Other Titles • A Man for All Seasons • Mann zu jeder Jahreszeit, Ein (1966)
Synopses for A Man for All Seasons (1966)
1.
Robert Bolt's successful play was not considered a hot commercial property by Columbia Pictures--a period piece about a moral issue without a star, without even a love story. Perhaps that's why Columbia left director Fred Zinnemann alone to make A Man for All Seasons, as long as he stuck to a relatively small budget. The results took everyone by surprise, as the talky morality play became a box-office hit and collected the top Oscars for 1966. At the play's heart is the standoff between King Henry VIII (Robert Shaw, in young lion form) and Sir Thomas More (Paul Scofield, in an Oscar-winning performance). Henry wants More's official approval of divorce, but More's strict ethical and religious code will not let him waffle. More's rectitude is a source of exasperation to Cardinal Wolsey (Orson Welles in a cameo), who chides, "If you could just see facts flat on without that horrible moral squint." Zinnemann's approach is all simplicity, and indeed the somewhat prosaic staging doesn't create a great deal of cinematic excitement. But the language is worth savoring, and the ethical politics are debated with all the calm and majesty of an absorbing chess game. --Robert Horton
2.
When Henry VIII's first wife, Catherine of Aragon, is unable to produce an heir to the throne, he uses that as a pretext for the pope to grant him a divorce, so he can marry his newest conquest, Anne Boleyn.
The King is backed by everyone on this request except the highly regarded and religious Sir Thomas More. When Cardinal Wolsey, Chancellor of England, names More as his successor, it becomes important for Henry to get More's support, but More cannot be swayed.
Henry demands the clergy to renounce the Pope and to name him Head of the Church of England. Oliver Cromwell frames More, forcing him to resign as Chancellor. Eventually More is brought to trial, found guilty of treason, and beheaded.
3.
A Man For All Seasons...a motion picture for all time!
Winner of six Academy Awards - including 1966's Best Picture - A Man For All Seasons stars Paul Scofield as Sir Thomas More, a respected English statesman whose steadfast refusal to recognize King Henry VIII's marriage to Anne Boleyn cost him his head.
Featuring an all-star supporting cast - Wendy Hiller, Leo McKern, Robert Shaw, Orson Welles, Susannah York and Vanessa Redgrave - and directed by two-time Oscar winner Fred Zinnemann, Robert Bolt's A Man For All Seasons is "a picture that inspires admiration, courage and thought." --The New York Times
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