Henry V "Once More" Has Staying Power

On a show, Hoppus on Music, that normally focuses on a different genre-Music and Musicians, guest actor Tom Hiddleston performed an impromptu Once More Upon the Breech monologue, "the Globe Theater-worthy speech from Henry V."

Mr. Hiddleston is known most recently for his part as Captain Nicholls in War Horse and as Loki in The Avengers. Hiddleston has just finished filming TV movies Henry IV and Henry V. I look forward to seeing these productions.

Hiddleston is winded afterward showing that acting bears a similar exertion to that of a singer or musician playing an instrument. Another parallel of this spontaneous recital to a Globe theatre's Henry V is that it like a the production that would have taken place in Elizabethan theater had no scenery.  A Chorus (a single actor) would have been calling out the images of the scene at hand so the audience could imagine what what was physically lacking on the stage. The audience would have to use their minds to create pictures like when one reads a good book. I think that audiences don't just want to be entertained and that's another reason why this type of display is popular. It provides a taste of high brow culture to audiences that are inundated with commercial and sensationalist entertainment.

Henry V keeps coming back and back again in Shakespeare adaptations. In this case, it's simply a spontaneous performance on a talk show, but the idea that scenes from a play written over hundreds of years ago have strong resonance in this digital age speaks to the strength of the piece. It has maintained a place in popular culture. Witness the use of Henry V by a legal marketing company JDSupra to represent one of main principles of legal procedure - communication.

Henry V is a truly inspiring play. Whether one sees it on the stage or on the big screen with the 1944 Olivier or 1989 Branagh version, one cannot help but draw inspiration about the story of the former Prince Hal, from Henry IV, who becomes a regal monarch and leads the English army to a defeat of the French at the Battle of Agincourt. One of the things that Henry V does extraordinarily well is communicate; about his goals and rousing his subjects to help achieve them. Today we use the prism of Henry V to look at Principle V of the Six Principles of Adequate Procedures; that being “Communication (including training).”

Whether for the entertainment of a talk show audience or for an example of exemplary example of procedure in business, Shakespeare's Henry V maintains a place in the world today four centuries after it was written.

Back to Henry V - Film Adaptations

In today's post, I'm getting back to the discussion of the play Henry V and its film adaptations (from earlier posts on January 29 , February 11 and the 16).

The 1944 film, Henry V, based on the play by William Shakespeare, with Laurence Olivier stands apart from the 1996 Branagh version in many ways. Concentrating on the mis-en-scene--what is photographed inside the frame, working from the back forward, we have the set of the scene. It is Disney like in appearance, the green, rolling hills leading back to the pristine village buildings that are all set underneath a willowy blue sky and puffy white clouds. There are brown, tan and gray cliffs in the foreground through which we see soldiers running away from the fighting behind them. The King rides from behind the cliffs into the frame on a white stallion with red trimmings, carrying a sword. He is the only one on a horse and appears above everyone else. The props and costume are obvious with a medium shot cut to Henry with his blue, red, and yellow dress and gray silver armor surrounding his arms and his neck and up to his head. He removes his helmet in grand gesture with both arms moving up, his elbows extended out with his hands at his chin to push up the front of his face plate. He then brings the whole of it off of his head and as he does so his sword remains in his right hand swinging across his chest, so large that it moves half out of the frame. Olivier’s movement’s as the King are controlled, precise, and deliberate. He is on show, at play in the play, not in a real fight for life and death. The one time anything appears blocking him it is one of his minions carrying the flag. Enhancing these scene elements, is the orchestral score with the omission of any battle sounds and the absence of any explosions or cries from men whose flesh has been torn by blades. This film is a representation of the so called glory of war; with the noble untouchable king leading those lesser into the fight. Violence and death are hidden. It is the Poster child of the United Kingdom’s war offices to fight the good fight for mother, honor, and country. There is no realism, no blood, no suffering, so the film could be used as a marketing tool for the country’s people to join the fight against the Nazi’s and to feel good about it.

The 1989 film of Henry V directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh contains vastly more realism than Olivier's production. Again, the historical factors are significant at the time the film was made. We have defeated the Nazi’s, experienced the further atrocity of the war in Vietnam and the U.S. revolution of the 60’s where revolt against war became popular. We are at the end of the cold war and at the brink of the Eastern Bloc’s Wall come tumbling down. Smartly, Branagh still maintains his respect and admiration as the noble King Henry V, but he does so while showing the destruction that war causes. Scenes begin with all the grittiness of battle, the light of fire, dirty, bloodied faces, and chaotic raging movement leading into the sounds of massive explosion. Henry here, played by Branagh, is a tiger. His speech is guttural, fraught, and fiery. Branagh’s sword is raised straight up and then swings wildly side to side then towards us while he spews the words of once more onto the breech as if he were mad, his lips are wet and his eyes excited, it is dark and he atop a horse who becomes blocked by a mass the men’s helmet’s shining helmets so that it almost looks like Henry is carried by these men. Then there is a cut to a close up of one of these men whose intensity of concentration and arousal for king and war is clear in his eyes. Branagh puts the violence and death right in our faces. He doesn’t sugar coat it. He’s telling us it’s a necessary evil and that to run away is to dishonor ourselves and be left to a worse condition, perhaps spared certain death, but to live in disgrace to your dying day, your dying breath.

Henry V - Laurence Olivier's

Now watch the Olivier deliver the same speech. You will see that it is extremely different from the Branagh version. 

We'll talk about these two versions in more depth in our next post, but consider some obvious points of contrasts in:

1. Acting
2. Blocking
3. Costumes
4. Lighting
5. Music
6. Props
7. Scenery

HENRY V - Adaptions - Kenneth Branagh's

This is a continuing look at Henry V from my introduction.

There have been several films made of Henry V, two most notable are—the 1944 version with Sir Lawrence Olivier (Sir because he was knighted) and the 1989 version directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh.

I've posted a clip here from Branagh's film, Henry V. I would highly recommend seeing the entire film to better understand the context and get the full effect of the emotional plea by the King to rally the troops.

HENRY V - Introduction

The What:  The Play Henry V, as originally titled The Cronicle Hiftory of Henry the fift, was written by William Shakespeare in about 1599. There are no typos in the title above—there is no h in chronicle, there is an f in History, and there is no h in fift—see the picture of the title page below.


The Who:  Henry V, King of England, who ruled from 1386 until 1422.

The Where:  The majority of Henry V takes place near Azincourt, France.

The When:  Before, during and after the Battle of Agincourt which took place on St. Crispan's Day, Friday, October 25, 1415.



I was introduced to Shakespeare during my stays at summer sleepaway camp in upstate NY. We took day trips to the Stratford Theatre Fesitval, in Connecticutt, so by the time I was 12 years of age, I was lucky enough to have seen several Shakespeare plays performed by the professional players at this delightful venue. Unfortunately, the theatre has since closed, though some effort seems to be in progress to reopen it.

Henry V was not one of the plays I saw at Stratford. It wasn't until 2009 that I became intrigued with Henry V, and its famous lines often referred to as the St. Crispan's Day or Band of Brothers speech, at the installation of Heather DuBrow as John D. Boyd, S.J., Chair in Poetic Imagination in the English department at Fordham University where I work.