Becket

Oh, Lord… how heavy thy honor is to bear.

I have to admit that my knowledge of world history & notable events in foreign countries is not as thorough as I would like it to be. Case in point: I had no idea who Thomas Becket was until I watched this film, despite his history & friends-turned-enemies relationship with King Henry II being described as notable cornerstone events in both British history and that of the Church of England. As such, it feels like the film Becket, starring Richard Burton as Becket and Peter O’Toole as Henry II, takes some liberty with the knowledge that its audience is fully aware of who these two people are and the importance of their relationship & events therein, and thus I couldn’t help but feel a bit of imposter syndrome starting the film as ignorant as I was of all that. I will say, though, that regardless of my foreknowledge of Becket and his symbolic importance, this film still grabbed my moviegoing attention pretty early on & held it through the entire runtime; that I was largely ignorant of Thomas Becket going into it indeed only seems to highlight how effective Becket the film ultimately is.

For the other philistines like myself who might need a bit of a primer, King Henry II was king of England in the mid-12th century and Thomas Becket was his personal friend and appointee to the position of Lord Chancellor, serving as Henry’s right-hand & advisor in his rule. The film adds a bit of historical inaccuracy to flare the drama a bit, making Becket a Saxon and thus looked down on by the largely-Norman ruling class; despite his friendship with Henry & enabling of Henry’s desires to cavort around and have fun, his appointment as Chancellor ups the classism factor of the film’s drama significantly, though Henry is still often stymied by resistance from the Archbishop of Canterbury to his taxation efforts. Things change when the archbishop dies, and Henry is struck by the brilliant idea of naming Becket the replacement; Becket, however, is much more a man of morals than Henry has thus far counted on, and begs Henry not to put him in a position to weigh his honor before God against the wishes of his king. Henry, the freewheeling adolescent-minded ruler that he is, does it anyway; and thus the stage is set for an inevitable confrontation between two friends unwillingly pitted on opposite sides of the chessboard, and such a game can only be done & over with when one king or the other is taken off the table.

In case that last bit of plot summary seems like mildly implied spoilers, it should be noted that Becket the film starts off with Peter O’Toole removing his shirt in preparation to be whipped in penance in front of Becket’s tomb, so the film being told in flashback should offer no surprises as to where the story is ultimately going. It’s thus how engaging & entertaining the journey of getting us there will be that matters, and I was surprised as heck at how engaged I was with Becket the whole way through. I’m not really sure what I was expecting going into it; maybe that it was a period piece and very nearly two-and-a-half hours (along with my ignorance of the subject matter) that had me on the backfoot, but it’s ultimately the talents of the two leads in keeping the vitality of the storytelling at the high level required to make this work as well as it ends up doing. Sure, the production itself is excellent, keeping its period focus right-on and not being ostentatious about it (the cinematography is the other half of that that sells the setting exactly how it should), and the writing & direction are similarly bang-on and not any more overboard or showy for the sake of it. But, really, this is all on the shoulders of Burton & O’Toole, and they are by and large the reason this not only works but is as entertaining as it is; O’Toole throws himself happily into the role of a hedonistic layabout, a king all too happy to let others manage the kingdom as he is upset whenever his royal whims aren’t made reality whenever he has them, and how good O’Toole is here in direct comparison to his iconic role of two years prior is a testament to the actor he is. The bigger surprise for me, though, was Burton; it’s always been a tough endeavor to put Burton in a film role that really makes use of his unique style & talents (and doesn’t fall into the trap of trying that too much & sinking his performance like a weight), but Thomas Becket is just such a role, and Burton makes of it exactly what only him being cast in this role could have. It’s definitely the best Richard Burton has been thus far in the Best Picture canon, and I look forward to seeing more like this from him.

This is honestly a weird sell, in terms of recommendation; there’s a lot here that feels like it shouldn’t be a selling point, and for some people might not be, but Burton & O’Toole are so good here that a lot of that apprehension is just wiped away by the end of it. They’re the reason to see this, and the reason to enjoy seeing this, but they are admittedly so much the main reason that it throws into murkiness the quality of the rest of the film outside of them. It does kinda feel like splitting hairs, but I wonder how this film would’ve been if two different actors has been cast in the lead roles; I don’t know if it would’ve been as well-regarded as a result, and my thinking along those lines make me wonder a bit about this film’s real feasibility in the Best Picture category. But, to again devil’s advocate against myself, I might be overthinking the film that either could’ve or couldn’t have been against the film that we have right here, and Becket is a film that works better than I think a lot of people will think it should going in. Whether that’s Best Picture worthy is either here nor there, but it’s a film that ends up worth the watch, at least.

Arbitrary Rating: 8/10