"It is here now, the supreme folly. This is its hour." A scene from this great, somewhat forgotten film with superb dialogue. The translation of the Latin phrase is "O God, come to my assistance".
'Everything must be as it should be for Divine Service.' That's it; that's the whole thing about Tradition: worshiping Him in 'Spirit and TRUTH.' Pray for us St. Thomas. Amen. RFGA, Ph.D.
I first saw this film when I was 11 on a school outing. My friend Elspeth and I were so moved we cried our eyes out. I then thought I'd watch its again on RU-vid half expecting it to be dated and not as good as I remembered, but it was just as powerful and engaging, such a well written and acted film.
"It is here now, the supreme folly. This is its hour." - no screenwriter of today could formulate such powerful words as these - the supreme quality of this film will last forever and two of the greatest actors that ever lived can claim its longevity - no thespian living today can recite the words of this script so compellingly hypnotic as Sir Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole - both screen giants and masters of the English language as it is supposed to resonate.
@@smkh2890What exactly is realistic about acting? The hint is in the name. It's a medium that resembles reality, but it's just a representation. This film is quite theatrical, but even so called 'reslistic' acting is highly fabricated with multiple takes, dialogue and everything else in-between is false.
@@hunterluxton5976 Mainly the stiltedness of British actors of an earlier generation is due to the being trained on the stage, and doing Shakespeare! Without going meta, it is a style of acting, like 'method' acting in fifties America, that soon seems dated.
@@alanodwyer2203 The really good actors don't draw attention to themselves, they seem so natural and fitting the emotions of the scene. I like Branagh a lot, but even he can be mannered because he trained on the stage.
For us 60's teenagers we had great historical movies- Lion in Winter, Becket, A Man for All Seasons and political and social dramas- 7 Days in May, Advise and Consent, Fail Safe, 12 Angry Men. Today's teenagers get superheroes and dungeons and dragons.
It's funny you should say that because, according to historical facts, one of King Henry's barons plunged his sword into Becket's skull, not behind his upper back, as it shows in this classic. Here is a detailed account of the actual event of the death of Becket that took place in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170 from Wikipedia. It's not a pleasant read I have to admit :-( The impious knight suddenly set upon him and [shaved] off the summit of his crown which the sacred chrism consecrated to God. Then, with another blow received on the head, he remained firm. But with the third, the stricken martyr bent his knees and elbows, offering himself as a living sacrifice, saying in a low voice, "For the name of Jesus and the protection of the church, I am ready to embrace death." But the third knight inflicted a grave wound on the fallen one; with this blow, his crown, which was large, separated from his head so that the blood turned white from the brain, yet no less did the brain turn red from the blood; it purpled the appearance of the church. The fifth, not a knight but a cleric who had entered with the knights, placed his foot on the neck of the holy priest and precious martyr and (it is horrible to say) scattered the brains with the blood across the floor, exclaiming to the rest, "We can leave this place, knights, he will not get up again." WOW!!!! What a way to die for God, Jesus, and Holy Mother Church.
@@isabelbeckerman9226 Not only that, the knights also left their swords under a tree outside at first. They demanded Becket come with them to Winchester to answer for his acts of excommunicating his opponents (the latest batch of excommunications having been performed on Christmas Day, only four days prior), Becket refused, the knights left the cathedral. Monks attempted to bolt the doors, but Becket stopped them, declaring that the House of God shall not be made into a fortress. The knights burst in, yelling something along the lines of "Where is Thomas Becket, Traitor to King and Country!?", after they found him Becket merely countered that he was no traitor. One knight attempted to grab him and drag him out, Becket grabbed on to a pillar and bowed his head, then the murder happened.
@@Jorn41 Your KJV translation is a fruit of your reformers ego. The day you left the Apostolic Church is the day you started carrying the flag of Satan.
@@Jorn41 No idols in here buddy, please do some research before saying we worship anything other than the Almighty. I hope you are educated on this stuff soon!
Beckett's death was actually far more brutal than depicted in this film. I don't remember reading anything about one of the monks being killed only that he received a serious wound to the arm. The knights who killed Beckett were banished to the Holy Land by the Pope to do penance by fighting for the Cross.
Only a coward strikes an unarmed man from behind. "Poor Henry" indeed. It's a poor facsimile of a king who sends four knights to murder an unarmed cleric.
