A Man For All Seasons, directed by Fred Zinnemann is the story of Sir Thomas More, an English scholar from the sixteenth century, a Man who died for a principle. His death did not change the ways of his world, or even served future justice. No, as Tolstoy said, much later, where there is a court justice is lost. Such was the case of Sir Thomas More.
The Plot:
Henry VIII wishes to divorce Catherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn a whim that partly contributed to the independence of England from the Catholic Church. For every drastic change, old laws must be destroyed and new laws written. But new laws must be created for valid reasons, not for personal interests. The system is transformed when its ways no longer support justice. Henry VIII wants a new world that holds his whish and not necessarily England’s. Only one Man stands between the king and that change, and that is Sir Thomas More, respected by all, followed by all, the monarch’s conscience. But a king of few principles needs only to eliminate that conscience. Sir Thomas is taken to trial as traitor. He is condemned.
Paul Scofield plays Sir Thomas More with the brilliancy that makes one substitute the real character by the fictional in one’s mind. Leo Genn achieved the same mastery playing Petronius in Mervyn LeRoy’s Qvo-Vadis (1951). Orson Welles played a very credible Cardinal Wolsey. John Hurt became Richard Rich, undistinguished from a true villain. Robert Shaw was wisely discrete playing the grotesque Henry VIII.
Why then, a film that enhances the curse that hits men who are defenders of noble principles, integrity, honesty becomes not dark but a redeemer of Mankind? For the same reason martyrs do: Death adds immortality to that courage, and above all to those principles.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nSx0_9TZww
Cast and crew:
1966
Directed by Fred Zinnemann
Based on a play by Robert Bolt A Man For All Seasons
Music by Georges Delerue
Cast: Paul Scofield (Sir Thomas More), Robert Shaw (Henry VIII), Orson Welles (Cardinal Wolsey), John Hurt (Richard Rich), Nigel Davenport (the Duke of Norfolk), Leo McKern (Thomas Cromwell), Wendy Hiller (Sir Thomas’ wife Alice), Susannah York (Sit Thomas’ daughter Margaret)…
This was one great film, and I remember the first time that I saw it in a theater in Atlanta, Georgia in the 1960s. Paul Scofield (Sir Thomas More) and Leo McKern (Thomas Cromwell) reprised the roles they played in the Broadway stage production of the play, where it enjoyed a critically and commercially successful run of over a year.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, the film producers originally wanted Sir Laurence Olivier as Thomas More and Alec Guinness as Wolsey, but director Fred Zinnemann insisted on Paul Scofield and Orson Welles in the roles. The film proved that Fred Zinnemann was quite right. And Nigel Davenport was offered his role as the Duke of Norfolk when John Huston turned it down.
This is a nicely-done review of a personal favorite film, Clara, and it makes me want to see if it's currently available on DVD... thanks!
Hi dear Friend, thank you deeply for your comment. It’s funny, because the main actors of great cinema hits are often a second choice. We will never know how the movie would turn out with different actors, but for me, it is a tiny bit intervention of Fate to get the director on track!
ReplyDeleteI think Sir Lawrence Olivier and Alec Guinness are brilliant actors. In this case, however, there is a spark and irony in Paul Scofield that makes him absolutely right for the part. As for Cardinal Wolsey character, I’m sure Alec Guinness would be able to play any role he wanted competently. But, again, for this movie, Orson Welles has a diabolic expression, and wickedness (intentional, partly) that Alec Guinness could never cope with. And that perversity was needed to play a member of the Church of those days. He played a member of the Church in the film, The Prisoner, opposite Jack Hawkins. That performance was brilliant because the character was dubious.
Thank you also for your comment on Les Uns Et Les Autres. Lelouch is very special for me. All the best!