Kenneth Branagh is one of those classic, old school directors. He makes a movie not for the sake of money, but for the sake of making a great movie. And he has never once gone out of his way to receive recognition for his work. He even declined the OBE (Officer of the British Empire, or being knighted). In everything that he has done, he has done an amazing job with many of his films, but, like all directors and actors, there are some bad ones.
As an actor, he has captivated my mind for many years. I was first introduced to him in my 9th grade stagecraft class with Henry V. Although we did not watch the full length film, we did watch a clip and saw what he could do with his movies. Then the next semester came along and I watched Much Ado About Nothing in my drama class. There I witnessed the full majesty of Mr. Branagh’s acting ability. Ever since then, I have continued to try and watch his other films. However, the majority of his greatest performances are ones where he did not direct the movie. Recently, a movie called Pirate Radio was released with an outstanding cast, but the movie itself was horrible. I could not watch the full movie because it was too sexually explicit, but I did get a chance to see Branagh’s scenes which are some of the most appropriate and best. He was, pardon the expression, laugh-out-loud funny. I couldn’t stay in my seat. Then there is Wild, Wild West, the 1999 action flick starring Kevin Kline and Will Smith. Again, nowhere near a good movie, but Branagh was so good. Other performances that he has done that he did not also direct was the 2001 and 2009 British mini-series called Conspiracy and Wallander, Othello, and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
And as a director, he has done some amazing movie. He continues to use several close friends of his in movies throughout the ‘90s. His wife Emma Thompson, friends Imelda Staunton, Richard Briers, Phyllida Law, Robin Williams, and Ian Holm have all been in multiple films of his. He also uses Patrick Doyle, one of his closest friends from college, as his composer. Patrick Doyle always composes beautiful or haunting music for every one of his films. Tim Harvey has been his production (or set) designer for ever film except for his latest, Thor. There are some problems, however, with a few of his movies. Peter’s Friends was not as good as it should be, with such a stellar cast as it does (Branagh, Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry, Imelda Staunton, and Emma Thompson) but the script made it very sexually explicit which it didn’t need to be. But some of his greatest directing films have been recent. As You Like It, with Kevin Kline, Alfred Molina, and Bryce Dallas Howard, was one of his best Shakespeare adaptations. Sleuth (Michael Caine and Jude Law) was a brilliant game of cat-and-mouse with only two roles, Caine and Law. However, like Pirate Radio and Peter’s Friends, it gets a little too risqué. This isn’t to say his earlier works are bad, they are not. His adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was the closest representation of the book (but still no cigar). It did have some great performances by Helena Bonham Carter and Robert De Niro. And his Henry V, Hamlet, and Much Ado About Nothing were all excellent, but also had problems as well.
The see it: Frankenstein, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like, Wallander, Conspiracy, and Henry V.
The don’t see it: Pirate Radio, Peter’s Friends, Sleuth, Wild, Wild West, and Othello.
Next time: Zombie time, with the Resident Evil series and Zombieland
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