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Anne of the Thousand Days (1969)

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23 out of 25 people found the following comment useful :-
Outstanding historical drama, well acted and gorgeous., 23 July 2002

Author: gunshotwound from Georgia, USA

A great play by Maxwell Anderson, history, a wonderful cast, magnificent production values and 10 "Oscar" nominations. What more could you ask for. Producer Hal Wallis assembled some of Great Britain's greatest talent at the time, and it shows.

Richard Burton has the role of a lifetime and he is great. His Henry VIII wants a male heir and his eyes are set on Anne. He is randy, ready to get started and the hell with everything else.

Genevieve Bujold is wonderful as Anne Boleyn. Biting the hand that feeds her and her family, she stands firm, and will not bed the king until she is married. She does not make the mistake her sister made. It cost Anne her life, but Elizabeth I was no bastard and did rule England.

The supporting players are a joy to watch, most notably Anthony Quayle as Cardinal Wolsey and Michael Hordern as Anne's father, Thomas. Mr. Hordern possess in my opinion one of cinemas greatest speaking voices, rivaled only by Michael Rennie and Alexander Scourby. Thank goodness for film. The lesser known John Colicos as Thomas Cromwell slithers through his scenes leaving a slime trail only an ambitious lawyer could make. Irene Papas makes the most of her role, but she has too little to do, considering the importance of her character in real life.

From a visual and audible standpoint this movie could not be better. It is like a Hans Holbein painting come to life. The photography by Arthur Ibbetson, Maurice Carter's production design and Margaret Furse's "Oscar" winning costume design are all perfect. Composer Georges Delerue blends contemporary and period instruments into a beautiful but sparse music score. For the banquet scenes, Delerue incorporates some of Henry VIII's own compositions into the galliards. Though it is debatable whether or not his music was any good, it got airplay. It IS good to be the king.

The same events as seen from a different characters point of view can also be seen in A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS. It is also an excellent movie.

Get historical and watch it. Feast.

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13 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :-
Well done., 31 December 2003

Author: dead_parrot from Saskatchewan, Canada

A good movie for all Tudor fanatics. I can't really see anything wrong with it. It was historically accurate and well-acted. It's one of those movies you can watch till the end, without stopping the tape. It helps to do a bit of research on the history of this story before you watch the movie, so that you have a better idea of what is going on. Overall, good job. Well done. I won't be pulling people off the street, demanding that they watch "Anne of the Thousand Days", but I will say that I enjoyed it very much.

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12 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
Passionate, historical and sombre, 20 August 2001

Author: lora64 from Canada

It is a memorable film, well nominated, exquisitely costumed. I like Richard Burton best of all in this one. He takes up the role of Henry VIII and gives it many subtle shades of feeling so that you almost understand what might have really transpired in such a king's turbulent soul. He was somewhere between a rock and a hard place and rushed headlong into history with his determined efforts to change the rules of kingship.

Anne Boleyn, here played by Genevieve Bujold, was caught up in these events and ultimately became a casualty of circumstances. I'm not a history buff so can't fill in the true story but it's obvious there was much political intrigue taking place. Also, it rather reminded me of "Othello" in which the ill-fated Desdemona was victimized by Iago's slander. Genevieve portrays Anne with deep conviction and her tremendous vehemence at times sweeps us along through happy moments as well as fiery clashes with family, king, and authorities.

I was enthralled by the excellent supporting actors who formed the king's entourage, and hope to know them by name one day. In particular was their exchange of witty dialogue in the captivating scene which ended in a reference to a "venison haunch." I believe one of these actors later appeared in "Mary, Queen of Scots" (1971) as I recognized the same wonderful voice, and I think it's Vernon Dobtcheff. Well, it's a bit of detective work I must do to confirm.

Anthony Quayle's portrayal of Cardinal Wolsey was right on. Oh the glories of power in high places, so many titled positions he held! Yet in the end the Cardinal could hold onto none of them in a true sense. I feel this is one role where Quayle really excelled as an actor and a very dramatic presence.

For me this film goes hand in hand with "A Man for All Seasons" and "Mary, Queen of Scots" for some great drama on screen.

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12 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :-
Anne of the Thousand Days, 21 April 1999
Author: Tim Cox from Marietta, OH

Burton and Bujold are majestic in this brilliant costume epic about King Henry VIII's relationship with wife Anne Boleyn. The period is captured beautifully in its set design and costuming. There is great support from Irene Pappas, John Colicos and Anthony Quayle as Cardinal Wolsey. This would be a nice film to double up "A Man for All Seasons" with.

