The Atomic Agincourt: Henry V and the Filmic Making of Postwar Anglo-American Cultural Relations

Nichols |The Atomic Agincourt: Henry Vand the Filmic Making of Postwar Anglo-American Cultural Relations John C. Nichols University of Pittsburgh The Atomic Agincourt: Henry V and the Filmic Making of Postwar Anglo-American Cultural Relations ? its November 1944 British premiere, Laurence Olivier's Henry Vaimed to rally British troops with cries of "God for Harry, England, and Saint George!" Nearly two years later, in April 1946, the film premiered in the United States with an additional, international cultural intent: to announce a worthy competitor to America's emerging cultural dominance. A culmination of British wartime films, Henry V hoped to be a wedge into American film markets, opening the new world power for subsequent British films as well as British cultural influence. The plan failed. Despite the film's overwhelming British nationalism, heightened even more in its distribution, the American media effectively neutralized Henry V. Spurred by the threat of a competitive British film industry, led by cinemagnate J. Arthur Rank, the American cultural counter-strategy termed British films and Britain as "realistic," implying a historical and cultural immobility unsuitable for the new nationalism that the United States pressed into the world - a nationalism of transformation. Furthermore, the category of "realism" became a detached, aesthetic site in which Henry Vcould be converted into an American war film. In its trans-Atlantic journey, Henry V foregrounds the post-war maneuvers between Great Britain and the United States for the rights to cultural and political supremacy. "There is reason to believe," wrote TAe Times Londonarticle,"Our Assistance to Our Allies," appeared the day afeditor , Norman Crump, "that total mobilisation for war haster the premiere of Henry V, adjacent to the reviews of the proceeded much farther here than in the United States. Thisfilm. While its concern for British world leadership applies means that the 'unwinding' process after the war will beat many levels, it could easily apply to Britain's cultural stewmore complex and prolonged in this country. This strength-ardship in film. During the war, American films occupied ens the case for parallel unwinding, so that the United Na-nearly eighty percent ofthe British film market, the remaintions march in step, and no single country gains to great a ing twenty percent went to domestic films, as established by lead over its Allies."1 Exhibiting a concern for Americangovernment quota. Moreover, Hollywood actively sought vigor at the expense of British sacrifice, Crump'soverseas venues to insure profit for its films, a practice that 88 I Film & History World War II in Film | Special In-Depth Section surely would not stop when the war ended and the British film industry re-commenced. Of the forty-two films a year Britain produced during the war, all engaged in bolstering public support and morale. Henry Vepitomized the effort. The presence of Laurence Olivier alone signalled a strong patriotic purpose. Like many actors in the British military, he was often required to perform for the troops. Young King Henry always appeared. "I don't think we could have won the war without 'Once more unto the breach' somewhere in our soldier's hearts," Olivier wrote.2 Ironically, when Olivier first assayed the part in the 1937 season at the Old Vic, he tried underplaying Henry, nearly whispering his lines. Only until director Tyrone Guthrie remarked, "Larry, let's have it properly" did the bombast arrive, and along with it, Olivier's first critical success.3 In film, Olivier had practically represented the Allied nations by the variety ofhis roles: he played a Russian scientist who helps a British town build submarine propellers in The Demi-Paradise (UK 1943)/Ac/venture for Two (US 1945); a French-Canadian trapper against marooned Germans in Canada in The 49th Parallel (UK 1941)/TAe Invaders (US 1942); Lord Horatio Nelson in Winston Churchill's favorite movie, That Hamilton Woman (UK and US 1941); as well as narrator of various documentaries, such as Words for Battle (1941), where he delivered Shakespearean verse. Taken separately, Olivier's cinematic appearances prior to Henry Vrepresented the mainstream of British cinema. According to Marcia Landy, British wartime films were mostly historical films or documentaries depicting romance, combat, family, incidents of training and discipline...