Becket (1964)

Director:

Peter Glenville

Writers:

Jean Anouilh (play)
Lucienne Hill (play)
(more)

Release Date:

11 March 1964 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | History

Tagline:

An age of rampant lusts, abandon, runaway passions. An age brought bristling to life by two of the most exciting stars of our time!

Plot:

An English king comes to terms with his affection for his close friend and confidant, who finds his true honor by observing God's divine will rather than the king's.

Plot Keywords:

Thomas Becket | King Henry II | Archbishop | England | Honor

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 14 wins & 22 nominations

Cast

Richard Burton	...	Thomas Becket
Peter O'Toole	...	King Henry II
John Gielgud	...	King Louis VII of France
Gino Cervi	...	Cardinal Zambelli
Paolo Stoppa	...	Pope Alexander III
Donald Wolfit	...	Bishop Folliot
David Weston	...	Brother John
Martita Hunt	...	Empress Matilda
Pamela Brown	...	Queen Eleanor [of Aquitaine]
Siân Phillips	...	Gwendolen (as Sian Phillips)
Felix Aylmer	...	Archbishop of Canterbury
Percy Herbert	...	Baron
Inigo Jackson	...	Robert de Beaumont
Niall MacGinnis	...	Baron
Christopher Rhodes	...	Baron
John Phillips	...	Bishop of Winchester
Frank Pettingell	...	Bishop of York
Véronique Vendell	...	French prostitute (as Veronique Vendell)
Jennifer Hilary	...	Peasant's Daughter
David Davenport
Hamilton Dyce	...	Bishop of Chichester
Peter Jeffrey	...	Baron
Michael Miller	...	Baron
Peter Prowse	...	Baron
Jack Taylor
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Michael Anthony	...	Courtier (uncredited)
Geoffrey Bayldon	...	Brother Philip (uncredited)
Ian Cullen	...	(uncredited)
Guy Deghy	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
Paul Farrell	...	Farmer (uncredited)
Laurie Heath	...	Boy (uncredited)
Rose Howlett	...	Farmer's Wife (uncredited)
Magda Konopka	...	Girl on Balcony (uncredited)
Gerald Lawson	...	English Peasant (uncredited)
Wilfrid Lawson	...	Old Soldier (uncredited)
Paul Layton	...	Boy (uncredited)
Tutte Lemkow	...	French Courtier (uncredited)
Linda Marlowe	...	Farmer's Daughter (uncredited)
John Moulder-Brown	...	Boy (uncredited)
Patrick Newell	...	William of Corbeil (uncredited)
Riggs O'Hara	...	Prince Henry (uncredited)
Frederick Piper	...	Monk (uncredited)
Steve Plytas	...	Cardinal (uncredited)
Robert Rietty	...	Alexander III (voice) (uncredited)
Alex Scott	...	Priest (uncredited)
Terence Soall	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
Victor Spinetti	...	French Tailor (uncredited)
Graham Stark	...	Pope's Secretary (uncredited)
Royston Tickner	...	Royal Servant (uncredited)
Edward Woodward	...	Clement (uncredited)

Directed by
Peter Glenville

Writing credits
Jean Anouilh		(play "Becket")
Lucienne Hill		(play translation)
Edward Anhalt		(screenplay)

Produced by
Hal B. Wallis	....	producer (as Hal Wallis)
Joseph H. Hazen	....	executive producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Laurence Rosenthal

Cinematography by
Geoffrey Unsworth		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Anne V. Coates

Production Design by
John Bryan

Art Direction by
Maurice Carter

Set Decoration by
Robert Cartwright		(set decorations)
Patrick McLoughlin		(set decorations)

Costume Design by
Margaret Furse

Makeup Department
Eric Allwright	....	makeup artist
Charles E. Parker	....	makeup artist (as Charles Parker)
Joan Smallwood	....	hairdresser

Production Management
Denis Holt	....	production supervisor

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Colin M. Brewer	....	assistant director (as Colin Brewer)

