Directed by one of the all-time great film directors Fred Zinnemann & with a really brilliant screenplay written by Robert Bolt, "A Man For All Seasons" is just about as perfect a movie as is possible to make. The movie gives an account of the conflict which took place in the 16th century between King Henry V111 & his Lord Chancellor Sir Thomas More, which eventually led to More's execution. Paul Scofield gives a towering acting performance as Sir Thomas More with Robert Shaw (also extremely good) as Henry V111. After the Pope in Rome refused to annul his marriage to Catherine Of Aragon the King separated himself from the Catholic Church & proclaimed himself head of the newly- created Church Of England. More refused to sign the Oath Of Supremacy acknowledging the King's position & also refused to countenance the divorce which would leave the King free to marry Anne Boleyn. The Duke of Norfolk (Nigel Davenport) tries to persuade him to sign a document sanctioning the divorce but More adamantly refuses. The Duke tells him that it doesn't really matter whether he believes in granting the King a divorce or not & that he should sign it anyway, "for fellowship". More answers him by saying, "And when we stand before God & you are sent to heaven for doing your conscience & I am damned & sent to hell for not doing mine, will you accompany me there for fellowship?". After he resigned as Lord Chancellor More maintained an attitude of silence before & during his trial regarding the kings divorce. His thinking was that by doing so they would be unable to gain a treason conviction against him. More hoped he would then be left alone to live out the remainder of his life in peace & quiet. However, the angry King wanted More's head & there was never any chance of that!. Thomas Cromwell (Leo McKern), the ruthless & unscrupulous chief minister to the King got an ambitious, young (& equally unscrupulous) nobleman Richie Rich (John Hurt) to bear false witness against Sir Thomas More which helped to convict him. Cromwell rewarded Rich for his treachery with a chain of office. When More sees it he finally breaks his silence. "Why Richie, isn't that the chain of office for the Ministry of Wales? It profits a man nothing that he sells his soul to the devil for all the world, but to do it for Wales!". As I said at the start Robert Bolt's screenplay is just brilliant. He took the movie's title from a writer & poet who knew him & lived during Sir Thomas More's lifetime. Robert Whittington described him thus:-"More is a man with an angel's wit & singular learning. I know not his fellow. For where is the man of such gentleness, lowliness & affability. And, as time requireth, a man of marvellous mirth & pastimes, & sometimes of sad gravity. A man for all seasons". Jonathan Swift wrote that More was "a man of the greatest virtue this kingdom ever produced". Just before the axe came down severing his head from his body More is reputed to have said, "I die the king's good servant, but God's first".
Review of A Man for All Seasons
