100 Movies Every Catholic Should See #31: Henry V (1989)

Directed and adapted by Kenneth Branagh. Starring Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson, Derek Jacobi

I must make one distinction here before 

Reviewing Branagh’s 1989 

Henry V: This piece will not review 

The play, written by William Shakespeare some 

400 years before, no! This review  

Avers the film—the film alone—as its 

Domain. The play, the plot, the dialogue, 

Or scheme do draw out critics from a score 

Of generations. Any work still breathing, 

However, should be called immortal if 

Four centuries have not erased it from 

The canon of great English literature.  

I may, in passing, sink in rapturous odes 

To Shakespeare, Bolingbrokes, or Agincourt, 

But please ignore delinquencies as these, 

Attributing all outbursts to an excess 

Of education given late in youth.