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13 out of 15 people found the following comment useful :-
"Mine Will Be Blood Well Spent", 27 December 2005

Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York

Henry VIII's male chauvinistic desire to begat a male heir for the throne of England is a tale often told from many points of view. In Anne of a Thousand Days it's told from the point of view of Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII and mother of the infant child who became Elizabeth I.

Anne Boleyn, a high spirited young lass of 18, catches Henry VIII's eye at court. One of his previous dalliances was with her older sister Mary and that paid off well for the Boleyn family. Father Tom sees riches and glory even more and persuades her to really keep the king panting.

Anne succeeds all too well. Henry divorces Catherine of Aragon and marries Anne. But all he begats is another daughter. And Henry still wants a son and he's got an eye on another. It all ends tragically for the Boleyn family.

It's important to remember that as the film opens Henry VIII having caught sight of Anne at his court denies permission for her to marry some young lord whom she is in love with and vice versa. Had he looked elsewhere, had he moved on, all this might never have come to pass.

Anne of the Thousand Days took 21 years to come to the screen. It ran on Broadway for a year in 1948-1949 and starred Rex Harrison as Henry VIII. Richard Burton joins a great list of actors who've portrayed Henry VIII on the screen. Probably the young Charles Laughton did him best, but Burton is certainly fine.

Genevieve Bujold in her screen debut is a stunning and fetching Anne, too fetching for her own good. Poor kid though, in other than a monarchist society that was becoming more absolute during Henry's reign, she'd have married the man of her dreams and lived happily ever after.

Anthony Quayle is a fine Cardinal Woolsey though I prefer Orson Welles in A Man for All Seasons. Michael Hordern as Thomas Boleyn destroys more than one member of his family through his own ambition.

Irene Papas makes a tragic Catherine of Aragon. By all accounts Catherine was a pious woman who had incredible rotten luck with her pregnancies. Only daughter Mary survived who grew up to be the Queen known as Bloody Mary. She settled some accounts when she became Queen.

I think the best supporting portrayal is that of John Colicos as Thomas Cromwell. This Cromwell was the great uncle of the more well known Oliver Cromwell. Oliver has his supporters and detractors, but I've never seen a good word in any history books about Uncle Tom. Colicos has him pegged just right as a serpentine intriguer. By the way after the period of this film is over, Thomas Cromwell made one too many intrigues and got on Henry VIII's wrong side. People usually didn't live long after that and Cromwell was no exception.

When he wrote Anne of the Thousand Days, Maxwell Anderson grew up in a society of law. I think a fine appreciation of that fact comes into the moral of the story. Even an absolute monarch has to obey laws or no one is safe. Until Henry VIII was off this mortal coil, no one was.

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11 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
splendidly acted!, 27 June 2004

Author: shantaar-1 from New Jersey

This is one of the most-overlooked movies I've ever seen! It is excellent. This film, based on Maxwell Anderson's play, really makes history feel alive! Richard Burton is fine here, as always, very magnetic as Henry VIII but he absolute joy of this picture is Genevieve Bujold, in her first major picture, as Anne Boylen. How she failed to wina n Oscar is beyond me.

The set and costumes are great and the acting is stellar. This is all aobut henry's quest for a male heir. Since Catharine of Aragon failed to produce one, he dumps her and seeks out Anne. For a thousand days they are happy. But only a daughter, Elizabeth, is born to them. So Henry accuses her, falsely, of adulter and asks annulment, which the church refuses. Henry decides that will not stop him, he puts her to death, having her beheaded and promptly rides off to romance Jane Seymour (the real person not the actress). But Anne can die with diginity for Elizabeth is hers and will be a far greater queen than any king Henry could have sired. Highly recommend for all fans of Burton and historical drama.

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10 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
First Class historical Drama, 25 January 2001

Author: Caledonia Twin #1

Despite historical inaccuracies necessarily prevalent in historical dramas (i.e. not documentaries), this film is exquisitely conceived, written, directed, and performed. In my opinion, it is perhaps one of the best historical dramas ever produced, and both Bujold and Burton are remarkable. It's a pity that this film is not more widely known. I highly recommend it.

