How far would a man go to stand up for his principles and conscience? Would he be willing to pay the ultimate price? ‘A Man for All Seasons’ is an intelligent drama revolving around an obdurate civil servant Sir Thomas More as he steadfastly holds onto his stand of not ratifying the divorce of the heir-seeking Henry VIII because the wedding was blessed by the Pope.
The plot is set during a time when the Church of England still bore allegiance to Rome. It revolves around a top civil servant, who is the Lord Chancellor of England as he is faced with a moral conflict due to the fact that he needs to support the divorce of Henry VIII to his ‘barren’ Queen as he seeks to marry his lover to beget an heir. Henry’s marriage to the Queen needed Papal support as she was the widow of his brother.
Now, More, a devout Catholic who believes in the supremacy of the Church over the State would not support the divorce unless it is ratified by the Pope, something he knows will never happen. As Henry and his loyal civil servants use the powers of the State to make the King the supreme head of the Church of England and ratify his divorce, More resigns from his position and is now seen as a traitor by the eccentric King. Will More buckle to pressure and support Henry is what the plot tries to uncover.
Directed by Fred Zinneman, who would later on give us classics like ‘The Day of the Jackal’, the film’s plot is very simple and the conflict is made clear in the first ten minutes. The rest of the story revolves around the systematic attempt of the State to break down More’s resolve and his rebuttal of their moves through the most intelligent use of the law. A fine pressure-cooker scenario brought to life. The film was a Best Picture winner at the Oscars.
Paul Scofield won the Best Actor Oscar for his seminal performance as More. The phrase, ‘A Man for All Seasons’ refers to More’s ability to be a wide range of people, loving and gentle, steadfast and honest, brave and strong and a lot many types when the time came for it. Scofield delivers an outstanding performance blending in all these attributes. The other notable performances come from Robert Shaw as Henry VIII and Leo McKern as Thomas Cromwell, the man who carries out the King’s whim in prosecuting More. Orson Welles appears in a cameo as Cardinal Wolsey, who had unsuccessfully tried to ratify the divorce and had to pay the price for it.
One would think that a man of innocence, virtue and genuineness is often alone in this world. It was quite the same in the 16th century.