A Man for All Seasons is my absolute favorite religious movie. It depicts the latter part of St. Thomas More’s life, concentrating on his trial and martyrdom in 1535. I have never seen a movie about a saint that captured me so completely - he is altogether human, and altogether saintly. Paul Schofield plays Thomas More, and as a Shakespearean actor he did
fantastic.
Most movies depicting the lives of the saints portray the saints too… conveniently. (That’s the best word I can think of.) Too easily - the saints are holy and they’ve always been holy.
A Man for All Seasons was the first movie (that I’ve seen) that portrayed a saint in his truest element - really, painfully, nobly, humanly holy. I’ve never understood sainthood until this movie - which is actually very historically correct, too. Now St. Thomas More is my patron saint.
Also,
The Passion. I can’t say it’s my favorite in the same way MAS is - especially because I’ve only seen it once and I approach seeing it again the same way I feel approaching the confessional. It’s not the violence of the crucifixion (even though I’'l close my eyes), it’s the feeling of an examination of conscience. When I left the theater the first time I saw it, I had an overwhelming feeling of the triviality of time - much like the feeling I’ve gotten leaving the confessional of the triviality of temptations. (Unfortunately
that euphoric feeling only happened once so far.)
Totally different movies - both favorites.
