Becket

Normally don't believe in rating books, films, art... but, subjectively, this is one of my all time favorites.

If you have never seen Becket, the movie, with Peter O'Toole and Richard Burton, you must. It's based on this play by Jean Anouilh that I had never read. I ran across the LA Theaterworks production on Audible and gave it a try. Wonderful production and play. My only complaint is that it was

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sometimes difficult to distinguish the voices to determine who was speaking. If you can, get a copy of the printed play to read along with the audio.

I won't bother with any kind of plot summary. Everyone knows (or should know) the story of Henry II and his stormy relationship with Thomas Becket. It has ethnic and religious conflict; dispute that remain unsettled to this day.

Another great movie related to Henry II is Lion in Winter, also with Peter O'Toole. Get both of them. You will not be disappointed.

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The story of the rise and fall of Thomas Becket, who turned his back on friendship with King Henry II when he became Archbishop. The author doesn't do much to make his characters heroic. They are all, from the poorest beggar to the most ennobled aristocrat, unpleasant humans. Becket does manage to

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become somewhat more likeable to many in the end, I've no doubt, but the extreme insistence that the world had to fit into the mold he believed God wanted for it made him somewhat of a self-righteous prig, which comes through in the story in spite of the gentle pieties written into the script. A powerful story that carries you through to the ending you already know, but somehow something was a bit lacking, though I can't exactly say what. Definitely read it if you get a chance.

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Great cast but I think that I liked the 1964 film with Richard Burton & Peter O'Toole based on this play better.

There are at least two reasons one might find the figure of Thomas a Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury attractive. One of them is that his career and fate can be seen as an example of the power of faith as a motivating factor, that a man may prove to be faithful to a religion and its teachings even

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to the point of death in its service. Thus, if one can only believe strongly enough, one's actions can be carried out, confident that one will be rewarded in the afterlife, no matter how unpleasant one's manner of leaving this life will be. The second reason is the example of a person, whose death was such an example to others that his steadfastness in his cause, no matter what his motivation is stirring to us all, and therefore worthy of emulation, for its own sake. Anouilh chooses the second or "Existentialist" approach to recount this story of a bromance that goes very wrong, I read it in french, and perhaps some of the nuances were lost on me due to my weak command of the language. It did make a very compelling movie.

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The film is better but the play is still good. How amazing it would have been to see Laurence Olivier (Becket) and Anthony Quinn (the king) star in its 1960 opening on the New York stage!

3.5*

Great cast but I think that I liked the 1964 film with Richard Burton & Peter O'Toole based on this play better.