Cinematic Portrayal of Henry V

Abstract

This bachelor´s thesis deals with the analysis of two film adaptations of Shakespeare´s play Henry V. The theoretical part first details information about the concept of popular culture. Which is followed up by an examination of adaptation tendencies when adapting drama to film and by the historical context of the 1940s and 1980s in the United Kingdom. As the subjects of analysis are the movies Henry V by Laurence Olivier from 1944 and Henry V by Kenneth Branagh from 1989, with the focus on analysing their distinctive features in connection with their respective periods.