A Man for All Seasons Reviews

Fred Zinnemann made several great films of the studio era, like From Here to Eternity, High Noon, and The Nun’s Story. His style was spartan craftsmanship with an emphasis on the psychological reality of his characters, and a keen eye for casting that brought some of the best performances of their respective careers. Think of Gary Cooper’s stoic sheriff, Donna Reed’s weary call girl, Julie Harris’ moody tomboy, or Don Murray’s drug addict, and how they’re highlights in uniformly strong ensembles.

 

These qualities carry over into A Man for All Seasons, Zinnemann’s tony adaptation of a respectable play. It cleaned up at the 39^th Academy Awards, nabbing six wins out of eight nominations, during an era where that voting body loved three things: British cinema, stage adaptations, and musicals. A Man for All Seasons checks two out of three of those boxes. It is a fine if stagey, overly talky affair. The kind of film that feels predetermined to win Oscars over the thornier material of a given era, like Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf and Seconds, just to pick two nominated movies that lost to this one in various categories.

 

To quote Pauline Kael, “there’s more than a little of the school pageant” about the final product. The cast, including but not limited to Wendy Hiller, Robert Shaw, John Hurt, and Orson Welles, all deliver fine work, the costumes and sets are lovingly detailed, and a vague sense of homework in reaching the end credits as numerous scenes drag. It feels much longer than its two-hours as what could be told visually is often spoken aloud. Film is a primarily visual medium, and A Man for All Seasons is a bit of a filmed stage play.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this movie but since it won the best picture Academy award, I thought I should give it a try. It is only the 3rd movie directed by Fred Zinnemann that I had the pleasure to watch (following 'The Day of the Jackal’ and ‘The Nun's Story’) and I’m more and more impressed every time by his work. I mean, those 3 movies were completely different but they all displayed some fascinating stories, some very solid acting and some expert directing. This time around, I was above all impressed by the dialogues. Indeed, it was basically a play adaptation and even though it was about 2 hours long, nothing much actually really happened but there was a lot of talking, that’s for sure. Eventually, it’s a pity that I saw this on the BBC without subtitles and I’m afraid I honestly missed 50% of it which prevented me to enjoy the whole thing even more. Still, it was all very good. I mean, nowadays I’m always surprised about how dumbed down the movies are and after watching Zinnemann’s feature, it was even more obvious. Indeed, in this movie, all the characters were so articulate, everything they said made complete sense and instead of getting some loud explosions, or some fancy CGI robots, you get instead an amazing battle of wits. Not only the dialogues were impressive but the acting was also quite amazing. As a matter of fact, it took me several minutes to actually recognize the great Orson Welles. Too bad his character died fairly quickly but I was equally impressed by Paul Scofield, Robert Shaw and (a very young) John Hurt. To conclude, it is an inspiring feature dealing with morals, religion and politics, I really liked it and it is definitely worth a look.

For years, I have had A Man For All Seasons on DVD in my possession and have been meaning to watch it so when I looked upon it in my collection, I had this strong and rather sudden urge to watch it. There are a lot of films based on a true story with kings, queens, chancellors etc that have either been just decent or bad but I admit that A Man For All Seasons is probably the most successful of that kind seeing as it won 6 Academy Awards (Best Picture 1966, Best Leading Actor (Scofield), Best Director (Zinnemann), Best Costume Design, Best Cinematography and Best Adapted Screenplay) although I do think that Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? should have won Picture, Director, Actor and probably everything else except Cinematography and Costume Design over A Man For All Seasons.


I think where I found this quite a powerful film was that it isn't only a tale of tragedy, betrayal and love but it is also a story of strong inspiration because Sir Thomas More stood up for his beliefs against Henry VIII of all people despite there being a friendship between the two of them. Plus, More was Henry's Chancellor as well which makes it even more heartbreaking. I tell you what else makes it an even stronger film personally is that you have to read the plot and you know what happens or is a fan of history and have read a lot into it but despite we know the ending, we feel gripped to it like we don't want it to happen and it becomes a predictable sad story. Another thing I must point out, despite we know that it is a true story but in a complex and hard to explain sort of way, there are some segments where this could have possibly worked as a Biblical story with the kings, the executions and their kingdom.


The story takes place in 16th century England. But men like Sir Thomas More, who loves life yet has the moral fibre to lay down their lives for their principles, are found in every century. Concentrating on the last seven years of English chancellor's life, the struggle between More and his King, Henry VIII, hinges on Henry's determination to break with Rome so he can divorce his current wife and wed again, and good Catholic More's inability to go along with such heresy. More resigns as chancellor, hoping to be able to live out his life as a private citizen. But Henry will settle for nothing less than that the much respected More give public approval to his headstrong course.


Actor Richard Burton who starred in Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? the same year A Man For All Seasons was released was the first choice to play Sir Thomas More but rejected it presumably because he was working on Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? (I don't blame him, to be honest) but Paul Scofield was just fantastic as Sir Thomas More. I think what I liked the most about his character was that he was completely open with how he felt and stood up for himself and probably for others seeing as they might have thought the same thing. Thomas More may have perhaps acted like a bitter man towards his family but stepping that aside, he stood up for his beliefs and I respect that! I really liked Wendy Hiller as Alice More who is the wife of Sir Thomas More and mother of Margaret More. She deserved her Academy Award nomination too. I must say that Robert Shaw actually really surprised me as Henry VIII and did an absolutely brilliant job! He perhaps wasn't in it a great deal but of what we saw of him, he was still awesome as the fat ginger king. Orson Welles plays a great supporting role as Cardinal Wolsey.


Fred Zinnemann earned Oscar glory in 1953 for From Here To Eternity and lightning has struck twice with A Man For All Seasons. I have watched both of his biggest successes and yet neither of them have managed to blow me away despite they are both still very enjoyable classics. One thing I do respect greatly about Zinnemann's work on this film is that it is a film made from a play and a play made from real-life and a lot of play film adaptations have been failures but thankfully this one wasn't. Also for this very reason, the screenplay was fantastic too.


Overall, A Man For All Seasons is a very enjoyable classic that I would definitely watch again but I do still feel that Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? was robbed of the Oscars it won. This is perhaps the ultimate history film involving kings and queens of England but not quite one of the ultimate classics for me. If you're fond of history, you'll love this one!