#becket 1964 by proxy

[wellthengameover]

i cannot overstate how Dynamic-y mafia movies are

[skyeventide]

Please, I would love to know your thoughts on Becket!

that was SO MUCH? loved it.

okay for one I actually loved that the nobles/the king are absolutely unashamedly awful, which may be a reaction to many situations where they're inexplicably enlightened and treat everyone well and are very "modern", this didn't do that, I liked it.

but really it's a movie about Henry II's psychosexual obsession with Becket and it's fantastic. the entire first double sequence, first with the peasant girl, then with Becket's lover Gwendolen, it's literally just Henry using these women as proxies so he can get to Thomas. absolutely no real interest or regard for them, to uncomfortable levels, except for the way they can give him access to Becket. and then flinging himself on Becket's bed and saying he doesn't want to be alone, after Gwendolen has killed herself? saying that he won't have access to Thomas' thoughts? it's so much.

this movie is not even remotely subtext, it's just plain text, within censorship restrictions. what really seals it is how Matilda calls Henry's "obsession" an "unnatural" thing. as far as wording goes, you cannot possibly make it any clearer for a 1964 movie.

speaking of, didn't love the way Empress Matilda and Eleanor of Aquitaine were depicted here — we know Henry valued Matilda's judgement a lot and overall loved his mother, and Eleanor was an incredible personality, whereas here she's written more like a petty and meddlesome/jealous wife with no great stature of character. other inaccuracies are like eh whatever (like Becket being a Saxon, which he wasn't), but those two I didn't like.

Peter O'Toole is an amazing Henry (and having just watched The Lion in Winter yesterday, he definitely nails it both times), it's just this sheer strength of personality, and though I had reservations about Becket's change of character, now that I think about it more I think it works. he shows concern about his honour and a certain hmmm merciful streak in his personality from the very start, and then Henry incidentally gives him the position and the environment where all his earlier doubts and traits can converge and create the Archbishop.

special mention goes to Henry getting lashed by Becket's tomb, and to Thomas dying, and therefore winning their little duel via his death, and still saying Henry's name as his last word. it's a hell of a movie.