England, 1529. Thomas More is regarded as one of the most honorable judges in the country. King Henry VIII wants to divorce his wife Catherine of Aragorn since she cannot give him a male heir, so that he can marry Anne Bolyn. For that, he needs to put pressure on the Pope for the approval, but the deeply Catholic More refuses to be in conflict with the Pope. More becomes the High Chancellor, but when Henry VIII distances himself from the Catholic church and the Pope, and makes himself the new Head of the English church, paving the way for Protestantism, More refuses to place an oath to such a changed title. Henry VIII marries Anne, but More does not show up at their wedding. More is thus sent to prison and placed on trial by Thomas Cromwell, but remains silent with regards to the oath, without explicitly denying the rule of Henry VIII. The court still sentences More to death.
The film adaptation of Robert Bolt's eponymous play for which he himself wrote the screenplay, "A Man for All Seasons" is a noble contemplation about the clash between integrity and conformity. The competent director Fred Zinnemann uses a classicist style (simplicity, minimalism, clarity of structure, restrained emotion, appeal to the intellect) to conjure up an episode of injustice pereptrated against an honest man, Thomas More, who fell victim to Henry VIII's descent into authoritarianism and rule of caprice. The two main virtues are the excellent leading actor Paul Scofield as More and Bolt's sense for snappy, clever and sharp dialogues ("Pray by all means. But in addition to prayer, there is effort!", says Cardinal Wolsey; "There's a mass that follows me because it follows anything that moves. And then there's you...", says the King to More; More posing fascinating questions during his interrogations: "Some men think the earth is round, others think it flat. It is a matter capable of question. But if it is flat, will the King's command make it round? And if it is round, will the King's command flatten it?"; "And when we die, and you are sent to heaven for doing your conscience, and I am sent to hell for not doing mine, will you come with me, for fellowship?"; "If we lived in a state where virtue was profitable, common sense would make us saintly. But since we see that avarice, anger, pride, and stupidity commonly profit far beyond charity, modesty, justice, and thought, perhaps we must stand fast a little, even at the risk of being heroes"). The story is a bitter chronicle of how fast a respectable man is abandoned by everyone around him when he falls out of mercy with the authority or there is danger, which is reminiscent of Zinnemann's own previous film "High Noon", as well as a warning about authoritarians gerrymandering reality in order to invent evidence against good people standing in their way, an ode to the power of individualism which seems strong even today despite some standard, conventional or dry moments.
Grade:+++
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