Essentials: A Man for All Seasons

Year: 1966 (UK)
Genre:
Directed: Fred Zinnemann
Stars: Paul Scofield, Wendy Hiller, Leo McKern, Robert Shaw, Orson Welles, Susannah York, Nigel Davenport, John Hurt, Corin Redgrave
Production: Highland Films

A Man for All Seasons (1966) is based off a play by the same name written by Robert Bolt. The plot concerns the last few years of Sir Thomas More (Paul Scofield), a humanistic writer, philosopher, statesman and Catholic martyr who stood up against King Henry VIII's divorce of Queen Catherine of Aragon. For those who don't know their history or didn't catch The Tutors (2007-2010) on Showtime, King Henry VIII (Robert Shaw) was a bit of a ladies man. So much so that he married six different women only one of which bore him a son. It was partially the fault of his second marriage that created a schism between the Roman Catholic church and what would eventually become The Church of England so he was a bit of a head case.

Because I'm the fucking pope now!

I tell you all this because without these little factoids at your disposal you probably would be completely lost watching Fred Zinnemann's second Best Picture winner. I also tell you this because

Some people just don't like their history

unless you know and love your history you probably would hate watching A Man for All Seasons. The film has the virtue of being deliberately paced and largely free of violence, sex, nudity, drug use, and all the other wonderful things that make modern audiences go agog.

What the movie does have going for it is the innate ability to create and sustain tension using little more than a principled man challenged by an authoritarian monarch. Indeed the whole movie hinges on the question of whether or not More will submit to Henry's demand to recognize his marriage to Anne Boleyn (Vanessa Redgrave). More, armed only with his wits, uses every logical trick he can to avoid expressing a view one way or another until the bitter end.

would you recite for us the facts of Hawkins versus McGee?

A Man for All Seasons probably resonates with me more so today than it did years ago when I first saw it in college. It was fun discovering the play in my Drama as Literature class, then quoting it for my Renaissance to Reformation class. It even helped me conceptualize the idea of common law for my Intro to Legal Studies class. Yet today A Man for All Seasons carries a much more substantial personal weight.

When you graduate college and take on the responsibilities of adulthood, people's expectations and impressions of you suddenly matter much more. You can show up two minutes late to your part-time work-study job at the rec but you try that in the professional world you might as well kiss that promotion goodbye. More's superior, while Lord Chancellor was the king. Mind you he was never docked for being late but his personal political views (spoiler alert) ultimately cost him his life. Thank goodness we no longer cut your head off for disagreeing with your boss yet I'd imagine the foreboding air of the figurative big ugly axe looming in the shadows feels about the same.

When you become an adult, your heart dies...

I felt that feeling very recently, working as a temp doing a job that was beneath me. I never admitted this, even to my closest co-workers and certainly not my boss. It's only now that I can because I have nothing to lose. In an interconnected world where our social structure allows and encourages free

So what's this I hear about you handing out leaflets?

expression while our corporate culture guarantees retribution the best strategy is self-censorship to the point of parody. A month ago if my closest friend asked me how things are going at work I'd just say "fine" for fear that any doublespeak that got back to the borg queen would lead to deactivation.

My only regret is that I never got to go in such spectacular fashion as Sir Thomas More. When More realizes he's going to be convicted of high treason largely due to a duplicitous act of perjury, he outright tells the court exactly what he thinks of them, the proceedings and the king's decision to split with the Church. It's an awe-inspiring moment that Paul Scofield shapes with dignity and grace. My ideal exit likely would have been far less dignified but given the circumstances I did what I thought was the most adult. Thanked them for the opportunity and walked away.

I guess having the ability to walk away from a job so as not to compromise your principles is a luxury not many have nowadays. But unlike England in 1535, you can still walk away alive and well. I played the game of parsed words and minced meanings and lost this time but the old cliché is true; whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Plus if I do get tired of the rat race I can always take More's advice to scurrilous social climber Richard Rich (John Hurt), "Why not be a teacher? You'd be a fine teacher; perhaps a great one."

Bueller?...Bueller?

Final Grade: A