I'm not sure whether Henry really intended THAT! First of all - they came into the church but wanted to arrest him and at first they actually went into unarmed - only when he refused (they hadn't any royal order or even any "write" afterall! - they were just 4 knights and their servants) - only then they decided to "arrest" him, although...on what "authority" are you gonna arrest not just a simple "cleric" but an Archbishop?? MORE! - the Archbishop of Canterbury!? I think Beckett must have asked them something like: "...WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU??", which must have pissed them off! Henry didn't give them any orders to do that! I don't think the 4 or 5 DRUNKEN MORONS that went into that Church thought it through! ... Beckett and Henry were friends for a long years, afterall...
@Hurricane Polk I think it's worth considering that perhaps Henry may have ordered the death of Becket. It's definitely not outside the realms of possibility that the Royal household quickly realised how large of a mistake they'd made and put out a lie and a false story that's lasted almost 1000 years. The relationship between Royalty and Religion was still in infancy in the 12th century - it's not unreasonable to suggest that Henry was nowhere expecting the backlash he received upon Becket's death and that it was imperical to him to put out the fire. Blaming 4 Knights and putting it down to pure miscommunication seems a fairly unlikely story to me - any competent knight of that time would have known you can't just go and kill an archbishop without consent from the King (let alone 4 of them).
@@jeffreyjeziorski1480 Thomas Becket as the Archbishop of Canterbury served at the discretionary power of the King Henry II. The reigning Monarch was the Head of State. Therefore he had discretionary enumerated Constitutional powers to determine the fate of Thomas Becket.
@@seanburns4168 .....I was quoting from the movie after Henry (Peter O'toole) received his lashes and he spoke to his cadre of murderers, preparing to throw them under the bus(as it were). I meant to put it in "quotes"....
Thank you for posting this. One of the greatest films ever made ,and with two of the greatest actors in filmdom. The murder of the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Cathedral resonates to this day, as pilgrims pay homage to saint Thomas Becket..
I just cannot see him as the Uber masculine Henry II. I love him, don’t get me wrong, but I think he’s just too foppish for the part. I always thought Burton should have played him, switched parts.
**EVERYBODY LISTEN UP!!!** It needs to be said again: **THIS IS A MOVIE, NOT A DOCUMENTARY!!** What matters is that the audience "gets the message" about Becket, which is simply "Character and Absolute Power Don't Mix! (The identical message applies to Sir Thomas More in the film "A Man for All Seasons".) Fixing upon excruciatingly accurate set decoration (as see below comments) completely misses the point...
Well you can tell that story about anyone, though. I see no need to invent a fictional story around Thomas Becket ("Saxon"? Really?), but it has a dramatic stabbing ending, so there's that, I guess. It's not just the decorations that are wrong. It's everything, beyond being about two egomaniacs with one of them getting stabbed at the end.
🙏🙏🙏Pray for our sins Saint Beckett! Beautiful movie😘! It was probably the only occasion when O Toole outpowered even Burtuns performance in this flick! Pure class! 👌👌👌My God right from my childhood my family elders used to bake it into my head that when it comes to English elecuoton, First Came God and then came Richard Burtun. However they forgot to add that THE DEVIL came too in the form of Peter O Toole! Beautiful! 😇
Actually, the manner of his death was quite different and somewhat more messy. But that would have pretty much spoiled richard's looks so they fudged it.
Notes on 11th century British personal hygiene: after Becket was killed and his body began to cool, a huge procession of **LICE** began to march away from his corpse. Their constant biting must have been worse than any possible hair-shirt. (Needless to say, bathing was "rather infrequent", even for royalty, during those primitive times...)
@@CLASSICALFAN100 Actually had mites and lice sometimes crawling out of eye lids......we cannot comprehend those people long ago what smells and dirt they had in them and around them!!!.....truly.....
*I remember reading that one of the knights took the top of Beckets scalp off with a blow of his sword, then another dug the tip of his sword into the brain and dug his brains out with his sword. Far more gruesome than the film portrays!*
micjosisa--Up until the late 1960s, church doors--especially Roman Catholic church doors--were NEVER locked. One could enter to pray at any hour. There were, up to that time,at least three priests and a deacon in just about every parish. The deacon and the youngest priest cared for the spiritual needs of the youth. The middle aged priest counseled the married and middle aged. The elderly priest tended to the aged of the flock. In some parishes there was a retired priest who took over the masses of priests on vacation or who were ill. I remember watching the priests walk around the outer perimeter of the parish garden in their cassocks with their breviaries, reciting prayers. There were usually convents attached to the parish and nuns were always in and out of the church, sometimes comforting and praying with people. There was also a parish parochial school and a parish hall. Then, in the late 1960s, things began to change. Parishes grew smaller; convents closed; fewer priests were ordained and schools shut down. Churches were vandalized, altars desecrated, sacred objects stolen. Church doors began to be locked.
