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Directed by:
Kenneth Branagh  
Written by:
Kenneth Branagh, from William Shakespeare's play
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| Released: |
1989 |
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| Genre: |
REMAKE
BIOPIC
COSTUME
DRAMA
WAR
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| Origin: |
GB |
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| Length: |
89 |
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MIXED Reviews
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| | | "The potato-faced Branagh's performance as the snotty tearaway turned militarist monarch is adequate." | | (Kim Newman, Film Review) | | | "Despite budgetary limitations which occasionally make the army look like an amateur soccer side struck by illness, this is a courageous and largely successful adaptation, excellently acted, bringing out Shakespeare's ambiguous feelings about patriotism and war." | | (Rose) | | | "For the first reel or two I was unimpressed. Unflattering lighting made Branagh look more like Pinocchio than a monarch, and there was a jarring transition from the narrator on a windswept Beachy Head to a studio set purporting to be a castle in Southampton. There was also too much of Falstaff (as was the case in Olivier's version), for his sentimental death means nothing if you are not familiar with Heny IV, Part 1. Everyone is weeping and wailing for the passing of a tedious old fart the audience knows nothing about. However, there is a bonus in Branagh's version with the inclusion of an exciting scene where traitors are unmasked and summarily dealt with. That was omitted from Larry's scenario, possibly because the idea of an Englishman betraying his country in the last war was, if not unthinkable, certainly not to be encouraged. " | | (Ken Russell, 1993) | | |
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, Simon Shepherd
