Becket - Peter O'Toole

Directed by Peter Glenville
Uk / USA 1964

King Henry II of England has trouble with the Church. When the Archbishop of Canterbury dies, he has a brilliant idea. Rather than appoint another pious cleric loyal to Rome and the Church, he will appoint his old drinking and wenching buddy, Thomas Becket, technically a deacon of the church, to the post. Unfortunately, Becket takes the job seriously and provides abler opposition to Henry than his predecessors were able to do.

This leads to the famous "Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?"

***

In a year when the big winners were "My Fair Lady" and "Mary Poppins," the only award "Becket" took was for Edward Anhalt's adaptation of Jean Anouilh's Tony-winning play. There were nominations for both Burton and O'Toole (Rex Harrison sneaked in between them to win), as well as for costar John Gielgud, best picture, director, cinematography, art direction and score.

While peripheral elements of "Becket" do show their age, the core of the film's appeal remains incandescent, and that is the on-screen collaboration between Burton and O'Toole, two of the English-speaking world's greatest actors working in the vibrant prime of their careers.

In part this collaboration is so successful because the subject matter is compelling and, frankly, so far from what any studio would put into production today. Set in 12th century England and based on the historical record, "Becket" involves not only questions of honor and loyalty but also a savage split between best friends, one of whom happens to be England's king, over the conflicting rights of church and state. Not exactly an MTV-friendly subject, but there you have it.

Excerpt from Kenneth Turan's review at the L.A. Times located HERE

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Theatrical Release: March 11th, 1964

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DVD Review: MPI Home Video - Region 1 - NTSC

DVD Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
Distribution	MPI Home Video - Region 1 - NTSC
Runtime	2:28:05
Video	2.35:1 Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 5.67 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate:
Audio	English (Dolby Digital 5.1), English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo), DUBs: French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)
Subtitles	English, None
Features	Release Information: Studio: MPI Home Video Aspect Ratio: Original Aspect Ratio 2.35:1 Edition Details: • Commentary by: Peter O'Toole • Theatrical trailer • Still gallery • Interviews with editor Anne V. Coats and composer Laurence Rosenthal • Two Archival interviews with Richard Burton • TV spot DVD Release Date: May 15th, 2007 Keep Case inside cardboard box Chapters: 17

Comments:

The MPI DVD image looks quite acceptable. Anamorphic and progressive in the impressive 2.35 widescreen ratio. It is not especially sharp but I feel like it is a good representation of the original theatrical presentation. Good news again that I don't see excessive manipulation (possibly some boosted blacks) and the image is fairly clean with no excessive damage marks. There is an original stereo track, a bumped 5.1 and two DUBs (French and Spanish in 2.0).

In the commentary Peter O'Toole informs us of the high level of historical inaccuracy of the film and even its variance from Jean Anouilh's play. The rest of the commentary (with a chap named Mark Kermode) is very good - O'Toole is quite lucid, his memory is excellent and he imparts a lot of interesting information. He is a pleasure to listen to and he is quite frank about preparation of the performances. There are some interviews included - modern ones with editor Anne V. Coats and composer Laurence Rosenthal and two archival ones with Richard Burton. They total just over an hour and I was most keen on the Burton ones but all contribute something valid. There are also a theatrical trailer, stills gallery and a short TV spot.

Great film - and a nicely appointed DVD at a fair price. We give a healthy recommendation.

Gary W. Tooze

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