@@robertwilliamson6121 Oh ye of little education; it was a rhetorical question, and a rhetorical question maybe punctuated by a question mark, full stop, or exclamation mark at the writer's discretion, depending on his intent.
The knights that assassinated Thomas Becket eventually ended up being "tried" by the Pope - who was sympathetic to Becket's sense of honor but not totally in agreement with it. He sent the knights off to the Holy Land for 14 years where eventually a knightly brotherhood pledged to the honor of Becket was formed. It remained in existence until Henry VIII destroyed it, had the shrine dedicated to Becket destroyed and his bones destroyed as well.
As with this medieval Henry, we might as well said 'poor Henry' too for the early modern Henry. His desire to continue his dynasty eventually came to nothing, since his son died without any issue and so too his daughter Elizabeth I. To this end, I think he is one of the English monarchs whose reputations are not as good, though he founded today's Britain's national religion...
@@michaeljasonsaputra19991121 You have confused Henry I with Henry II. It was Henry II who got Becket killed, while it was his grandfather Henry I who was succeeded (rather controversially) by his daughter Matilda. Henry II is the progenitor of the Plantaganet dynasty which ruled England untill Henry VII came.
@@michaeljasonsaputra19991121 Henry II murdered St. Thomas Becket. Henry VIII murdered Cardinal St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More. He was cruel to his only real wife, Queen Catherine. He was cruel to his only legitimate daughter, Princess Mary. He was responsible for the death of some 60 or 70 thousand of his subjects. He outlawed the Church founded on the Rock of St. Peter. He started a new "religion" founded on his gonads. His illegitimate daughter Elizabeth killed a few hundred Catholics including a number of priests like St. Edmund Campion. But Queen Mary is called bloody by the protestant victors who wrote the history.
The acting is brilliant. I've enjoyed this film since I was a very young lad. The one flaw, which is a major flaw, is that Becket was Norman in real life, not Saxon.
The re-creation of Canterbury Cathedral, built on Shepperton's Stage H and designed by John Bryan, was the largest single interior set built in Europe up to that time.
Vinne Ger--I recommend a scene out of one of the Star Trek original movies. Kirk (William Shatner) is trying to get to someone (if I recall, it is Spock as he's dying) and it takes about four actors to hold him back--including the one who is blocking Kirk's (Shatner's) way, but he's hunkered down so that he doesn't get in the way of Shatner's close up. Now, THAT's funny.
It was a lot more gruesome than this movie suggests. The armed assassins arrived at the church in peace, and at the entrance asked Becket to accompany them to meet with the King. Beckett ignored them and went further into the church, mocking them and insulting them along the way. In the end as he knelt down at the alter, the swordsmen had no choice but to carry out the deed for his refusal to see the King. Beckett was hit three times over the head with swords, and on the last occasion the swordsman drove the sword through the top of his head and scooped out the brains and smeared them across the marble floor. This is the reality of his death that obviously the movie steered away from.
@@DanBeech-ht7sw They had been given instructions, that if Becket refused to come with them to see the King, they were to murder him in the church.. So they didn't have a choice other than to kill him after he refused. They probably did it in brutal fashion, because Beckett mocked them and didn't take them seriously.
@@halloweenville1 there's always a choice. Don't get me wrong, beckett was standing up for a"principle" that was no principle at all, and he shouldn't have been defending benefit of clergy. But the assassins really didn't have to do anything at all. They didn't have specific instructions., they were doing what they THOUGHT Henry wanted.
I saw the plays full rehearsal at Liverpool Anglican Cathedral back in the late 80's performed by actors from The Everyman Theatre Company. To say it was jaw dropping and emotional is an understatement. The surroundings sent it to another level and it actually felt like you were watching something truly spiritual.
As a professional singer, I took part 30 years ago in a reconstructed recording of the very same chants for Vespers on the 29 December 1170. The Archbishop was murdered just after the start of the short responsory after the psalms, and during the truncated versicle the singer on our recording (not me) decided to break up the sentence with shocked pauses between phrases, as if in terror as to what would happen next. During the recording session when we recorded this section, just after the singer sang his last words - ALL the lights in the Cathedral went out in a temporary power cut! One could almost imagine the clatter of sword on stone......
