didn't. The movie is also like a play but in a movie format. This might not be to everyone's liking. Just be cautious of all these rave reviews.

demands way too much
If you're going to bring together a first rate cast to do a film of a relatively obscure Shakespeare play, why not spend some money and make a beautiful film that recreates the time and place. This looks like it was done on an extremely tight budget. And so the scope of the story is mostly left to the imagination. And this requires that one knows the story very well. I don't and few do. Also problematic is the fact that Brannagh's speechifying seems intent on the music of the words without care for their understanding. The voice goes up and the voice goes down. Emphasize THIS and then emphasize THAT. His whole approach seems quite artificial. If you want to see a Shakespeare film that works on every level a much better choice would be Mel Gibson's Hamlet. More than anything else, this Henry V seems little more than a war of words.

A fantastic Shakespeare adaptation...
Even though this is not one of Shakespeare's more famous stories, this film pays tribute to this gem of a story with great acting and excellent direction. Starring Kenneth Branaugh as the young king who wants to take over France, the film tells the story of his struggle to gain the throne of France despite having the odds stacked up against him. Branaugh is wonderful as the ambitious king, especially when he delivers the St. Crispin's Day speech with power and gusto, and all the supporting cast members are equally fantastic. If you haven't yet seen this gem of a film, rent it now and experience this brilliant adaptation of one Shakespeare's greatest stories.

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