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8 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
A Classic! Worth Watching for Performance of Geneviève Bujold!, 18 November 2005

Author: lavatch from Twin Cities, Minnesota

The second of the six wives of Henry VIII and the mother of the future queen Elizabeth I, Anne Boleyn is a tragic footnote to the lives of these two famous Tudor monarchs from English history.

"Anne of the Thousand Days" gives Anne Boleyn the belated respect she deserves due to the sparkling performance of the actress Geneviève Bujold. The screenplay draws upon the successful 1947 stage play by Maxwell Anderson, who also wrote plays on the lives of Elizabeth I and Mary of Scotland. But this is his most famous historical drama, and it is unfortunate that Anderson did not live to see this fine film adaptation.

The film covers major events and figures from the early Tudor age, including Henry's controversial divorce from Catherine of Aragon, the rise and fall of Cardinal Wolsey, the courageous ethical stance taken by Sir Thomas More in opposing the will of the king, and the unscrupulous Thomas Boleyn, who played the role of pimp and go-between in the trysts with his daughters and the king.

While the movie proceeds at a deliberate pace in recounting the various subplots, it is the figure of Anne Boleyn who ties together the different plot strands related to the king's "Great Matter." Bujold's multi-layered performance reveals an Anne Boleyn with heroic virtues and deep ethical concerns.

The film takes license with a non-historical scene where Anne confronts Henry after she has been convicted of treason, adultery, and incest and is imprisoned in the Tower of London. The deluded Henry has come to believe that he was "bewitched" by an enchanted Anne, and the scene in the Tower delivers a thundering dramatic climax to the film.

Bujold's performance is all the more remarkable as she is playing opposite one of the great actors of the previous century in Richard Burton. Not only does Bujold's Anne set Burton's Henry straight, but she takes a stand on matters of conscience from which we can still learn today. Geneviève Bujold and this dynamic scene in the Tower of London alone make "Anne of the Thousand Days" a classic.

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7 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Uneventful made historic, 23 July 2003
Author: russnickm from Glenolden, PA

Around 1525 Henry VIII fell hopelessly in love with his wife's newly acquired maid-of-honor, Anne Boleyn. A seemingly uneventful, probably unimportant infatuation changed the history of England radically and the history of the world forever. Who in Great Britain at that time ever dreamed that the events unfolding in their king's castle was about to change their lives so much. And it's true. Henry VIII, fascinating in himself, probably didn't even realize what his love for this woman was going to mean. Has there ever been a more tantalizing historical figure to study? This man moved -- literally -- heaven and earth to win the heart of this reluctant, uncooperative, insignificant girl. And no one plays Henry better than Richard Burton, combining wit, cruelty, and selfishness in one unforgettable character. This movie is such a charmer, even if it does take some historical liberties. Bujold is superb as the spiteful, spoiled Boleyn. But even in her transformation in this film is tragedy: she goes from the crown to the block with such speed that even her "head" must have spun! Any student of Tudor history, or anyone just wanting to see a good-old-fashioned epic, will love this movie. I like to think that Burton comes the closest to portraying what Henry VIII must have really been like. But even if you don't like history, Tudor England, or the stars in this movie, watch it anyway. You'll be glad you were born when you were and NEVER the object of a king's love.

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6 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Grand entertainment, 16 October 2006

Author: TrevorAclea from London, England

Anne of the Thousand Days is an enjoyably lavish entertainment from the days when duelling kings and commoners were all the rage at the box-office – Beckett, A Man For All Seasons, The Lion in Winter – before Cromwell and Mary Queen of Scots all but killed off the genre. As history, its better at the general details than the specifics, but it's magnificently staged and not without some dry wit and humour ("We used the incest excuse last time. We can't make a habit of it."), most of it intentional – there's not a writer alive who wouldn't be aware of the effect that giving Richard Burton dialogue like "Divorce is like killing – after the first time it's easy" would have on an audience. There's even some pathos in the final image of Henry callously riding off to his next bride as his last one's blood stains the hay on the executioner's scaffold. Burton is on good form before he lurched into drunken autopilot mode, and Genevieve Bujold does well as the alternately innocent and vindictive Anne Boleyn. Even the usually arch and hammy John Colicos is fine as the overambitious Thomas Cromwell, but it's the eternally undervalued Anthony Quayle who steals the acting honours as Cardinal Wolsey, even making you feel for the old monster as he falls from favour.

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