I just realized something deep. After Becket chants “Deus in adjutorium meum intende” and the following response, the monks immediately proceed to the Antiphon for Vespers they were chanting the Antiphon “Asperges me.... et su...uuuu....per nivem dealbabor” for Vespers (not the same tune sung at a Latin Mass though same verses) really symbolic because that will be translated as “Thou shalt sprinkle me... and I shall be made clean” more or less considering the “supreme irony” and how he was sprinkled with his own blood, a truly fitting end for a saint I dont know if my ears heard it right since I took Latin some years ago but I did hear some verses from the Asperges
Actually, the monks were chanting the antiphon "Rex pacificus, magnificatus est", the first Antiphon for the 1st Vespers of Christmas. Then they chanted the psalm "Dixit Dominus Domino Meo, sede ad dextris Meis etc".
From the days when the directors/producers used by the big Hollywood studios knew how to make historical epics. Today's attempts are farcical with unbelievable characters dressed up in period costume using modern dialogue. Total shams.
Also todays "historical" movies add all kinds of ridiculous politically correct leftist nonsense.... they would make Beckett a black, transexual dwarf and King Henry would be a cross dressing vegan woman.
The movie was, of course, not historically accurate as to the Archbishop's murder. But as usual the actual events would never have lent themselves to the drama of this rendition. Nonetheless both Burton and O'Toole are masterful actors and this cinematic effort is, as is usually the case with these two - separately, but wonderfully together - are screen masterpiece.
@@Xfranman I'm genuinely wanting to seek this film out and watch it. Just this scene alone has totally sold me. Currently studying Beckets tomb and material aspects of religion as part of my current degree module and I'm fascinated to finding out more about the man.
@@mattjcole908 I cannot attest to the historical accuracy. Like most Hollywood films this is heightened for entertainment value. But O'Toole and Burton are brilliant and the dialogue is superb. As a visually compelling dramatic presentation it is just a pure delight to watch. And of course its most famous line: "Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?".😊 (PS: Those kids are adorable 😉)
@@Xfranman yes I did think I'd probably have to take the historical content with a few grains of salt 😂 never the less this module has really opened up my eyes to art and history in a way I never thought possible. I will enjoy this film as a piece of entertainment but continue to seek and read the historic facts. Ps luckily my kids take after their mum 😂
Apparently, when they killed him they lopped off the top of his head, and then one of the intruders (a churchman of some type) used his foot and kicked his brains across the floor. Wouldn't have been so photogenic a death for Burton, though.
Remember, this was filmed 'way back in 1964. (The Baby Boomer generation were mostly still in high school.) Movie audiences weren't to be "treated" to explicit sex & violence until a few years later, with Rosemary's Baby (1968), Fellini Satyricon (1969), A Clockwork Orange (1971) and The Exorcist (1973). It ain't been the same since...
“...kicked his brains across the floor.” That must have hurt. Your brain would get bruised from being kicked around. And dirty too. Imagine getting dirt on your brain from the cold floor.
History records that they were not so precise as is shown. The knights were drunk, and rather than stabbing him, clubbed him to death, his brains spilling down the steps by the end.
As has been mentioned before, when Becket was murdered the bells of Canterbury Cathedral began to ring violently, it's a shame they didn't include that little historical fact! Fun fact: Just before his murder, Thomas Becket prayed, he prayed to another assassinated Archbishop of Canterbury, a man named Ælfheah (Alphege), who was captured by Vikings in 1011, and murdered by them the next year when he refused to allow them to ransom him.
I wish our bishops had the courage and faith to keep our churches open now. Nothing should interfere with the Divine Liturgy, and where is the faith in God’s providence.
@@Vurbanowicz Yes Victor. What a charming statement. I don’t know what your field of study is, but if you know anything about epidemiology, having Mass with social distancing and basic protection against the spread of any virus is perfectly safe, would not increase the infection rate or the death rate. But denying people access to the sacraments at a time of unprecedented emotional crisis is deadly. The suicide rate during this lock down and pandemic has increased exponentially. To the point that for the first time in American history our life expectancy as a country has dropped due to the number of suicides and overdoses. Nothing I say, nothing any reasonable epidemiologist could say would persuade you otherwise. So stay home. Stay away from the Sacraments. Stay away from the sacrifice of the Mass. I respect your choice. But I have a right to practice my religion freely as long as proper and reasonable precautions are taken, and I will and I do. And if my bishop shuts us down again, I’ll drive to the next diocese.
