Wednesday, June 22, 2011
"His majesty's good servant, but God's first"
Here's the final scene from "A Man for All Seasons", when More expresses his confidence that God "will not refuse one who is so blithe to go to Him."
https://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2011/06/his-majestys-good-servant-but-gods-first.html
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Thanks for this clip. I never tire of the execution scene (that sounds macabre, I know), or Scofield-as-More’s “I will now discharge my mind” speech at the conclusion of the sham trial in Parliament:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX0_FGu8v9A&feature=related
I’ve always found it both fascinating and ironic that Robert Bolt, the playwright/screenwriter of one of the greatest plays/films with religious and moral themes, was not particularly religious himself. It was More’s unwillingness to compromise his convictions that drew Bolt in and influenced his involvement in the anti-nuclear weapon movement in Britain. Unlike More, however, Bolt did compromise his convictions on one occasion. After his arrest with other British notables for peacefully demonstrating against the spread of nuclear arms, Bolt signed a pledge to refrain from demonstrating, and he was released from jail. The impetus was pressure from David Lean, who was about to begin filming “Lawrence of Arabia”; Bolt was the screenwriter for this iconic film, too, and Lean wanted revisions made in the script. The story goes that Bolt greatly regretted signing the pledge, something he believed More would never have done in similar circumstances.