Henry V: Difference between revisions

[[File:ShakespearesHenryV_4927.jpg|frame|"This star of England..."]]

 

 

'''''[[Henry V]]''''' (or to give its full original title, ''The Chronicle Historie of ''Henry'' the fift: with his battel fought at ''Agin Court'' in ''France''. Togither with Auncient ''Pistoll.) is a play by [[William Shakespeare]], in which Henry V (the former Prince Hal from ''[[Henry IV]]'', Parts 1 and 2) goes and beats the French. Then marries one of them.

 

* There's "Once More Unto the Breach" (III.i), as quoted at the top of the page, in which Henry encourages his troops to make one more great effort to overwhelm the defences of Harfleur.

 

Expect varying interpretations when this play is performed -- it's debated whether it's pro- or anti-war.

 

The plot structure is the template for just about every war movie ever made.

* [[Band of Brothers]]

* [[Household Names]]

 

* [[All for Nothing]]: The final lines remind us that Henry VI would undo all his father's accomplishments in gaining rule over France, however impressive they were.

* [[All-Star Cast]]: The 1989 film reads rather like a "Who's Who of British Acting", with names like [[Judi Dench]], [[Derek Jacobi]], [[Brian Blessed]], [[Kenneth Branagh]], [[Emma Thompson]], Ian Holm, [[Christian Bale]] and Robbie Coltrane on the list.

* [[Disproportionate Retribution]]: Henry uses the French prince's mocking gift of tennis balls as an excuse to declare war.

** Well, not exactly. He already had given some reasons (one of them being an extremely convoluted explanation as to why he's the rightful heir to the French throne) and was considering doing it; the tennis balls were just the straw that broke the camel's back.

** Falstaff.

*** [[Real Life Writes the Plot]]: Probably caused by Falstaff's actor Will Kemp leaving the company after a dispute.

*** Lampshaded still further in the Olivier film, when the actor playing the Archbishop tries to read the explanation off a mass of papers, inevitably gets lost, and the papers somehow end up all over the stage with at least a third of actors searching for the right one on their knees so they can finish the damn thing. When the archbishop beatifically declares "clear as the summer sun" line, they all look at each other in an "are you ''kidding'' me" way.

*** What makes it even more ironic is that (as Henry alludes to in his soliloquoy before the Battle of Agincourt where he's wracked with guilt about poor King Richard II) he's actually the son of an ''usurper'' - far from being the rightful king of France, he's not even the rightful king of ''England.''

* [[Manipulative Bastard]]: Possibly Harry.

* [[Numbered Sequels]]: To ''[[Henry IV]]'', Parts 1 and 2

* [[That Makes Me Feel Angry]]: "I was not angry since I came to France/Until this instant" from King Henry, after he sees English horsemen hanging back from the battle at Agincourt.

* [[Tranquil Fury]]: Henry's reaction to receiving the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llD16uIzuzk tennis balls].

* [[Viewers Are Geniuses]]: The scene between Katherine and her maid, where the dialogue is entirely in French. No important information is conveyed in the scene, at least, but many unilingual audience-members won't know that.

* [[War Is Hell]]/[[War Is Glorious]]: Depending on the interpretation - modern adaptations tend to go with the former, though a notable exception was Olivier in 1944, in which the play was presented as a glorious British resistance against an evil foreign empire. No prizes for guessing [[World War Two|why.]]

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Historical Fiction]]

[[Category:Theatrical Productions]]