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A Review By Raymond SinclairMan For All SeasonskfT»lA MAX ro* AU. SEASONS.from the *1*y by liobcrt Halt.rroddffd and Ikirctnl by Fr#fiKiaiwntuit. starring Fa a I Scofield. Sn»ftfivt*Ji Vork, Dl'andy HiUer. At Hie Pnk Theatre.If it can be said that there’s more than More to this film of the British martyr’s last years it must be a tribute to Mwrfc — Ted Moore, who filmed it.Mr. Moore’s camera lingers lovingly over a naked tree, asolitary bird, a river or a sitn-backed cloud to do for Sir Thomas More's England what was done for T. E. Lawrence's desert in a recent production.In addition to being visually enchanting, it is a most effective slowing device to convey the pace of the period and accentuate the inexorable rush of events leading a man to his fate.The film is quite short by today's standards — two hours with no annoying intermission. It doesn’t acknowledge his years of law and administration of public affairs, and pauses only briefly to give the nod to his early place in the hearts of the people as a “good man.”BUT IT IS the same people who deny him when he could use them; people fearful of the wrath of the 16th-century king and the conspiracies of the court.To Sir Thomas More alone goes the task of standing firm on his principles, his committal to God which earns him increasing harassment, death and sainthood despite his early assurance to his wife^ “This is not the stuff of which martyrs are mafle.”More was an innocent. Yet he had no illusions about his danger, While refusing to sign an oath which would admit Henry’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon was incestuous, he told his wife in iris jail cell. “If they’d open a crack that wide I’d be through it like a bird and back to Chelsea.”MORE IS THE incarnation of man’s historical, perpetual conscience, and so a rare man. Paul Scofield- created the role in London and on Broadway, and carries t o the screen his subtlety of interpretation and his strength of conviction.Equally effective is his reluctant enemy, Henry VIII, given new depth by Robert Shaw, who casts aside the Charles I-aught on cliche and proves there really was a person under the laughing, roaring bulk.Orson Welles’s Cardinal Wol-sey makes a brief but finely-portrayed appearance as the once powerful, now frightened Tudor statesman; John Hurt is perfect as the young friend of More whose ambition is all-consuming and plays a major part in the betrayal of More.WENDY HILLER’S Lady Alice is properly fearful for her husband, ambitious for him and tempered with the right amount of shrew and civility, and at the last, love and a fearless declaration of it.Leo McKern is a skilfully conniving Thomas Cromwell, More’s prosecutor, and subtle wielder of growing power. As for the rest, they fill their roles as well as they are expected, some aided by the magnificence of the mounting — costumes and medieval .sets thoroughly in keeping with a magnificent film.And if we sometimes lack sympathy for More and secretly join the others in willing him to sign for his life, that is our fate as less than saintly men. And that is the power of a successful portrayal.irTfj
Newspaper Details
Winnipeg Free Press
Winnipeg, Manitoba, CA
Sat, Feb 25, 1967
Page 26
Full Page
Clipped by
Rotten T.
USA 30 Aug 2022
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