Henry VIII (2003)

That was an excellent one.

Great Film overall

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

not a good movie. not a bad film. only new occasion to discover a character, in new nuances and old colors. to remember a period, to search sense to a history page. to compare, create verdict, watch few scenes of fight and gestures of a fat English king. and rediscover Helena Bonham Carter as Anne Boleyn or David Suchet in skin of Wolsey. is it enough ? is it too much ? I do not know. important is fact that nothing is new. acting, atmosphere, cast - all pieces from a well - known cup. crumbs of theater and dramatization of a book, it is just occasion to discover Ray Winstone in Henry clothes. but after Richard Burton, Chris Larkin,Keith Mitchell,Jared Harris or young Rhys Meyers , his act is pretty good for a TV production. but not more.

He was loathed, loved, feared, respected and definitely left his mark in history. This is a lavish production dramatizing the life and 38-year reign of no doubt the very influential King Henry VIII(Ray Winstone). This shrewed and ruthless ruler was obsessively determined to sire a male heir. His wife, Catherine of Argon(Assumpta Sema)failed after numerous tries. Henry would take a mistress, Anne Boleyn(Helena Bonham Carter), who cleverly demanded marriage before having a child. She failed to provide a male child, so Henry had her placed in the Tower of London before she was beheaded. The harsh ruler grew restless with age and would have many slaughtered in a religious gesture; growing impatient and untrusting he would use beheading as his favorite means of dealing with out-of-favor wives and allies accused of treason. Some disturbing images in this 200 plus minute dramatization. Photographed beautifully. Winestone is very impressive; but I personally believe Miss Bonam Carter steals the show. The very strong cast also features: David Suchet, Sean Bean, Emilia Fox, Charles Dance, Emily Blunt, Michael Maloney, Joseph Morgan and Lara Belmont.

Henry VIII is a good movie. It shows in details historical facts, and it's very good to see it when you're studying the history of Great Britain. However, I do not recommend this movie for young children. In Fact, it contains blood, and some nudity scenes who may be shocking for them. Although the lengths of the movie, it's very well structured. I could divide the movie in six parts. The first part would be Catherine of Aragon, the second Anne Boleyn, the third Jane Seymour, the fourth Anne of Cleves, the fifth Catherine Howard, and the sixth Catherine Parr. I think it's a very logical division for the number of wives Henry had...

I absolutely love Tudor history so I was naturally looking forward to this program. I was a little disappointed. The first thing that I noticed was that While Ray Winstone did resemble portraits of Henry VIII not one of the actresses playing his wives looked like the real person. One problem that has bothered me with almost every program about Henry VIII is that for some reason Catherine of Aragon is always portrayed with the stereotypical dark hair and dark eyes of a Spainish princess. According to extant historical records, Catherine in her youth had red gold hair, blue eyes and white and pink coloring. Another thing that puzzled me was the costuming. This program was set in the early to mid 1500's many of the costumes especially those of Anne Boleyn and Kathryn Howard did not seem to fit the era considering that both women were said to have preferred the fashionable French style of gowns with turned back cuffs. Also Jane Seymour nearly always wore the demure gable hood to further separate herself from her predecessor Anne Boleyn(who preferred the French Hood). I think that Henry was made to look like a bit of a barbarian. It must be remembered that he dealt with a lot of personal guilt for marrying his brothers widow. Also, while these days it is not acceptable to behead one's wife, Henry was King and he was making an example of his two unfortunate wives. In defense of this program, it really is impossible to compact Henry's entire life into basically 3 hours. I guess that's why Anne of Cleves was only shown once for about two minutes.