Henry VIII and His Six Wives
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DVD details
DVD: Region Code 0Format: NTSC
DVD Release Date: 2007-09-20
Studio: Synergy Ent
DVD Reviews of Henry VIII and His Six Wives
DVD Review: The Movie Version of the Classic BBC Mini-Series
Summary: 4 Stars
I received my DVD of "Henry the Eighth and His Six Wives" today and played it. Based on my experience of watching old films on TV in my youth, much of what was said in the prior reviews is true: There was no attempt to digitally restore the movie to what it had been back in 1972. The sound quality as well as the brightness and color tone fluctuated somewhat at various points in the story, and the film itself showed clear signs of wear and tear. Fortunately, there was not enough of these flaws to render the movie unwatchable.
Keith Michell was just as superb in this film as he was in the TV mini-series. Frances Cuka made a wonderful Catherine of Aragon, and I think the age difference between her and Michell was intentional (Catherine was six years older than Henry and quite plain-looking). I was disappointed with Charlotte Rampling's portrayal of Anne Boleyn. Maybe I expected too much, but even when she had Anne shouting and flinging Henry's minature across the room in a rage, she came off as too low-key, showing almost none of the intensity that Dorothy Tutin's Anne Boleyn had. Jane Asher was a convincing Jane Seymour, though in real life Henry's third queen died from child-bed fever and a possible post-natal hemorrhage instead of complications from a Caesarean section. I don't know if Anne of Cleves was really as ugly as they showed her in the movie or if she did have brown hair that she hid under a blonde wig, but the lady who portrayed her did a fine comedic job, as did Michell himself as the revulsed Henry. The best acting, next to Michell's, was that of Lynne Fredericks as the sixteen-year-old Katherine Howard; King Henry's child-wife was actually shown as the girlish, vivacious charmer that she was in real life, and her calmness as she went to her death on the scaffold was also accurate. The actress doing Catherine Parr did admirable work in showing her as a well-educated, mature companion for Henry in his final years, though the script writer goofed by having him refer to her as "Mistress Parr" when she was actually "Lady Latimer". It was a delight to see Bernard Hepton reprise his Thomas Cranmer role from the "Six Wives" mini-series. A surprise was Brian Blessed as Henry's life-long friend Charles Brandon, the Duke of Suffolk and future grandfather of Lady Jane Grey. Donald Pleasence's portrayal of Thomas Cromwell left me a little confused; he made him oily and scheming enough, but it seemed he also infused Cromwell with a generous helping of Richard III and a somewhat comedic one at that.
The production values gave this movie a genuine Renaissance look and feel, all the way down to the rushes on the floors and the filthy, unhealthy streets of Tudor London. The blend of 16th century tunes and original music composed by David Munro added to the time and place of the story. Still, I couldn't help but notice how some of the costumes and lines of dialogue mirrored those in "Six Wives", an obvious nod to the show.
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