I noticed a blooper in this scene. At 2:27 Becket turns around to notice his monk get stabbed by the knight, but immediately in the next shot we can see him facing the altar again. I find this funny, because it makes it look like Becket didn't make a big deal out of it and just carries on the vespers. XD
"SAXON!" I mean, Becket was Norman from both sides of his family and was born into privilege, but for whatever reason, this movie made him a Saxon peasant. No one else was killed in the cathedral on that day (though one was wounded), and Becket famously died by having the top of his head sliced off. This was followed up by a cleric who, accompanying one of the knights, stepped on Becket's neck and commenced scooping out his brains and flicking them all over the cathedral floor. "We can leave this place, knights," this nameless ghoul was reported to have said, "he will not get up again." I guess all that was a bit rough for 1964 cinema, but then, what was the point? This movie got nothing right but a few of the names; it's all fiction.
Also Henry II wasn't Norman, he was Angevin. I don;t think the Saxon-Norman divide really meant that much to most people by this time, it had been over a century since the conquest, and all high-born people of that age were more like an international clique than anything else. The fact that they were nobles and the peasants were peasants was more important than the language they spoke.
Reminds me of the scene in 'Malcolm X' when Malcolm is "floating" down the street (a dramatic device Spike Lee seems to be fond of). He knows he's a dead man, but he insists on persevering in what he has to do.
The truth about Becket is rather less pious than his movie portrayals. After being appointed arch deacon he raised troops that he lead into war. On at least one occasion he traveled to France with a exceptionally ostentatious retinue and his game playing and stubbornness in negotiations with Henry II lead to the King of France asking him "do you wish to be more than a saint?"
A recent Saint who like St. Thomas Becket is a good example for all and followed Jesus courageously is: Saint Jose Sanchez Del Rio. A fourteen year old Mexican martyr who was tortured and killed for standing by Jesus. Now shares in his glory! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3GnLrNBbhKg.html
Well great movie, however in retrospect Becket was in the wrong, the law should be the same for all, as we have learned in more recent times from the abuse scandals. Henry II was a great law reformer who essentially founded the justice system of England as it is today. Anyway the moral of the story is, if you want to be a saint, just be called Thomas and become chancellor, however you might come to a sticky end. It always amuses me that two Henry's had Lord Chancellors called Thomas, both of them disobedient, and both of them lost their heads and became saints.
And how about not blaming things on whole nations. Especially seeing as _both sides_ were English so that logic is entirely faulty even within its own confines to begin with.
These Christian churches really should have had guardsmen protecting their towns and the church. Medieval clergy were political and had power from the papacy state.
books from Windblown Well it is documented that he forbade the doors barred during Vespers (evening service) and the guards would have been outside. In Medieval Europe, churches were considered sanctuaries. People were not to be armed when going inside as God’s house is a place of peace.
Raphael Ledesma Why didn’t the church establish guards outside and defend the townsfolk. There were organizations like hospital Knights and Templar knights to defend the holy lands Christian kingdoms there. Even if there were evening services like you said, there should have been guards just outside and what happens if there were a war and the church were destroyed along with civilians
books from Windblown Let me think. During the Medieval ages, there were no professional armies. A town with a castle could count on the protection of its lord and his knights. A cathedral city like Canterbury would probably have at best citizen militia. On the clock guard I think might not have been a thing at those times. The knight orders were formed specifically to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land so at this time, they would not be found in the cities of Christendom. And btw, during the Anarchy which was an English civil war, churches were often ransacked.
Raphael Ledesma the papacy and feudal lords had household guards and men at arms. If these clergy at least had some form of household guards like feudal lords had ones too. Medieval housecarls or knights served as honor guards, wouldn’t make sense to protect clergy instead of letting get killed and let them be martyrs and the Church had been exempt from tax and had wealth?
books from Windblown Yes. I am considering what you were saying because as Archbishop of Canterbury, he would be the senior clergyman in the entire kingdom. I’ll reread the accounts of his martyrdom but I doubt there were guards present as the account I recall has a monk trying to shield him and getting cut in the arm for his effort. It’s likely that there were no guards in the cathedral or anywhere near him at the time. Perhaps it was thought enough deterrent that to kill an archbishop would bring eternal damnation and the death penalty.