A Man for All Seasons

An account of Thomas More's last years. Henry VIII wants his marriage annulled, Rome will not allow it, and the king founds his own church. Everyone is expected to swear an oath recognising the new order. More, the man holding England's highest legal office, does not swear. Nor does he object: he simply says nothing. The whole tension of the film is built on that silence. More makes the law his instrument; he knows that as long as he says nothing he can be charged with nothing, and because the other side knows it too, they have to force him to speak. The source is Robert Bolt's play; he wrote the screenplay as well. Paul Scofield plays More, the part he had played on stage. Robert Shaw plays the king and Leo McKern plays Thomas Cromwell. Orson Welles appears briefly as Cardinal Wolsey. It won six Oscars in 1967, among them Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor for Scofield. One of the principal examples of its kind for anyone who likes historical drama and films built on dialogue. For a viewer wanting movement, it takes place almost entirely in rooms, with no battles and no scenes of intrigue; the conflict runs wholly through speech.