Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8841 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-03-14
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Formats: Anamorphic, Box set, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 250 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
At the heart of Henry VIII stands a towering performance by Ray Winstone, who literally grows into the role, impressively doubling in size and ageing 40 years over the course of two feature-length episodes. Focusing on Henry's relationships with his six wives, this lavish mini-series also makes a good job of explaining the complex court intrigues of the period, detailing Henry's split with Rome and the political crisis following the creation of the Church of England. Winstone initially seems to play the King as little more than a London gangster, but he gradually unfolds a complex, brutal, manipulative, romantic, dedicated and driven man with great skill.

In a role which harks back to Lady Jane (1986), Helena Bonham Carter makes an intelligent and sardonic Anne Boleyn, her bold performance contrasting strongly with Geneviève Bujold in Anne of the Thousand Days (1969). Emily Blunt impresses as the sexpot Katherine Howard, and Emilia Fox is compelling as Henry's greatest love, Jane Seymour. There's fine support from an all-star cast, including Sean Bean, Charles Dance and David Suchet. The production is unflinching, with burnings, torture, marital violence and executions graphically portrayed. If there's a weakness it lies in too-modern dialogue and an uncertain visual style, with noticeable borrowings from John Boorman's Excalibur and Ridley Scott's Gladiator, as well as setting Shakespeare in Love-style elegance against the ugly colours and graininess of reality TV. Ultimately Henry VIII plays most like a prequel to Elizabeth (1999)--right down to using the same piece of Elgar to underscore the finale--and has most of the same faults and virtues as that Oscar-winning film. --Gary S Dalkin

DVD Description
The enigma of Henry VIII - tyrant, womaniser and the man who changed England forever - continues to fascinate Britain centuries after his death. Ray Winstone brings history's most beguiling monarch to life in this story of Henry VIII revealing the destruction Henry often left in his wake during his extraordinary 38 year reign. From the moment Henry Tudor casts aside his faithful wife Katherine of Aragon for the bewitching and determined Anne Boleyn (Helena Bonham Carter), he sets himself on course for a series of disastrous marriages. Violent conflict, both within the population and the church, left England reeling while its complex and charismatic King turned from handsome playboy to a bitter invalid desperate for a son and heir to the throne.

Starring Ray Winstone, Helena Bonham Carter, David Suchet, Emilia Fox, Sean Bean, Charles Dance, Mark Strong, Michael Maloney and Joss Ackland.

Special Features

• Interviews with cast
  
• Interviews with producers

DVD Technical Information:

• Running time: 192 minutes (feature), 50 minutes (extras)
  
• 2-disc set

Customer Reviews

Interpretation in history...
As an historian, I was a bit disappointed with the latest recreation of the lives and wiles of Henry VIII, arguably one of the most important figures in British history. The nursery rhyme is well known - Henry the Eighth was six times wedded; two he divorced, two beheaded...

This production, written by Peter Morgan (known for other television productions such as `The Jury') and directed by Pete Travis (also of `The Jury', also `Other People's Children'), is a period piece that largely rests on one primary theme - that Henry VIII was charged by his father with one task above all others, and that was to secure the succession for another Tudor. Since this was a world in which (supposedly) a queen could not rule in her own right, this required a male heir to the throne (of course, it would be Henry's own offspring that would change that assumption, for the better, and for ever).

Henry's quest to gain a male heir knew no bounds; by the time his obsession had destroyed many lives (not just those of the unfortunate women he married), he was an overweight and overbearing man with not too many years left to live. His succession of wives is made all the more dramatic by the speed of the unions - between his first divorce from Catherine of Aragon in 1533, he had five more wives in the span of only 10 years, the last one to last until his death in 1547. The women came into favour and fell out of favour quickly, sometimes due to infidelity and political intrigue, and sometimes due to the quirky whims of Henry.

