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Once more unto the breach with Laurence Olivier as Henry V |
Director: Laurence Olivier
Cast: Laurence Olivier (Henry V), Renée Asherson (Princess
Katherine), Robert Newton (Pistol), Leslie Banks (Chorus), Felix Aylmer
(Archbishop of Canterbury), Robert Helpmann (Bishop of Ely), Nicholas Hannen
(Exeter), Ernest Thesiger (Duke of Berri), Frederick Cooper (Nym), Roy Emerton
(Bardolph), Freda Jackson (Mistress Quickly), George Cole (Boy), Harcourt
Williams (King Charles VI), Russell Thorndike (Duke of Bourbon), Leo Genn
(Constable of France), Francis Lister (Orleans), Max Adrian (The Dauphin),
Esmond Knight (Fluellen), Michael Shepley (Gower), John Laurie (Jamy), Niall
McGinnis (MacMorris), Valentine Dyall (Burgandy)
Olivier’s pre-eminence as the leader of the acting
profession in Britain for a large chunk of the last century probably found its
roots in his imperiously sublime production of Henry V, the first time he directed a film, but also the point
where it seemed that Olivier and the country of Britain seemed to be almost one
and the same. Filmed as a propaganda piece, heralding the indomitable spirit of
the British in the face of foreign wars, Olivier’s film is a triumph that also
set the tone for what the public expected from Shakespeare films for decades to
come.
Originally Oliver balked at the idea of directing the film,
approaching William Wyler to take the job on. But Wyler, rightly, knew he could
never bring the Shakespearean understanding to it that Olivier could, so the
soon-to-be Sir Laurence took the job on himself – meaning he directed,
co-produced, co-adapted and starred in the film. I’m not sure anyone else could
have done it – or invested the entire project with such certainty, such
confidence, such power of personality that the entire project flies together
into a sweeping, brightly technicolour treat of pageantry and theatre.
Olivier’s concept for the film is ingenious – and
influential. Taking as its cue the words of the chorus (delivered with a archly
bombastic confidence by Leslie Banks), the call to “let your imaginary forces
work”, the film is set initially in a genuine Elizabethan era staging of Henry V (including unfortunate rain
downpour after the first scene).Slowly, it develops over the course of the film
from set to cinematic sound stage (still designed with influence from medieval
illustrations) and finally into a realistic location setting for the Battle of
Agincourt, before turning heel and repeating the journey back until the film
ends again in the Globe theatre, with the actors taking their bow (and the
female characters now played by fresh-faced boys). It’s marvellously done, and
a neat play on the limitations of both film and theatre, and a testament to the
powers that imagination can have to expand the world of what we are presented
with.
The style of the play develops as we watch it, becoming more
natural and restrained as we get closer to Agincourt, then progressing gently
back the other way. The opening scenes play Canterbury and Ely’s long-winded
legal argument in favour of war for laughs (with neat comic timing by Felix
Aylmer and Robert Helpmann), with an avalanche of papers across the stage,
Canterbury frequently lost in his exposition and Ely (and even Henry) having to
prompt him with precise points. This is a nice set-up for the comic characters
of the play, Falstaff’s old retainers here are the very picture of
high-spirited, rowdy common folk (though I must say Robert Newton’s
high-energy, gurning Pistol is a bit of a trial, even if it perfectly captures the
playing-to-the-cheap-seats mania the role seems to require).
This comic exuberance (and the stuff with Canterbury is
genuinely quite funny) gives a perfect counterpoint for Laurence Olivier to
perform Henry at his imperious best. Olivier was an actor who invested his
Shakespearean delivery with far more naturalism than he is often given credit
for, and his Henry here has more than enough true feeling, emotion,
determination, courage, bravery and nobility behind his almost sanctified
greatness. And of course you get Olivier’s outstanding delivery, that
wonderfully rich voice with just a hint of sharpness, delivering the lines not
as just poetry, but as true moments of invention. Olivier also has the mastery
of the small moments – and Henry doesn’t get much of those – with two
particular favourites being the small cough in the wings to clear his throat
before entering for his first scene, and that satisfied, exuberant smile at the
curtain call at the play’s end. His Henry – the true warrior king of virtue –
cemented perception of the character for decades to come.
True, Olivier never touches on Henry’s darker side. Olivier
neatly cut anything that could introduce any shades of grey into the character:
gone is the summary execution of the traitors at Southampton, cut are the
references to naked newborn babes being spitted on pikes before Harfleur, nowhere
do you hear the order to execute all prisoners at Agincourt. This is film-making
with a purpose, to pushing the message of England, for good, against all.
As a director, Olivier revelled in the possibilities of
cinema, marrying it to theatre. For the large speeches, Olivier invariably
starts small and close, and then pans sharply and widely out to turn the cinema
into a theatre – also allowing the actors (often to be fair, himself) to not
feel restrained by the intimacy of the camera, but to deliver the speeches as
intended, larger than life and bursting with impact. Olivier’s confidence with
the camera is striking, his film a celebration of sweeping shots, of carefully
placed tracking shots, of well-delivered acting. The camera work in the Globe is beautifully done, a series of carefully selected angles and shots. The long panning shot over a
model of London leading to the Globe that book-ends the film is beautifully
done, and the confidence with which Olivier slowly transitions from artifice to
reality is superbly well done.
The style of the piece is extraordinary, with its primary
colours like a medieval book brought to life. There is some pleasing comic
mileage from the French court, reduced almost to a man to being a bunch of camp
moral weaklings. The courting of Princess Katherine (Renée Asherson, in a role intended
for Vivien Leigh) has a playful charm to it (even if, as in the play, it’s
probably a scene too far after the highpoint of Agincourt). But the heart of it
is that long build to the campaign, for Agincourt to be brought to life (at
huge expense at the time), a beautiful rendering and explosion of reality after
the careful artificiality of the rest of the film, as if we really have got our
imaginations working and brought it to life before us as the Chorus instructed.
The film established a regular Olivier company that would
work with him on films to come. William Walton’s score seems to capture that
mood of England at war and believing it was in the right. The cast – plucked
from English theatre by Olivier – give striking performances, from Leo Genn’s
stern Constable to Max Adrian’s bitter Dauphin, with Esmond Knight’s pernickety
Fluellen leading the way for the English. Olivier is of course at the centre as
the master conductor, a man who fitted so naturally into the role of leader
that he basically seemed ready to take it on for the whole country, never mind
just the film. Is there an actor around who was more suited and natural in
positions of authority than Olivier? Who was so easily able to inspire and
dalliance with genius?
Turning Henry V
into a patriotic celebration of England was what was needed, but turning
Shakespeare into something that worked on film, that married the theatrical
qualities with the cinematic sweep of the camera was exactly what the Bard
needed to find a life on screen. Olivier’s daring was to strip down the play
and work out what would work on screen and how to make that come to life. Doing
so, he defined Shakespeare films for a generation.
A TOP FIVE FAVORITE!!! Love Every scene Of This Classic! Just To Pick Out One Great Scene Out Of A Hundred Is Hard, So I'll Just Go With The Scene Where Olivier Introduces Us To Henry V Backstage, Before He Comes Out In Front Of The Crowd. He Comes Into The Frame From The Side In Profile. Coughs Nervously, Waits For His Cue...AND ENTERS TO THUNDEROUS APPLAUSE AS KING OF ENGLAND!!! LOVE THIS SCENE!! LOVE EVERY SCENE!! LOVE THE MOVIE!!!!!
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