Howdy folks. Francis here again for another Francis Friday! I’m going full-on Monty Python this time with “new subject, completely new subject!” as it were.

We’ve spoken of our love of Shakespeare many times on the show, and at Martin’s urging we devoted an entire episode to the historical Battle of Agincourt, which is the central event in Shakespeare’s Henry V. I thought perhaps it was time to bring these two things together and speak of my favorite Shakespeare movie, Sir Kenneth Branagh’s awesome 1989 film, Henry V.

(Yes, I know I have many ‘favorite’ Shakespeare films and plays. Please don’t hate on someone who just can’t make up their mind. Oh wait, that’s Hamlet.)

Anyway, As much as I love Sir Laurence Olivier, and yes his Richard III from 1955 will get a glorifying post here eventually, Branagh brings an amazing liveliness to Shakespeare’s text that is astounding to watch. Yes, the Historical Plays are all my bayliwick, but the sheer glory and majesty of a plucky band of underdogs beating the snot out of an outrageously arrogant superior force just hits me where I live. I think the entire story is an amazing one, and yes I know it was all about conquest and all that nasty stuff, but this is no place for hatin’. It was indeed medievalism at its most potent, but it still makes a hell of a story.

Did you know that this was Sir Kenneth’s first film? Long before he brought Thor into the Marvel Cinematic universe, the man successfully ushered in a return of the Bard to the Cinema with this film (who of, course, never really left it), creating a jumping-off point for movie studios to finance tons of Shakespeare films over those next few years. There was Franco Zeffirelli’s Hamlet in 1990, Branagh’s Much Ado About Nothing in 1993, Ian McKellen’s weirdly satisfying Richard III in 1995 (with awesome supporting cast member young Robert Downey Jr. BTW), Branagh’s own complete version of Hamlet in 1996 and, of course, Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes in Romeo + Juliet that same year as well. Shakespeare in the movies was back, despite Sir Laurence Olivier’s passing, and a new era of wonderful Shakespeare cinema had begun, with Branagh as Sir Larry’s undisputed heir. All of that began in 1989 with the awesomeness that is Branagh’s Henry V.

Branagh’s young, energetic Henry is a perfect portrayal of the committed and resolute King, determined to ‘make use of his wilder days” to avenge the slight he receives at the hand of the French Dauphin. (Pronounced properly here, unlike in Olivier’s 1944 still-excellent film version which anglicized the word to the groans of most folks watching.) We also get to see primo performances by the late Ian Holm as the Welsh Captain Fluellen, Brian Blessed as the Duke of Exeter, Michael Maloney as the Dauphin (one of my favorite portrayals), Dame Judi Dench as Mistress Quickly, along with the great Paul Scofield as Charles VI of France, the beautiful Emma Thompson (who was Branagh’s wife at the time) as Katherine of France and of course the ever incomparable Sir Derek Jacobi as the Chorus, I could go on, but you get the idea.

This movie returns much of the grit and edge that Olivier had removed, giving a powerful realism to both the text and the world it creates, making it the ideal entry point into Shakespeare for the uninitiated. Even if you don’t care for Shakespeare (although I can’t personally understand such an attitude, myself) please let this be the movie that changes your mind. Turn on the captioning, grab your favorite beverage, (and pay attention mind you) and enjoy.

My middle daughter (who was born in 1994 and grew up watching the VHS with me) requests that we watch this movie together at least annually even today. It’s that good, really. Yes, the great Tom Hiddleston, MCU’s Loki, did an awesome portrayal for the BBC in 2012, and Timothée Chalamet gave a fine performance (along with Robert Pattinson as the Dauphin) for a pathetically weak historical version entitled The King for Netflix in 2019, but Branagh’s version should still be considered the standard, folks. (Sorry, Sir Larry.)

And as a gift, I present you with my favorite scene from the movie (and let’s be honest, the St. Crispin Day Speech is everyone’s favorite moment). Five minutes and forty-one seconds of pure power. (Branagh slightly shortened the speech from both Shakespeare’s text and Oliver’s 1944 version, my single quibble.)

And of course, if you’d like to hear me and the boys discuss the historical basis for all this, check out the following early episode from way back in August 2019: