A Man for All Seasons

Movie Review: A Man for All Seasons

Year of Release: 1966
Country of Origin: UK
Director: Fred Zinnemann
Cast: Paul Scofield, Wendy Hiller, Leo McKern, Robert Shaw, Orson Welles

Plot outline: The life story of Sir Thomas More, who stood up to King Henry VIII when the King rejected the Roman Catholic Church to obtain a divorce and remarriage (IMDb).

Adapted from Robert Bolt's hit play of the same title, director Fred Zinnemann presents us with an awesome view of a sturdy conscience and a steadfast heart. He crystallizes the essence of the drama in such pictorial terms as to render even its abstractions vibrant. This movie is an extended exposition of a man's refusal to swerve from his spiritual and intellectual convictions at the insistence of his King. And such ideological disagreements are difficult to state in visual terms, no matter how pyrotechnic the proponents and opponents may be. He doesn't allow his excellent cast to resort to pyrotechnics, except in the singular case of Robert Shaw's tempestuous performance of the unbalanced Henry VIII. Mr. Shaw is permittedly eccentric, like the sweep of a hurricane as he shapes a frightening portrait of the headstrong, heretical King who demands that More give acquiescence to his marriage with Anne Boleyn. Mr. Scofield is brilliant in his exercise of temperance and restraint, of disciplined wisdom and humour, as he variously confronts his restless King or Cardinal Wolsey, who is played by Orson Welles with subtle, startling glints of poisonous evil that, even to this day, are extraordinary for him. Mr. Scofield is equally disciplined and forceful in his several dialectical duels with the King's advocate, Thomas Cromwell, who is played by Leo McKern with truly diabolical malevolence, or in his playful discourses with his son-in-law, William Roper, whom Corin Redgrave makes a bit of a flop. In fact, it is this delineation of More's sterling strength and character, his intellectual vigour and remarkable emotional control, that endow this movie with dynamism in even its most talky scenes. And, heaven knows, it is talky - full of long theological discourses and political implications that you must know your history to understand. Throughout, Mr. Scofield manages to use the glowing words of the script and his own histrionic magnificence to give a luminescence and power, integrity and honor, to this man who will not "yes" his King. And he also gets some deep emotion in his ultimate farewell scene with his stalwart wife, played by Wendy Hiller, and his daughter, played (too softly) by Susannah York. This movie won six Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor, as well as seven British Film Academy awards. A Man for All Seasons is a movie that inspires admiration, courage and thought. (NYT)

My judgement: ***1/2 out of 4 stars