And the Best Picture goes to....

I find it surprising that this film beat out “Who’s Afraid of Virgina Woolf?” as Best Picture Winner.  “A Man for All Seasons” is a historical drama that delves into the tribulations of Sir Thomas More as he refuses to support Henry VIII’s break from the Roman Catholic Church. The film opens with More becoming Henry VIII’s Lord Chancellor, which guarantees wealth and privilege for his family. However, when he is eventually approached to back the King’s plan to go up against the Catholic Church to secure his divorce from Catherine of Aragon, he is faced with a crisis of conscience.  Choosing to side against Henry, he loses it all and faces the consequences with his family.  Coincidently it’s when More is arrested that this picture goes downhill and begins to drag for the remainder of its runtime.

It’s was my understanding that Richard Burton turned down the role of Thomas More while Charleton Heston lobbied for it—eventually it went to Paul Scofield who played the part in the New York and London stage productions.  Yet admittingly I found his performance lacking any depth and his character was totally emotionless through-out the entire film.  Perhaps he was supposed to have a stiff upper-lip, which is anyone’s guess, but it was totally lost on me, and I found it surprising that Scofield actually beat Burton in the Best Actor category.

The only performance that really stood out to me was by Robert Shaw as Henry VIII.  He was handsome, loud and boisterous, and not exactly the preconceived image that we have of a portly king chowing down on a turkey leg.  In the end I would have liked to have seen more scenes between himself and Scofield’s Thomas More.

With its costumes and settings, “A Man for All Seasons” is a fair British period piece, which was popular at the time, but it falls short compared to other historical dramas, such as “The Lion in Winter.”