I see very few movies. Maybe I am the last person in North America to see Man For All Seasons. But maybe I'm not -- maybe I'm only the next-to-last person. And if you are the last person, I'm here to tell you that you should sit yourself down and watch that movie.
The Thomas More character demonstrates that you can stand up for truth without being intrusive or strident or obnoxious. He is none of those things; he is only persistent, and he is willing to go wherever that persistence takes him. It would have been very easy to render him as a sanctimonious prig, but there is no trace of sanctimony or priggishness in his character. Instead he is grave and brilliant and collected, no matter what the circumstances. I loved the portrayal of his relationship with his daughter Meg. (I once posted a snippet from a letter he wrote to her.)
I tried to imagine such a movie being made today and promptly shorted out the spark plugs on my imagination. Can you picture it? A Hollywood movie in which a sympathetic main character refuses to bend on the issue of the Roman Catholic Church's authority? Especially its authority over marriage? And the people who disagree are all clearly power-hungry or weak or both? If so, your imagination is made of sterner stuff than mine.
Huh, I just peeked at the Wikipedia entry and discovered that the play was written by an agnostic. That's interesting, isn't it?
The last scene of the movie made me burst into tears. I can't remember the last time I cried at a movie. Well worth two hours.
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