It is this quirkiness that is highlighted in Ray Winstone's performance. Winstone is not well known to American audiences, but a regular fixture on British television and cinemas. Henry is presented as a brash, lustful, but often boyishly-innocent figure, vulnerable and wounded by others around him, especially the wives, if they do not live up to his expectations or desires of loving him for himself. The cast of women portraying the wives is impressive, including the award-winning Helena Bonham Carter as Anne Boleyn, Emilia Fox as Jane Seymour, and Clare Holman as Catherine Parr. If you think you recognise the voice of the narrator, you probably do - it is that of Shakespearean Derek Jacobi.

The sets, costumes, and other atmospheric pieces are well done and appropriate to the context. But this is an actor's piece, driven by dialogue, and here is falls a little short of fully satisfying. The characters are a bit too much of caricatures; they overemphasise certain strengths and weaknesses, and do not play as balanced figures (even for the imbalanced people that history tells us they were). This is meant to draw the tragedy of Henry's life out, and his role as more sinned against than sinning in many parts of the film play.

Well worth watching, the viewer who expects an undistorted history lesson will be disappointed. However, in the `some events have been changed for dramatic purposes' world of acting, it does help to cause some reconsideration here and there of all the events of the time. History is as much a record as it is interpretation. This is one.

history no, entertainment yes
I found this TV production though not "historical", highly entertaining, 90% of it because of Ray Winstone's Henry VIII. He paints a portrait full of masculine vigor, with enough lust in his heart for at least a dozen men, and his tough guy East End accent somehow works well too, though it is quite a change from the Richard Burton/King's English type of Henry VIII I have previously seen.
There are scenes where he is memorable, like the emotion he expresses after Anne Boleyn (Helena Bonham Carter) gives birth to Princess Elizabeth..
In his old age Henry becomes a sad and sickly figure, and Winstone realistically catches that aspect of him too.
The rest of the large cast is also good, which includes David Suchet as Cardinal Wolsey, and Sean Bean in a role that is not long, but one of his most powerful, as Robert Aske, who goes against the king for having committed the brutal "dissolution of the monasteries".

The plot starts in 1509, with the death of Henry VII, and the young Henry VIII marrying Katherine of Aragon, but quickly segues to 1524, and centers on the last 21 years of Henry's life, with still no male heir from Katherine, enter Anne Boleyn and the other wives, court intrigue, and manipulations by Cardinal Wolsey and Thomas Cromwell among those vying for power.
It is also quite gritty and bloody, and not for the young or squeamish, including muddy, violent battle and jousting scenes, lots of heads being chopped off, and even a dog fight, which fortunately is more heard than seen.

Well paced direction by Pete Travis, script by Peter Morgan, cinematography by Peter Middleton, and score by Robert Lane, make this an engrossing, if not historically accurate film, and since the core of this production are the intimate scenes, artistic license is to be expected.
Total running time is 250 minutes.

Quite good actually
Suprisingly, it is good. I understand why some may be baffled as to the choice of the actor in the lead but Ray Winstone is not bad at all. And mind you - I am not a big fan of his. Especially as older Henry he gets better and better. His accent is a bit of an isssue sometimes - cockney does not wash with Tudor times but then again, he definitely looks the part and plays Henry well.
Pity that the script is written in a very modern, sometimes too casual, way. When fragments of Anne Boleyn and King's letters are read out, the original language of the time works really well.
The portrayal of Henry as a tyrannical, tough and selfish man is fairly accurate. Let's not forget that Henry was a cruel and conceited King (despite being an intelectual) and left the country ruined. He did reform Church but only to a certain extent, which suited him. Despite this reform he was persecuting protestants. His last wife, Catherine Parr (who was a closet Protestant), was in trouble for being too outspoken about religion and King had her investigated behind her back. She escaped serious danger only by the King casually changing his mind. He created a whole new class of poor people and beggars by dissolving monasteries (only because of the money he wanted off them). Casting thousands of nuns and monks out in the streets, leaving poor people without medical care that was provided by monasteries was a cruel and stupid move. Henry was not a good ruler and this film shows him in the more realistic light.

David Suchet gives a fantastic performance as Cardinal Wolsley. So does Sean Bean as a Catholic Northern rebel leading the Pilgrimage of Grace against the King.
I quite liked Emily Blunt as Katherine Howard. She really conveys that teenage recklesness, that lost her in the end.
Good film and worth seeing.