Fred Zinnemann’s A Man for All Seasons (1966) was lauded with Oscars — Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design — and its credentials are, to put it simply, impeccable. It is, after all, nearly overflowing with famous Brit thespians (and Orson Welles, who always seemed like a Brit by way of Wisconsin). It has an important historical story to tell — Thomas More (Paul Scofield) refusing to bend his religious principles to the will of Henry VIII (Robert Shaw). In other words, A Man for All Seasons is so respectable that it might make you long for a Bowery Boys movie — and that, I think, is my problem with the movie (that and the typically ponderous Fred Zinnemann direction). It’s just too respectable for the likes of me. I have nothing to say against the movie. It’s a good picture. I just can’t get excited about it and never have been able to. My guess is that there’s a good chance you may find it more to your liking than I do.
The Hendersonville Film Society will show A Man for All Seasons Sunday, Jan. 27 at 2 p.m. in the Smoky Mountain Theater at Lake Pointe Landing Retirement Community (behind Epic Cinemas), 333 Thompson St., Hendersonville.
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