SOURCE: Buhler, Stephen M. “‘By the Mass, our hearts are in the trim’: Catholicism and British Identity in Oliver's Henry V.” Cahiers Élisabéthains 47 (April 1995): 55-70.

In the following review, Buhler studies the treatment of Catholicism and British national identity in Laurence Olivier's 1944 film adaptation of Henry V. Buhler argues that in the film, Olivier sought to use both Catholic ritual and Shakespeare's text as sources of national strength and unity.

As every viewer recalls, Laurence Olivier's film of Henry V initially and literally stages its version of the playtext in a reconstructed Globe Theatre. The first scenes present unruly spectators entertaining themselves at the expense of the actors—most notably those portraying the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Ely. We are also meant to see in these early sequences the severe limitations of the stage, especially the Elizabethan variety. Olivier wanted the audience not only...