MOVIE MONDAY - BECKET

“Always make the audience suffer as much as possible.” – Alfred Hitchcock

Jean Anouilh (1910-1987) is a famous French playwright, whose works range from high drama to absurdist farce. His long career spanned several decades and his creative diversity shuns categorisation, although he partly adopted Sartre's existentialist views. Anouilh hated publicity, and was reclusive fro nearly all his life. In his plays, a common theme is an unsuccessful protagonist whose idealism and intransigence is in conflict with the world of compromise and corruption. His play “Becket” of 1959 is typical of this type of drama and remains one of his most well-known.

It is not surprising perhaps, that this play was filmed in 1964 and Peter Glenville’s film "Becket" has become a classic. We saw this movie at the weekend in a (relatively) newly released DVD and my childhood memories of the wonderful pageantry of the film were proven to be accurate, but now I was able to concentrate more on the biting wit of the dialogue, the pathos of the two unsuccessful protagonists and the theme of friendship versus duty.

The film is firmly based on historical figures, depicting the relationship between Henry II of England (1133 – 1189 AD) and his Chancellor (and later Archbishop of Canterbury) Thomas à Becket (ca 1120 – 1170 AD). However, the playwright (and subsequently the screenplay writer) have taken certain liberties with history in order to make for a more dramatic plot and a more highly charged conflict between things spiritual and things temporal. For example, in the movie Becket is depicted as a Saxon, whereas history proves him to have been a Norman, similar to Henry. The play shows us Henry and Becket to be almost the same age, whereas history tells us that they had as much as a 15 year difference of age between them. Nevertheless, the point of this play (and movie) is not teach us history, but rather to examine the complex relationship between two powerful historical figures and to explore the substance of friendship in the upper echelons of society, where other allegiances may interfere with it. Authority of the state and church (which may often be at cross-purposes) is also examined and “honour to God” is a major theme. This conflict between State and Church represents the seeds of discord between renegade England and the Papal authority of Roman Catholicism, a discord which bore the fruit of the schism in Henry VIII’s reign and his subsequent creation of the Church of England.

E.M. Forster says that "If I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country." This is an interesting quotation in the context of this film as Henry views Thomas à Becket firstly as a friend and then as a courtier. Becket, however, can sacrifice many things in his pursuit of faith and submission to God. Therein lies the conflict, which Anouilh capitalises on in order to create an intriguing drama and a magnificent stage piece that transfers to film admirably. This film is in many ways a forgotten masterpiece and I rather hope that its restoration and re-release in DVD format will give it a new audience and the acclaim it deserves.

The two leads, Peter O'Toole as King Henry II and Richard Burton as his best friend turned adversary, Becket give magnificent performances and are a pleasure to watch. A relatively young John Gielgud has an interesting cameo as King Louis VII of France and Pamela Brown gives a restrained performance as Henry’s wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine who is depicted as a bitter, vindictive and sharp-tongued woman. The rest of the performances are equally good and the sets and costumes although very 60s (I cringe when I see lamé fabric used in period movies, ti just looks so fake!) do bring to mind the spirit of the time. The music is wonderful and it introduced to me in my early adolescence the beauty of Gregorian chant.

It was a pleasure to watch this movie again 30 years later and I would recommend it most highly to anyone who likes films with substance, great dialogue, good performances (a little theatrical, to be sure) and wonderful atmosphere. The themes explored are a major attraction of the film, and as I mentioned before conflict on many levels and its unhappy resolution creates anxiety for the viewer because he or she identifies with it on many levels.