Talking About Kenneth Branagh's Career

 

A still of him from one of his '90's movies, 

alongside Denzel Washington(!) and Kate Beckinsale!

    I've been lying in bed sick today basically incapable of doing anything but the stuff I absolutely had to, but now it's evening, I'm feeling slightly well enough to do things, fingers crossed, and I'm reading on iMDB about Kenneth Branagh's career. 

For the layman, you've seen Kenneth Branagh acting as Gilderoy Lockhart in one of the Harry Potter movies, the bad guy in Christopher Nolan's film Tenet, and the bad guy in the 2014 Jack Ryan movie. Dude is very well-known as an actor. 

But among anyone who knows anything about him, he's most well-known for directing a run of Shakespeare films starting in the '90's (technically '89) that are some of the most popular film adaptations of the material. Henry V, Hamlet, that sort of thing. But he also directs a lot of conventional and popular stuff! He directed the first Thor in 2011! Although the zeitgeist kind of disregards that film now, when it came out, it was going to be a very tall order to pull off the superhero space vikings with a rainbow bridge thing. But he did very well! Without him we wouldn't have gotten Avengers or Thor: Ragnarok! Very cool! But anyway, all this is an intro to what I wrote before thinking to put this online, which is a specific breakdown of which Shakespeare films he directed and an overall appraisal of his career. It begins: 

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Looked up Kenneth Branagh’s director credits - daaaaamn. 

I wanted to see all of his Shakespeare work and it’s not unrelenting, but it’s very impressive. Especially considering his Henry V was his first directorial effort! I’ve got to look him up! I think he benefits from being the UK, where they’re more chill and established in their arts education. But it goes: 

Henry V - 1989

Much Ado About Nothing - 1993

A Winter’s Tale - 1995

Hamlet (his FOUR-HOUR version) - 1996

And then he slowed down a bit, took a break, and started putting them out more carefully 

Did Love’s Labor’s Lost in 2000

Then As You Like It in 2006

Then took a break from Shakespeare and only did two live theatre recording-type things with:

Branagh Theater Live: A Winter’s Tale in 2015

And then 

Branagh Theater Live: Romeo and Juliet in 2016

And that’s been it! But that’s still six proper films! And two theater recordings! And he’s done like (let me count) 13 other films! Spectacular!  He also has 2 shorts on his iMDB credits so that’s why it may seem like more on cursory Google, should you do so. 

But that’s spectacular! And of his non-Shakespeare films, a lot of have got a really good reputation! Belfast! The first Thor! The 2015 Cinderella reboot (which for my money looks like a genuine expansion of the subject material instead of just a shot-for-shot job)!

For my money, his two Poirot films are some of the very best stuff I’ve ever seen in the genre! Without exaggeration, they bring the subject material and genre work of Agatha Christie into a new league of watchability that stands toe-to-toe with the new league of Marvel films and Knives Out-style work. Simply spectacular. 

And that’s not even counting all his acting work! Starring in many of his films and supporting roles in many others! Including work like Tenet and being Iago in Othello, which I forgot about until just now as I was looking at his role! He slipped that in in ’95 around just as he was probably having his most busy time ever directing Winter’s Tale and Hamlet one after the other! Simply a spectacular man! And then he starred as Macbeth in a 2013 film adaptation! 

I don't mean to flatter him too much, because flattery - especially at a distance - is a dangerous thing. But I'm very impressed. To be so talented as a thespian and a director and producer speaks to a high level of skill in management, presentation, confidence, vision, and work ethic. To be fair, he's had a number of films (that I haven't mentioned) that aren't as widely well-received as the others, but he just keeps trucking! He's got the resilience to keep going, and the genuine value so that when he does succeed, it makes up for his failures. And he's still coming up with a third Poirot film! Which according to iMDB is in post-production right now. So look out for that!