[N.B. Forrest]

Originally Posted by -JC

See the masterpiece film production of the long-running Broadway play with the same cast of what happened to Sir Thomas More at the hands of Henry VIII, a spoiled, fat, not particularly handsome king with apparently a low sperm count as excuse for changing wives to the feigned chagrin of the Church that wanted more power than Henry, the award-winning A Man for All Seasons.

The play features a creepy little political climber perjure himself causing More's execution for high treason (condemning Henry's most recent marriage ostensibly to try to produce an heir) and, in More's closing argument to the Court, More says, essentially, that he "had nothing to say" on the King's marriage throughout his long confinement (in the damp, cold, Tower of London without his precious books, etc.,) when making a statement in support of the marriage would have secured his immediate release (or opposing it his beheading). And now the prosecution would have you believe that he unburdened himself to such as this, THIS, "man" (indicating Ricard Rich, the little informant wearing a chain of office apparently for having agreed to testify against the once-popular-with-the-people and now out-of-favor-with-the King, Sir Thomas). More asks the Court rhetorically if that is believable. More concludes his statement warming to pitying Rich for selling his soul so cheaply as to have perjured himself for no more than governing Wales. And finally the public that has been observing cheers the verdict of death for More that reminded me of such a disappointing crowd typified so depressingly by Gibson when William Wallace was drawn, quartered, and beheaded in BRAVEHEART.

Rent it. You'll reflect on it for the rest of your whether an accurate historical account or not if for no other reason that it shows you what film once was and could be.

Not that he's necessarily a saint but, bright, I'll give Ed bright. So bright that I've a hard time believing he would make himself vulnerable to a hired hand, whether the help was of greater or lesser character. It just seems too potentially an expensive error in judgment for an intelligent man with criminal defense experience and life experience with human nature.

I second the recommendation: A truly great film.