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(King) Henry V (1944, UK) (aka The
Chronicle History of King Henry the Fift with His Battell Fought
at Agincourt in France)
In Laurence Olivier's adaptation of Shakespeare's staged
play - a winner of Honorary Awards in 1946:
- the opening sequence - a panorama of the city of
London in 1600, and a view into Shakespeare's 17th century Globe
Theatre (Playhouse), where a stage-bound play, Henry the Fift,
was to be presented - with the remarkable transition from the theatre
to the plains of Agincourt before the famous battle in 1415 A.D.
- the narrated prologue of Chorus
(Leslie Banks) delivered on the stage to the Globe Playhouse's
audience, urging them to use their imaginations: ("O for a
Muse of fire, that would ascend the brightest heaven of invention,
a kingdom for a stage, princes to act and monarchs to behold the
swelling scene! Then should the warlike Harry, like himself, assume
the port of Mars; and at his heels, leash'd in like hounds, should
famine, sword and fire crouch for employment. But pardon, and gentles
all, the flat unraised spirits that have dared on this unworthy
scaffold to bring forth so great an object: Can this cockpit hold
the vasty fields of France? Or may we cram within this wooden O
the very casques that did affright the air at Agincourt?..On your
imaginary forces work. Suppose within the girdle of these walls
are now confined two mighty monarchies, whose high upreared and
abutting fronts the perilous narrow ocean parts asunder: Piece
out our imperfections with your thoughts. Think when we talk of
horses, that you see them printing their proud hoofs i' the receiving
earth; for 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings, carry
them here and there, jumping o'er times, turning the accomplishment
of many years into an hour-glass: for the which supply, admit me
Chorus to this history; who prologue-like your humble patience
pray, gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play")
- the characterization of Shakespeare's Plantagenet
King Henry V (Oscar-nominated Laurence Olivier)
- the scene of King Henry V's first rousing, morale-boosting
battle speech as he exhorted his troops for battle against the French
at the siege of Harfleur (outside the walls), astride his horse,
garbed in armor and swinging his sword: ("Once more unto the
breach, dear friends, once more; Or close the wall up with our English
dead. In peace there's nothing so becomes a man as modest stillness
and humility. But when the blast of war blows in our ears, then imitate
the action of the tiger. Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood.
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage. Then lend the eye a
terrible aspect. Let pry through the portage of the head like the
brass cannon. Let the brow o'erwhelm it as fearfully as doth a galled
rock o'erhang and jutty his confounded base, swill'd with the wild
and wasteful ocean. Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,
Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit to his full height.
On, on, you noblest English whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof!...")
- King Henry's St. Crispin's Day address-speech to his
weary troops before the Battle of Agincourt in 1415: ("This
story shall the good man teach his son and Crispin Crispian shall
ne'er go by, from this day to the ending of the world, but we in
it shall be remember'd; we few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother, be
he ne'er so base. And gentlemen in England now a-bed shall think
themselves accurs'd they were not here and hold their manhoods cheap
whiles any speaks that fought with us upon Saint Crispin's Day")
- the magnificently-created Battle of Agincourt war
scene - both stylized and realistic (with archers letting forth a
volley of arrows), with Britain's victory over the French in 1415
- the subsequence sequence of King Henry's courting
of Princess Katherine (Renee Asherson)
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Shakespeare's Plantagenet King Henry V (Laurence Olivier)
King Henry V's First Rousing Battle Speech
St. Crispin's Day Speech
Battle of Agincourt
King Henry's Courting of Princess Katherine (Renee Asherson)
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