ViewGuide

Created May 30, 2015 11:19PM PST • Edited Nov 09, 2019 06:35AM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Great 4.0

   Burton and O’Toole grandly declaim in Becket, a big historical drama and big hit from 1964. Two leading-men of the old school variety, with big voices, they’re more than capable of extreme declamation in a love story between two men – unrequited. The bromance ended badly after Burton’s great man of history morphed into Saint Thomas of Canterbury, which O’Toole’s megalomaniacal King Henry II couldn’t abide.

   12 Oscar noms followed, including Burton and O’Toole for Best Actor and Gielgud for Supporting Actor.
   Becket won its Oscar for Edward Anhalt’s screenplay, from Jean Anouilh’s Tony-winning Best Play.
   Becket also won the Golden Globe Best Picture + O’Toole took home the Best Actor Golden Globe.

   Important history about royal privilege gets a bit munged, but remains bracing and illuminating. Bonus!

   Classic movie, thy name is Becket.

4. Acting

   Great 4.0

   Richard Burton & Peter O’Toole play Saint Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury & King Henry II of England, respectively, with Burton first as O’Toole’s drinking buddy and wingman, later his most trusted minister, finally his deadly rival.

   They’re simply monumental, carrying themselves like Rolling Stones of the 1100s in the early scenes, wenching about and all. Their later conflict obviously lacks such insouciance, yet gives Becket its heft.

   • John Gielgud got an Oscar nom for two scenes as King Louis VII of France.
   • Paolo Stoppa as the heavily Italian Pope Alexander III
   • Donald Wolfit as Gilbert Foliot, Bishop of London
   • Martita Hunt as Empress Matilda of England, mother of O’Toole’s King Henry II
   • Pamela Brown as Queen Eleanor, his spurned wife
   • Siân Phillips was the real life Mrs. Peter O’Toole.
   • Felix Aylmer as Theobald of Bec, Archbishop of Canterbury

5. Male Stars Perfect 5.0

6. Female Stars Very Good 3.5

7. Female Costars Very Good 3.5

8. Male Costars Very Good 3.5

10. Film

    Great 4.0

    Starts at the end and then flashes back, always a good structure for a story about momentous transition.

11. Direction Great 4.0

    Peter Glenville

12. Play Great 4.0

    Jean Anouilh wrote the French play Becket or The Honour of God, translated by Lucienne Hill. Edward Anhalt wrote the screenplay and won an Oscar for it.

13. Music Very Good 3.5

14. Visuals Perfect 5.0

    Mostly shot on a sound stage, but the royal trappings are outstanding. Two castles were used for outdoor scenes.

    • Alnwick Castle
    • Bamburgh Castle
15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 2.4

17. Sex Titillating 1.7

18. Violence Brutal 3.0

19. Rudeness Profane 2.6

21. Reality

    Glib 1.3

    Becket is riddled with inaccuracies, including that Thomas Becket was in reality a high class Norman, not a low class Saxon as the movie would have it. Wikipedia has a list of this and other inaccuracies. Hence I’m rating its CircoReality at 2X normal.

    What’s more interesting from period pieces like Becket is how primitive life was in the 1100s, even for the King of England. Cold castles, no capitalism, absurd royal privileges, etc., etc. Also note how King Henry II’s conflict with the Catholic Church presages how Henry VIII would engineer a final rift 300 years later.

22. Circumstantial Glib 2.0

23. Biological Natural 1.0

24. Physical Natural 1.0