A Man for All Seasons (1988)

A Man for All Seasons is a 1988 television movie about St. Thomas More, directed by and starring Charlton Heston. It is based on the play of the same name by Robert Bolt, which was previously adapted in the Academy Award-winning 1966 film. A Man for All Seasons was the first made-for-TV film produced on behalf of the TNT (Turner Network Television) television network.

The film stars Heston as More, Vanessa Redgrave (who had a small cameo in the 1966 version) as his wife Alice, Sir John Gielgud as Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Martin Chamberlain as King Henry VIII, Richard Johnson as the Duke of Norfolk (historically, Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk), and Roy Kinnear as the narrator, "The Common Man", who was cut from the previous film. (The "Common Man' functions in the manner of a Greek chorus throughout the play, appearing at crucial moments and seeming to comment on the action.)

The 1988 film follows the original stage play more literally, runs a half-hour longer than the 1966 film, and could be considered more "stagy" than that earlier film, which not only divided the Common Man into several more realistic characters, but omitted small portions of the play itself.

Synopsis

Henry VIII veut divorcer de sa femme, et cherche l'approbation de l'aristocratie. Sir Thomas More est un homme de principe et de la raison, et est ainsi placé dans une position difficile: doit-il se lever pour ses principes, au risque de la colère d'un roi corrompu aime exécuter des personnes pour trahison? Ou doit-il se plier à la corruption apparemment imparable de Henry VIII, qui n'a aucun scrupule à plier la loi en fonction de ses propres besoins?

Actors