A Man For All Seasons
Fred Zinneman's film, A Man For All Seasons, based on the play by Robert Bolt, is a very good account of the conscientious stand of Sir Thomas More during a very short period of time during the English Reformation. It focuses on the time when King Henry VIII seeks a divorce from his queen, Catherine of Aragon. Zinneman recreates renaissance politics while giving viewers interesting character developments in the persons of Thomas More, King Henry, More's wife, daughter, son-in-law, and Cromwell. The cast of actors is top notch: Paul Scofield, Robert Shaw, Orson Welles, Dame Wendy Hiller, and Susannah York. An historical drama, it is a very good story of how one man withstood the pressure from a powerful king and his officials during a powerful political time and kept his integrity intact by following his conscience, doing what he felt was right for him as an individual. His principles would not allow him to swear an oath in support of the Act of Succession of 1534, which was an act of parliament by which Henry declared himself the "Supreme Head of the Church of England" , and thus, allowed him to divorce Queen Catherine. Queen Ann was to be acknowledged as his queen and their offspring to be heirs to the throne. In April, 1534, Mor
However, for More, it was against his conscience, and he believed he would go to hell if he signed the oath. Charles was also the nephew of Catherine and he did not want to cause further embarrassment for her. Instead, the focus is on More and his struggle and the human aspects of the drama. People strived to better their social position because of greed coupled with ambition, as seen in the subplot of Richard Rich starting as the son of a butcher, becoming a scholar under More's tutelage, and then filling various official posts as he compromised with Cromwell and agreed to perjure himself in order to condemn More at his trial and at the same time, become Attorney General of Wales. The director provided the viewer with a great sense of 16th Century England colourful life with his attention to detail, architecture, costume, language and design. As mentioned above, there were no dates given in the film. Even though he did great good for the English people and was a hero in everyone's eyes, he was more extraordinary than most men and could not, in his individual conscience, take the oath as the rest had done. So it was up to the viewer to supply oneself with historical accuracy. In the film, More's wife was called Alice, when, in fact, her name was Jane Colt. The story of Thomas More was thoroughly examined in the genre of historical drama. Cromwell worked behind the scenes to set More up for high treason, punishable by death. However, the film did do a superb job of depicting their daughter, Margaret Roper, who was well educated in the classics. This would have probably resulted in a film much too long for box office appeal. The ideological aims of the film tied in with the idea of fortuna. The central theme of More's moral stand of individual conscience was the film's focus.
Common topics in this essay:
Henry VIII,
Oath Succession,
Chancellor England,
Considering Leviticus,
Sir Thomas,
Hampton Court,
English Church,
Susannah York,
England Cromwell,
Ann Boleyn,
individual conscience,
sir thomas,
church england,
king henry,
head church england,
swear oath,
male heir,
historical drama,
chancellor england,
head church,
english reformation,
period english reformation,
king henry viii,
allow swear oath,
more's moral stand,
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Acceptance Essays