Art Department
Ferdinand Bellan	....	scenic artist
Albert Blackshaw	....	construction manager
Alan Evans	....	scenic artist
Jack Maxsted	....	assistant art director
W. Simpson Robinson	....	scenic artist
Gilbert Wood	....	scenic artist
Alan Roderick-Jones	....	junior draughtsman (uncredited)

Sound Department
Buster Ambler	....	sound (as A.W. Ambler)
Bob Jones	....	sound (as Robert Jones)
Winston Ryder	....	sound editor

Visual Effects by
Alan Maley	....	matte artist (uncredited)

Stunts
Nosher Powell	....	stunts (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Ernest Day	....	camera operator
Maurice Gillett	....	supervising electrician (uncredited)
Bob Penn	....	still photographer (uncredited)

Casting Department
Sally Nicholl	....	casting

Costume and Wardrobe Department
John Wilson-Apperson	....	wardrobe master (as John W. Apperson)
Evelyn Gibbs	....	wardrobe mistress (uncredited)

Music Department
Muir Mathieson	....	conductor
Muir Mathieson	....	musical director (uncredited)

Other crew
Phyllis Crocker	....	continuity
Richard McWhorter	....	assistant to producer
David Merrick	....	produced upon the New York stage by
Mike Maidlin	....	unit publicist (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Paramount Pictures (presents)
• Paramount Film Service (as A Paramount Film Service & Keep Films Co-Production)
• Keep Films (as A Paramount Film Service & Keep Films Co-Production)

Distributors

• Paramount Pictures (1964) (USA) (theatrical) (as A Paramount Release)
• Paramount Pictures (1967) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release) (as A Paramount Release)
• MPI Home Video (1994) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• MPI Home Video (2002) (USA) (VHS)
• MPI Home Video (2007) (USA) (DVD)
• EuroVideo (2008) (Germany) (DVD)
• Another World Entertainment (2010) (Denmark) (DVD)
• Art Free (2009) (Greece) (all media)
• MPI Home Video (198?) (USA) (VHS)

Other Companies

• Decca Records  soundtrack album (uncredited)
• Screen Time Images  color correction (uncredited)
• Screen Time Images  film restoration (uncredited)
• Screen Time Images  film transfer (uncredited)

Also Known As:

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for some sexual content and violence

Runtime:

148 min | Argentina:150 min

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English | Latin

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (Westrex Recording System) | Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Argentina:Atp | Hungary:14 | USA:Not Rated | USA:PG-13 | UK:PG (video rating) (1986) (2007) | UK:A (original rating) | UK:PG (tv rating) | Finland:K-16 | Portugal:17 | Sweden:15 | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

Alnwick Castle, Alnwick, Northumberland, England, UK

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

Queen Eleanor was in actuality perhaps the wealthiest and most powerful woman in Europe, and hardly the figure portrayed in the play. Although here she remarks that she will complain to her uncle the emperor, she was not related to Frederick Barbarossa. Complaining to Frederick would have been awkward for a devout Catholic anyway, as he had himself been excommunicated in 1160 and was in a power struggle with the pope, establishing several rival antipopes before reconciling with Rome in 1177. Eleanor also says she will protest to her father, but her father died when Eleanor was 15, long before she met Henry.

Goofs:

Factual errors: Contrary to one of the film's central plot lines, Thomas à Becket was a Norman (Thomas Bequet), not a Saxon. Jean Anouilh admitted he discovered this after having finished his play, having based it on the outdated 1825 work "The History of the Conquest of England by the Normans", by Augustin Thierry; but he decided that it made a better story the way he had written it.

Quotes:

[first lines]
King Henry II:Well, Thomas Becket. Are you satisfied? Here I am, stripped, kneeling at your tomb, while those treacherous Saxon monks of yours are getting ready to thrash me. Me - with my delicate skin. I bet you'd never have done the same for me. But - I suppose I have to do this penance and make my peace with you...

