|
Rated: G
Starring: Paul Scofield, Wendy Hiller, et al.
Director: Fred Zinnemann Review
Robert Bolt's successful play was not considered a hot commercial property
by Columbia Pictures--a period piece about a moral issue without a star,
without even a love story. Perhaps that's why Columbia left director Fred
Zinnemann alone to make A Man for All Seasons, as long as he stuck to a
relatively small budget. The results took everyone by surprise, as the
talky morality play became a box-office hit and collected the top Oscars
for 1966. At the play's heart is the standoff between King Henry VIII
(Robert Shaw, in young lion form) and Sir Thomas More (Paul Scofield, in
an Oscar-winning performance). Henry wants More's official approval of
divorce, but More's strict ethical and religious code will not let him
waffle. More's rectitude is a source of exasperation to Cardinal Wolsey
(Orson Welles in a cameo), who chides, "If you could just see facts flat
on without that horrible moral squint." Zinnemann's approach is all
simplicity, and indeed the somewhat prosaic staging doesn't create a great
deal of cinematic excitement. But the language is worth savoring, and the
ethical politics are debated with all the calm and majesty of an absorbing
chess game. --Robert Horton
------------ This film has become a
legendary telling of the life of Sir...canonized Saint...Thomas More who
was hailed by Sir Winston Churchill as "these isles greatest Englishman."
Paul Scofield's More is an heroic intellectual who ultimately loves God
and the sometimes terrible demands of Truth more than the glamour of the
world and his own life of renown in it. His characterization of More's
wisdom, wit and humanity has become "mythical" in its own right. Robert
Bolt's play is brought to the screen with a magnificent cast. Leo McKern
is fascinating as the ruthlessly pragmatic Cromwell...More's arch
enemy...who eventually suffers More's fate as ironic victim of fiercely
amoral allegiance to historical "Necessity." Robert Shaw is compelling and
tragic (at this moment in Henry VIII's soon-to-be bloody reign) as the
young King who embodies...literally as "Sire"...circumstances that will
convert a "Defender of the Faith" into its persecutor. John Hurt as the
treacherous opportunist Richard Rich is also a "man" for all seasons whose
conscienceless lies and ultimate betrayals embody duplicity in
"Will-to-Power" and ethical bankruptcy hardly reserved to the 16th Century
or the machinations of Reformation politicians. Recall: Sir Richard Rich
became Prime Minister. In my estimate, the most affecting moment of the
film is when More's family comes to visit him for the final time. His
execution is certain. His daughter's pleas to submit...and reserve truth
to God in his heart...have been rebuked by the logic of TRUTH, ultimately
LOVE of God that he holds crucial to his manhood and salvation. Lady
Alice...played like a Lioness in Winter by Wendy Hiller...threatens her
beloved Thomas with unforgiving hatred for the OBSTINACY that has ruined
their position in the aristocracy and condemned him to death for treason.
More is unable to stifle sobs of despair, pleading to his wife not to
abandon him at this moment of maximum trial and shame. She does not... And
this dazzlingly human instant, wonderfully encaptured by Scofield and
Hiller...is "The Man for All Season's" source and moment of triumph. Yes,
Scofield's rebuke of the corrupted Parliament is scathing and "heroically"
magnificent. But the man who stated: "I die the King's good servant, but
God's first;" may indeed have gotten his final grace of fortification from
a lady whose faith and love demanded uncomprehending trust and devotion.
The film, as Saint Thomas himself might allow, was not even...ultimately
about Truth or conscience. "Only God is LOVE through and through," states
More/Scofield as a kind of axiom he must believe to endure the soul ordeal
"Necessity" has crossed him with. In the film,the axiom is "proved." Not
by argument, but by his good wife's unconditonal love. This is Lady
Alice's trial...and because she too is heroic and endures in soul-tested
love...She is The Woman; He becomes The Man... both, like the film,
brilliant, gracious and GOOD: For All Seasons....
 |
