How Far do the Film Versions of Henry V follow the text?

‘Henry V’ is Shakespeare’s classic play based around the events surrounding the battle of Agincourt. Olivier and Branagh both made twentieth century film versions of the play; the two interpretations of the play can at times appear very different. I shall be looking at the two scenes, which are very important to the play and how the two films interpret these scenes differently and how far they uphold the text.

In Act 3 Scene 3 King Henry makes some very emotive threats to the governor of Harfleur to try and get him to give up the town. These threats are effective at showing us how Henry intends to build himself a reputation as a strong king. This speech shows that he is trying to gain respect as a king, so that he isn’t treated in the same way as he had been in the beginning of the play when the French Dauphin had sent him tennis balls as compensation for the French throne.

We know from the previous scenes that the king is a deeply religious man: he shows us this by consulting with bishops before deciding to go to war with France. In this sc

The first scene I examined was about Henry trying to manipulate the governor of Harfleur so that he will give up the town and is a good example of showing Henry as a strong King. In the two versions of the play there had been lines edited out to the extent that Olivier’s version only contained one line which was possibly because the horrific language of the scene wouldn’t be suitable for wartime propaganda. Branagh’s version of the speech includes everything apart from lines 5-9, which Branagh perhaps felt a modern audience wouldn’t be able to relate to. In the way that it is performed the Branagh version of this play in my opinion upholds the text.

“What watch the king maintaining the peace,

The king believes that ceremony is in a sense pointless because it is through ceremony that the king’s subjects show their love for him, but the king believes that the feelings of his subjects towards him shown through ceremony are false:

“What drink’st thou oft, instead of homage sweet,

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