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The Black Adder: The Archbishop (#1.3)" (1983)

A meddlesome priest

The tale of Thomas Becket has had many incarnations over time. T.S. Eliot's 'Murder in the Cathedral' is but the most recent acclaimed literary treatment; each revisitation seems to draw new elements forth from the story. Edward Anhalt won the Oscar for best screenplay (adapted from other material) for this film. This film shows Henry and Thomas Becket roughly equal in age (at variance from history, for in this time the age difference of 15 years is practically a generational difference). Becket is shown as being a guide to Henry, but less from a master/pupil standpoint as it is a clever diplomatic with a utilitarian and almost Machiavellian sense about him. Henry is presented as coarse and unrefined, uneducated and in need of assistance, but historically this is unlikely.

Becket is played admirably by Richard Burton; Henry II is portrayed by Peter O'Toole. Both were nominated for the best actor Oscar, but neither won. In addition to these nominations and the best screenplay award, the film was nominated for nine other Oscars, running the list from costumes, music, directing, best picture, and a best supporting actor nod for John Gielgud, whose cameo as the King of France is rather interestingly presented.

Indeed, the movie has a remarkable realistic feel to it, particularly for a film from the 1960s, when cinema was as likely to portray stylised and idealistic images of the past. The sets are in bare stone with a minimum of ornamentation, as would have been the case in Plantagenet times; likewise, the ceremony around the royal person is much less grand, and the church rather grand, which is both accurate and serves to highlight the underlying conflict of the story in the film.

Becket is portrayed as a man of ambiguous loyalties -- a man of principle who has yet to find principles worthy of loyalty. Finally, in the role of archbishop, he finds a calling from the honour of God (and in so doing is not unlikely many priests who see their path to ordination as the means of spiritual grace; indeed, many are disappointed that the faith does not come with the office). Whether Thomas Becket actually experienced a spiritual conversion that made him a strong champion of the church, or in fact saw the power of the church as a means to an end of dominating the country, we will perhaps never know.

In the film, Becket is often disparaged as being a Saxon; this is perhaps overstated, given his Norman lineage, which is never hinted at in the film. While he does not come from Norman nobility, he is far from being a simple Saxon. Burton's portrayal of Becket shows the change from worldly chancellor to spiritual archbishop in unsubtle terms. Even so, there is an ambiguity that plays out marvelously in both his performance, and the reactions of the other characters who constantly question his sincerity.

O'Toole's performance is not as polished as Burton's; when he plays an older, wiser Henry II in 'The Lion in Winter' four years later, the acting is much more dramatic and effective. It perhaps goes without saying that Pamela Brown does not make the same impression on the screen as Eleanor of Aquitaine as Katherine Hepburn does in the later film, but Eleanor is an incidental character in Becket in any case.

Music in this film is not a prominent feature -- various trumpet and brass flourishes announce events or major scene changes in parts; a lot of chant (long before Gregorian chant achieved popular status) accompanies church scenes -- indeed, I credit this film for giving me my first real taste of Gregorian chant. The scene with Sian Phillips as Becket's love Gwendolyen is accompanied by period string instruments -- again, Phillips is a remarkable actress who is under-utilised in this performance.

Done in a flash-back manner, there is a resolution in the film -- Becket is dead, made a saint, honour is satisfied as the King does penance, and the people are happy. We know what is going to happen, but then, anyone with knowledge of history would likely know the story already. In fact, Henry's reign was rarely without challenge, but he was always powerful, and much more effective after Becket's death than before. Reigning for nearly twenty years after Becket's death, he left a very powerful Western European coalition of lands that soon fell apart, and embroiled England and France in war for centuries later. The tensions between church and state carry forward to this day; while the specifics of the challenges faces Becket and Henry II are very different from issues today, the principle of the relationship between church and state is far from definitively resolved.

Also, the side-line issue of class warfare and racial prejudice (teased out with subtle nuance between the Normans and Saxons, who, ironically, look exactly the same on the screen) are addressed in an interesting, pre-civil rights sort of manner. This issue is never resolved in the film, as indeed it wasn't in the 1960s, either.

This is an intriguing film, with great acting and great production values, and an interesting story that, even if not completely historically accurate, does not alter the history so much that it becomes a parody of the subject.