Olivier's performance is one of the most brilliant ever captured on film, in this, the first film version of Shakespeare's great drama. The entire film is superb in every detail. The battle scenes are brilliantly directed by Olivier, the color photography is breathtaking.

Immensely stirring, experimental and almost wholly successful production of Shakespeare on film, sturdy both in its stylization and its command of more conventional cinematic resources for the battle.

I am not the audience for whom Shakespeare was writing. Nonetheless, even though I am kind of a Shakespeare idiot, this is a pretty darn watchable film, and MUCH better than Kenneth Branagh's version. A lot of little creative touches are added instead of just slavishly reproducing the play on film, and the combat scenes are exciting no matter how many sword & horse battle scenes you have seen

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Olivier makes the Bard palatable to a dummy like me. Much of the fat (and cynicism) was cut from the text, leaving an exciting, thoughtful, and engaging tale. Olivier injects the play with a dose of humor. And he blurs the line between theater and cinema, opening the film in the Globe Theater and gradually drawing the proceedings into the world of reality. Olivier is clearly in his element, turning in a compelling performance. In fact, the entire cast is quite good.

Outstanding cinematography and costume design. Dialog and plot true to the play..

There's nothing particularly bad here, but I was mostly uninterested. The opening is cool but after that the visuals are really bland and the film brought little to the table, feeling like a series of scenes strung together more than a coherent tale.

Beautiful and cleverly staged Shakespeare adaptation. The comedy falls a bit flat, however.

Very creative, having the first half a preformence at the Globe theater!

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