We’re taking a musical break this week to focus on the historical drama A Man For All Seasons (1966, Highland Films, Ltd. Production; Columbia). If you’re a huge fan of musicals like I am, there’s one more upcoming BP winner for you (1968’s Oliver!) before we sadly have to take a decades-long musical hiatus. If I can digress a moment…in case you can’t wait until 2002’s Chicago to break the BP musical drought, you can always head to your local theater and indulge yourself with the new original musical, The Greatest Showman—not a perfect film by any means, but the songs are outstanding, and the film overall is a delight (Personally, I’m in love with it!).

But back to this week’s main focus…A Man for All Seasons lucked out a bit come Oscar ceremony time in 1967. The televised show was almost cancelled due to a strike by the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (the organization known as AFTRA), which oversaw live telecasts. The strike ended mere hours before the ceremony was set to air on live television, providing legendary Oscar host Bob Hope with plenty of fodder about people at home viewing a two-hour-long commercial brought to them with advertising from the Academy Awards’ sponsors. Hope also had some serious words to close the show that night: “If the medium is the message, our medium has a message for us all. Man has a great hunger for laughter, a great thirst for beauty, and above all man has a great need to see himself as others see him, and thus to gain a greater understanding of the emotions of which he is made. That really is what motion pictures do. They interpret human emotions, give them dimension, shape, form, and voice. Motion pictures are the full-length mirror in front of which the world can stand and see its unlimited capacity for stupidity or genius, for cruelty or kindness, for bigotry or brotherly love. It’s a vital work, a noble work; and believe me, ladies and gentlemen, I’m proud to be a part of it.” Besides capturing in part the impetus behind this website in particular, Hope’s parting words to the Oscar audience of 1967 connect well with A Man for All Seasons, for this film examines law and justice (both man’s and God’s), silence and speech, loyalty and betrayal—in essence, it brings to light some of the deepest struggles and emotions humanity can experience.

Sir Thomas More, Lord High Chancellor of England.

Based on Robert Bolt’s play of the same name and adapted by Bolt (a man who also holds screenwriting credits for Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago!) for the screen, A Man for All Seasons takes its title from the words of Robert Whittington, a contemporary of Sir Thomas More, the film’s protagonist. In 1520, Whittington wrote, “More is a man of an angel’s wit and singular learning. I know not his fellow. For where is the man of that gentleness, lowliness and affability? And, as time requireth, a man of marvelous mirth and pastimes, and sometime of as sad gravity. A man for all seasons.” Such a man of conscience, as More is portrayed in the film, found his beliefs mightily challenged when he became Lord High Chancellor of England during the reign of Henry VIII. Henry, depicted in the film as a fickle, selfish ruler, needed to have a son to ensure his succession. His first wife, Catherine of Aragon, his former sister-in-law, had yet to produce a son for her husband, although she did present him with a daughter who would become known as Bloody Mary during the years when she held the English throne. Henry’s desire to divorce Catherine and marry Anny Boleyn caused not only a political rift in his kingdom, but a religious one as well. Since the pope refused to grant Henry a divorce, Henry broke with the Catholic Church and proclaimed himself head of the Church of England. None of this sat well at all with More, a staunch Catholic. More’s dilemma of upholding his loyalty to his lord while refusing to compromise his religious beliefs is the basis for the drama of A Man for All Seasons.

King Henry VIII and Sir Thomas More share a tense moment regarding the king’s demand for a divorce from his wife.

Perhaps riding the wave of British popularity in America (you know, the aftereffects of the “British Invasion”), A Man for All Seasons took home six Oscars out of eight nominations in 1967, winning for Costume Design (Color), Cinematography (Color), Writing (Screenplay—based on material from another medium), Directing for Fred Zinnemann, Best Actor for Paul Scofield as Sir Thomas More, and Best Picture. The two awards it failed to win were Actor in a Supporting Role for Robert Shaw as Henry VIII and Actress in a Supporting Role for Wendy Hiller as Alice More.

For more thoughts on A Man for All Seasons and its significance, please check out the full post this weekend!