VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Rexanne It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Armand not a good movie. not a bad film. only new occasion to discover a character, in new nuances and old colors. to remember a period, to search sense to a history page. to compare, create verdict, watch few scenes of fight and gestures of a fat English king. and rediscover Helena Bonham Carter as Anne Boleyn or David Suchet in skin of Wolsey. is it enough ? is it too much ? I do not know. important is fact that nothing is new. acting, atmosphere, cast - all pieces from a well - known cup. crumbs of theater and dramatization of a book, it is just occasion to discover Ray Winstone in Henry clothes. but after Richard Burton, Chris Larkin,Keith Mitchell,Jared Harris or young Rhys Meyers , his act is pretty good for a TV production. but not more.

fidolofido Henry VIII is a fantastic film. Granted, there are several mistakes in it, such as minor historical inaccuracies, some shoddy editing, and leaving the viewer slightly unsatisfied in the second half.However, the acting of Ray Winstone in the role of Henry VIII makes up for the mistakes. He delights the viewer in a Henry that loves, roars, kills, and cries, and his dimensions are limitless. Mr. Winstone plays a young, virile Henry equally as well as his dying, grotesque older Henry. His transition from young to old is gradual and delicate, and yet he shocks the viewer at the king's sudden decay. Each wife, all well cast and all well acted, are real women unstilted by their time period. Helena Bonham Carter's Anne Boleyn and Assumpta Serna's Catherine of Aragon are particular stand-outs, with powerful, multi-dimensional performances. The other wives are not given much spotlight in the film, and in the second half of the mini-series the remaining four wives are cycled through quickly and without as much care as Anne Boleyn's section of the film. At the film's end, we are still rooting for Mr. Winstone's Henry, even after the destruction he has caused in England and to his loved ones. The film's arc and journey give us a Henry VIII who learns from his mistakes, and acknowledges his faults.

sexy_pisces_gal Ray Winstone leads an all-star cast in this tale of male dominance and religious importance. Henry VIII has been on the throne for fifteen years. He and his devoted Spanish wife, Catherine of Aragon, (Assumpta Serna) rule a rich and powerful England. But behind the happy smiling faces lie a couple deemed by tragedy. Henry is becoming impatient with his wife of fifteen years; her inability to produce a male heir has him worried. So when he meets the flighty young Anne Boleyn, (played to perfection by Helena Bonham Carter) his determination for a male heir becomes an obsession, convinced Anne will give him the heir he craves, he risks the wrath of his people and his catholic faith, to divorce his catholic Queen, and marry his protestant lover, which once again results with only a daughter. This failure was to cost the young Queen Anne her life, as she was executed on a trumped up charge of treason. Just as it seems life cant get any better for Henry with the birth of a third child, a healthy son (later Edward VII) with third wife Jane Seymour, (Emilia Fox) tragedy strikes, which was to ultimately lead to the downfall and eventual death of the tyrannical monarch. With an exceptional supporting cast including Mark Strong, Sean Bean, David Suchet, Charles Dance, and the up and coming Emily Blunt as Henrys fifth Queen, Catherine Howard. This tale brings history to life with Henrys determination for a male heir, and the belief that only a male monarch could rule England, without bringing the country to destruction.

nastassia71 As an avid researcher of the Tudor age, I was looking forward to this series. I shouldn't have. Instead, I should have treated this as a drinking game - if I spotted an inaccuracy, I'd have a slug of beer. Or vodka, as I learned as the series run along.No need to list all the inaccuracies, just a few. Catherine of Aragon was in her later years very stocky, about 5ft tall, not so Assumpta Serna. Henry was well over 6ft tall, but when compared to his wives, the actor (although excellent) seems rather of an average height. Mary, Catherine's daughter, was not allowed to stay with her mother during Catherine's last years.Only Henry's marriages to Catherine of Aragon and Anne of Cleves were public - that is to say, there would not have been early morning services with the bridal couples emerging from a chapel to a sprinkling of flower petals as was depicted in the cases of Katherine Howard and Jane Seymour.Henry was not riding trough woods to Jane Seymour when the cannons of the Tower were blasting after Anne Boleyn's execution, he was having lunch with Jane at nearby Strand.Thomas, Duke of Norfolk was not a hunky bald-headed doorman dressed in black leather, nor was Aske - there are plenty of portraits of them to prove otherwise (not that I object to seeing the yummy Sean Bean in dark leather ;)).Ho hum, whatever have I left unmentioned... never mind, this is a splendid series with gorgeous costumes, fine actors and really, a very classy depiction of the era. If only the details...Oh, and did I mention the fact that Henry most certainly would not have been aggressive towards his beloved Jane during her pregnancy.. but the sequence in the series seems to require some explanation to the delivery of Eddy and the death of Jane.Pls refer to the excellent biographies by Fraser, Weir et al :)