The high degree of artistry displayed in the acting, direction and mounting of Branagh's film have been well covered. What strikes me most, as one who saw the Olivier film at the time of its premiere and who has viewed it several times since, is the contrast between the two depictions of the Battle of Agincourt. Olivier produced Henry V with the full cooperation of the British government, receiving permission to film in Technicolor, (which during he 1940s was used mostly for musicals), and, even in wartime, use of British soldiers for the battle scenes. The rationale was, that the film would serve to boost morale, as the victory of the British over the dubious territorial claim of the French substituted for the war against Germany. One of my most vivid memories from that era is the shot of the long bows, the British secret weapon and the earliest long-range weaponry, arching into the air, causing death and confusion in the French ranks. The long bows are there in the Branagh film, but they are much less sophisticated in appearance, and are not presented as being decisive. In this film there is much more emphasis upon the man-to-man combat, even by the king himself, who ends up covered with blood, which I don't recall having seen on Olivier. This makes the battle seem much more desperate, and less noble than in the earlier film. If I were to compare the two, I would say that the war in the latter had a stronger resemblance to the John Wayne war dramas in which the Americans win a clear and decisive victory. Here we have a picture of war closer to that in Private Ryan. The message: Over the years war has lost much of the glamor associated with many (not all) Hollywood productions, for those who have seen newsreels from Vietnam and Iraq.
