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"A Man for All Seasons" -the lost age of political courage

Posted by Bambi B (A) on March 20, 2008 at 10:38:28

"A Man for All Seasons"

Mates,

It happens that only last evening I was thinking of a thread that I would call "quiet movies"- movies that didn't try and assult the senses with overly-rapid edits, constant fast-paced, loud background music, lots of gunfire, all in efforts to create a sense of artificial pace. There was a time when movies had atively pursued a kind of serenity- now too risky as the committees that design movies now insist on a continuous sense of panic to keep the attention-starved, over-stimulated public interested. The worst offenders of "loud movies" are the CG extravaganzes and the second "Batman" would be the top of my list of the bombastic, hysterically edited, artifical, pace-maker movies.

A lot of film noir actually are among the "quiet" ones- "Double Idemnity", "The Third Man", and how about Hitchcock's "The Trouble with Harry", but "A Man for All Seasons" was at the top of my list of these "quiet movies".

Paul Scofield presented an amazing sense of inner confidence and calm in the face of political upheaval. For those who don't know the story of "A Man for All Seasons", Scofield played Sir Thomas Moore, a confident of Henry VIII and who became Lord Chancellor, effectively the head of the advisory counciul tot eh King. Henry though was in the throas of changing wives- going through even more wives than Mickey Rooney- until he had a male heir and Henry eventually declared himself the head of the Church in England- which was a convenient way to seize Church property also. By being head of the church, n contrast to Atholoicism, divorce was possible and Henry could dump wives at will, rather constant appeals to the Pope for various dispensations and annulments. However, Sir Thomas- who I suppose would be categorised an ultra-conervative today- couldn't accept Henry's usurping the Pope's authority and refused to sign a loyalty oath- the penalty of which was beheading. A former protege of More's perjured himself in the trial and More was duly executed.

Besides the amazing, serene photography and long takes, "A Man for All Seasons" has throughout an almost breathless stillness. The quitness provides striking constrast to the political turmoil and the tensions in the Court of opposing Henry, who had the power to do whatever he wanted and of course, could imprison and execute "traitors" at will. -Haven't we seen our current President chomping at the bit for this power? But, as opposed to the weak-kneed liberals of the US today, More stood his ground in the face of prison and the probablity of a rigged trial that would end in execution. And, Scofield throughout showed a man of principle and honour that I think is almost impossible today- as he held to the lineage of Popes who were judged to have their spiritually authority continuously to Saint Peter, We see the rest of the synchophants crumbling to pressure while Scolfield loses everything, but remaining steadfast, calm, and confident that his cause was just and therefore justice would prevail. Of course, when the politics of personal, short term gains is in force- how this rings true to today- justice becomes the whim of the most powerful and More has only the satisfaction of holding to his beliefs, as solace to a trigic end of the innocent.

Much of the power of "A Man for All Seasons" is of course Scolfield who is aprobably in 90% of the frames, but the kind of inner serentiy he presented, and the calm courage of his convictions in this very quiet movie I find, after 40 years, to be heart-breakingly inspiring, and of wistful that we live in an age in which there seems to be no courage to justice, but only pandering to power.

I'm quite sad to hear of Scofield's death, I have strong memories of seeing him on the stage when I was 12 as the lead in Ben Johnson's "Volpone" (about 1605). And amazingly “Volpone” is a play which has a kind of opposite character to Thomas More, Volpone pretends to be dying and manipulates his relatives and friends by false promises of inheritance to see who is true to him- a bit like Henry imposing the loyalty oath on the Court- using wealth for to create power over th epeaol he wants to control and expose. Scofield as Volpone was mesmerising as a kinf of Machieavelli of family politics- his anger layered with bemusement as his successes in epsoing the pandering, greedy hypocrits around him. This play had a special qulity fro me , due to Scofield's presence. More than any other play I've seen,”Volpone” seemed strikingly personal, almost imitimate- with Scolfield "playing it just for me".

Cheers,

Bambi B

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