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<blockquote data-quote="Willie Oleson" data-source="post: 424163" data-attributes="member: 8">BECKET (1964)[ATTACH=full]56442[/ATTACH]A political drama about the friendship between King Henry II and his Lord Chancellor and cofidant Thomas Becket, and because of my personal chronological watching order I&#039;ve watched it as a prequel to The Lion In Winter. &quot;Peter O&#039;Toole actually looks younger in Becket. How did they do that, it&#039;s amazing!&quot;.Frustrated by the power of the Church and its unwillingness to support his military coups in France, Henry seizes the opportunity when the Archbishop of Canterbury dies.He appoints Thomas as the new Archbishop despite Thomas&#039; plea not to do it, and then it doesn&#039;t take long before the whole scheme backfires.It&#039;s possible that I&#039;m misreading the situation but I wondered if Henry&#039;s decision to give Thomas that kind of power was also some kind of test of their friendship.Most of it seems to be based on compromise: Thomas is embittered by his pragmatic attitude scorned by his fellow Saxons, and Henry in all his mighty Majesty constantly wants to see their friendship being validated.Had the story taken a more fantastical approach then it wouldn&#039;t surprise me if the King himself had orchestrated the religous/political dilemma to test Becket&#039;s loyalty.While Becket&#039;s handling of the controversy puts Henry in a difficult situation, especially if the Pope gets involved, it&#039;s the realisation that he&#039;s no longer Becket&#039;s Number One that seems to control Henry&#039;s actions. And all of that wouldn&#039;t be so difficult if he actually hated his former friend - but he still loves him.This is very much a performance film and the actors are given great material to work with.Peter O&#039;Toole is simply magnificent in his larger than life interpretation of the drama king, and the script is riddled with dry humour and brutal insults, like a Shakespeare for dummies like me.There&#039;s nothing in the film that confirms any romantic feelings between the two friends but it certainly doesn&#039;t shy away from that very interpretation.Of course it&#039;s possible that a 1964 audience wouldn&#039;t even consider it, let alone fantasise about it.Becket&nbsp; made me think of that other loyalty-to-a-Henry conflict in A Man For All Seasons, but also of DALLAS.Jock wants his sons to have power and run the company but he doesn&#039;t allow them to become creative or opinionated. And he was also very good at insulting his family.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Willie Oleson, post: 424163, member: 8"] BECKET (1964) [ATTACH type="full" alt="1748796381176.png"]56442[/ATTACH] A political drama about the friendship between King Henry II and his Lord Chancellor and cofidant Thomas Becket, and because of my personal chronological watching order I've watched it as a prequel to [I]The Lion In Winter[/I]. "Peter O'Toole actually looks younger in Becket. How did they do that, it's amazing!". Frustrated by the power of the Church and its unwillingness to support his military coups in France, Henry seizes the opportunity when the Archbishop of Canterbury dies. He appoints Thomas as the new Archbishop despite Thomas' plea not to do it, and then it doesn't take long before the whole scheme backfires. It's possible that I'm misreading the situation but I wondered if Henry's decision to give Thomas that kind of power was also some kind of test of their friendship. Most of it seems to be based on compromise: Thomas is embittered by his pragmatic attitude scorned by his fellow Saxons, and Henry in all his mighty Majesty constantly wants to see their friendship being validated. Had the story taken a more fantastical approach then it wouldn't surprise me if the King himself had orchestrated the religous/political dilemma to test Becket's loyalty. While Becket's handling of the controversy puts Henry in a difficult situation, especially if the Pope gets involved, it's the realisation that he's no longer Becket's Number One that seems to control Henry's actions. And all of that wouldn't be so difficult if he actually hated his former friend - but he still loves him. This is very much a performance film and the actors are given great material to work with. Peter O'Toole is simply magnificent in his larger than life interpretation of the drama king, and the script is riddled with dry humour and brutal insults, like a Shakespeare for dummies like me. There's nothing in the film that confirms any romantic feelings between the two friends but it certainly doesn't shy away from that very interpretation. Of course it's possible that a 1964 audience wouldn't even consider it, let alone fantasise about it. [I]Becket[/I] made me think of that other loyalty-to-a-Henry conflict in [I]A Man For All Seasons[/I], but also of DALLAS. Jock wants his sons to have power and run the company but he doesn't allow them to become creative or opinionated. And he was also very good at insulting his family. [/QUOTE]

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