Customer Reviews
A Film For All Time - By: Mr. Ray Taylor, 28 Jun 2008 
"A Man For All Seasons" is one of my alll time favourite films. It is absolutely faultless & could not possibly be bettered. I have seen it so many times I think I know the whole script by heart! Every actor & actress are perfect for their part.I could mention them alll but then I would go on for ages so I will confine myself to just a few comments. There will never be a better cameo performance on screen of Henry VIII to match that of Robert Shaw; Wendy Hillier's leavetaking of her husband in the Tower brings tears to the eyes every time; Orson Welles is just awesome as Cardinal Wolsey; & Paul Scofield, of course, is matchless in every way. "Utopia" by the way IS mentioned - in the very first scene!
Buy this & watch again & again - there is something to reward you every time.
Ray Taylor - Barnsley
Conscience of the King - By: Charles Vasey, 15 Mar 2008 I remember the first time I saw this film in the mid-Sixties in Middlesbrough on a school trip. I thought it utterly wonderful, most of my classmates thought it wordy & foolish.
Sir Thomas More is played as a man of unbending conscience who depends upon his lawyerly skills to keep him from the axe (for this is England, not Spain) as such it is an evocation of the joys of hairsplitting. At times almost Shakesperarian in its language, it is a play about words & what they mean. More must seem a terribly unreal person to our present generations, but Scofield plays him very believably as a rather autistic good man who finds the foibles of others hard to accept. He is surrounded by a bevy of thespian talent. Nigel Davenport as the stentorian Duke of Norfolk, Leo McKern as the evil Cromwell, John Hurt as the man who gains alll & loses alll, Robert Shaw giving us a Henry VIII that (like Alec Guinesses's Charles I) sticks in the mind; & Colin Blakeney as the servant Matthew. It's a joy to behold. (And I've forgotten to mention Orson Welles & many many others).
I cannot think how many times I've seen it; please give it a shot, I think you'll enjoy it.
A Classic - By: ray dorrity, 04 Oct 2007 Robert Shaw, Paul Schofield, Orson Welles, Wendy Hiller, Leo McKern, John Hurt, Susannah York etc., etc.
You just are never, never going to get a cast line up like that ever again. At the time, the best actors in the Anglo world. Americans, Canadians, Irish, Australians & Brits at their best.
A story of one man's conscience & the consequences of going against his one time friend, Henry VIII.
A must have movie.
Buy & enjoy.
A Film For All Collections - By: ianrmillard, 10 Apr 2007 This tells the better known part of the story of Sir Thomas More, who was raised from lawyer & then judge to become Lord Chancellor or England, only to be sentenced to death & beheaded for treason, having failed to take an oath which would legitimize the divorce of Henry VIII from his Spanish wife & his soon-following marriage to Anne Boleyn (later also beheaded). More's book "Utopia" is not mentioned in this film. The film itself is a production of such quality that it is hard to praise it enough. Directed by Fred Zinnemann, the photography, especiallly of "sweet Thames" & its bird life, is of the highest & most moving quality. The acting likewise, featuring some of the best British film actors of the time of filming, as well as Orson Welles (playing the previous Lord Chancellor, Cardinal Wolsey). The screenplay by the unrivallled Robert Bolt is what reallly puts the seal on this most valued film. If you have never seen A Man For All Seasons, see it.
