“Becket” is a historical film, made in a year that is almost historical itself: 1964. Thomas Becket, played by a young and handsome Richard Burton, is a drinking & wenching buddy of Henry II, played by a very thin Peter O’Toole. In an effort to control the Catholic Church (the only one there was) Henry makes Becket Archbishop of Canterbury. Becket finds God and fights to keep the church independent. Henry spends the rest of the film fighting Becket and mourning the loss of his friend.
While Burton gets the most dramatic scenes (wait for the pomp of the excommunication), O’Toole gets the best lines:
Queen: I am the mother of your children.
Henry: I don’t LIKE my children!
Or the more famous: “Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?”
This film is a product of its time, and doesn’t always translate to our era, but it was a delight to see these two actors in great form when they were young, before the booze took their youth.
While Burton gets the most dramatic scenes (wait for the pomp of the excommunication), O’Toole gets the best lines:
Queen: I am the mother of your children.
Henry: I don’t LIKE my children!
Or the more famous: “Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?”
This film is a product of its time, and doesn’t always translate to our era, but it was a delight to see these two actors in great form when they were young, before the booze took their youth.
NOTE: THIS POST IS WRITTEN BY our guest , the one and only, DAVID GREENBERG!
3 comments:
Lee, so glad you chose this film for the blog. I saw it in the theater when it was released in 1964, and once since at the TLA in Philadelphia, but even that viewing was more than 35 years ago. I'm not sure I can speak to David's comment that it is a product of its era that doesn't always translate to today's viewers. After all, I am a product of that same era. As far as I'm concerned it's held up beautifully. I only wish the Hollywood of today was capable of producing films with scripts as intelligent and well crafted as this one adapted so masterfully from Jean Anouilh's stage play. Of course, a cast including Burton, O'Toole and Gielgud in their primes doesn't hurt either. I do agree with David that O'Toole got the best lines, but I would go even further. As great as Burton was, this is really - and perhaps surprisingly - O'Toole's film. Watching him again after all these years in Becket (his followup to "Lawrence") is a revelation. Becket may be the hero here, but O'Toole gives us a Henry who, despite some of his actions, is ultimately the more human and more sympathetic character. Of course, while Becket may be a saint in the Roman Catholic Church - as well as my own Anglican Communion - his position is not one most of us could support today, especially here in the USA where the separation of church and state - while sometimes a fiction - is nevertheless a cornerstone of our government. And after the scandals within the Roman Church of recent years it was particularly difficult to sympathize with Becket's desire to keep the disciplining of the priest arrested for raping a young girl "in house." I' afraid we've all seen exactly what that means, and it has little to do with "the honor of God."
Oh well........
My sentiments exactly.......
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