A Man for all Seasons - 4K Blu-ray Review

Movie
Once again I’m delighted (and mildly ashamed) that we have a film to watch out of the Columbia Classics: Volume 5 set that I have never seen before. On one flip of the coin I’m mildly ashamed as a film enthusiast to have never seen it despite being told I HAVE TO for the last 20 years, but on the other side of the coin It’s always so delightful to experience an age old classic for the very first time. That sense of excitement and joy is hard to replicate after your first viewing, and part of the draw of these old films that are before my birth date is to experience what those before me felt when they got to experience this in the theaters. With the advent of ACTUAL home theaters vs. the old crummy TV’s of the past, it’s actually doable, which means there is a sort of reverence and respect I pay to my home theater when I open that door for a classic film. The popcorn goes away (ok, maybe not the popcorn), no beer is cracked. All doors and curtains are closed, and I try and imagine being in the theaters in the 60s and wondering just what we were going to see.

Instead of an American period piece like the last several films, we go back to a time that was ever so popular during the 60s and view the time of King Henry VIII (Robert Shaw) and Anney Boleyn (Vanessa Redgrave) already together as he has decided that he is forced to divorce Catherine of Aragorn and marry Anne in order to sire a male heir to the throne (as Catherine was infamous for not being able to provide). However, this idea is not exactly palatable to the Church of England, causing waves in the ranks. Cardinal Wolsey (Orson Welles) summons Sir Thomas More (Paul Scofield) to an undercover meeting where he scolds Sir Thomas for not approving of Henry’s desire for the divorce and not putting his name upon the special dispensation approval letter that the Pope must sign. More, as much a pragmatist as he is a leader, believes that there is no way in the wide world of sports that the Pope is going to rubber stamp this dispensation, especially when you factor in that he already had gotten the Pope’s approval to divorce his previous wife and marry Catherine. Thus, setting up the internal squabble and conflict for the rest of the movie as key players make their political moves.

More himself is not really a conniving factor in all of this, as he doesn’t believe that he has moral authority one way or the other, but instead relies on the all powerful ideal of Papal authority reigning supreme, and he simply doesn’t believe that the Pope will approve of yet another dispensation. That being said, there are more than a few other courtesans who are scrabbling for earmarks and places on the playing field to upgrade their career paths and solidify their favor among the king or the Pope (depending on their allegiances). Head among the scoundrels is Thomas Cromwell (Leo McKern) who does his best to discredit More as much as humanly possible, ultimately leading to the infamous More trials that were a direct result of the schism in Henry’s court that vied for Papal authority vs. the Church of England directly being linked to the King as being the head of moral religious authority in the Kingdom.

While it might seem that A Man for all Seasons would be a dry and boring affair, but it really isn’t. While it relies heavily on poetical dialog and political intrigue, the film manages to be rather lively in how the More trials play out. There’s skullduggery, political machinations, and overly long monologues that setup the ultimate betrayal of More at the end of the road. But at the same time, I had a harder time with this particular film over all of the others in the set. It was just bland ENOUGH that it paled in comparison to On the Water Front or All the King’s Men. Maybe it was the period piece era of the 1960? (that time period we were AWASH with medieval and Reformation based epics), or maybe it just didn’t strike my fancy. Not exactly sure, but I find the film one of those “this is good, just not great” flicks, despite it being hailed as an excellent classic.




Rating:

Not Rated by the MPAA




4K Video: Video:

While I have been in absolute adoration of the 4K remasters done for the other 5 films, this one made me hesitate a bit. It certainly looks great in most viewpoints, with rich colors and a sort of amber/bronze element to skin tones that was VERY prominent during the 1960s. Fine details are quite nice, but not nice enough to really awe me. However, the thing that caught my eye was some very distinct haloing and sharp edges on characters. The opening title cards showcased it immediately, but I shook it off as simply an artifact from the lettering back in the day. But as the film progressed I noticed more and more than I was seeing those same halos around facial features and body outlines. But they don’t LOOK like the sharp edges of DNR from the 2008-2015 era that Universal and Warner were notorious for. Instead they look slightly thicker and more pronounced. Reading around other reviews and asking a few questions, I’ve been informed that these were optical effects, but I’m going to have to defer to people smarter than me for this one, as I’m not familiar enough with the optical lens of the time period to confirm or deny that. Either way, the film just doesn’t look as perfect as I’d like, albeit it definitely looks great enough to recommend.






Audio:

Well, well, well, we’re back to Dolby Atmos upgrades again (also with a 5.1 mix along with the original Mono track in lossless to choose from) and once again I’m not sure why Atmos was chosen. It’s a solid mix, but not really that much of an increase over the 5.1 DTS-HD MA mix. Directional effects are solid, with a nice expansion into the surrounds when necessary, but I really only found the overhead Atmos use being applied for a few shouts in a meeting, or the score. Georges Deleure’s score is superb though, and the single best part of this entire mix, floating into all channels at any given moment to give us this spaciousness that really elevates the mix slightly over the ones of old. But it’s the final court room act that makes use of the Atmos capabilities, giving an expansive feel in that echoey court room and showing a ton of directional shifts that just isn’t possible in a classic 5.1 or mono setting.






Extras:

• Audio Commentary with film historians Julie Kirgo, Lem Dobbs and Nick Redman
• Moral Clarity with Bishop Robert Barron
• The Life of ST. Thomas More
• Theatrical Trailer











The last paragraph of my main portion of the review may make readers wonder if I didn’t really like the movie. The exact opposite is true, though. I thoroughly enjoyed the period piece political drama, as it had great acting, stunning cinematography and an excellent bit of costume design. I may not have loved the film to the moon and back, but this is still a very solid entry into the Columbia Classics line and showcases a great remaster on 4K UHD. Well worth watching for fans of period piece dramas.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Paul Scofield, Wendy Hiller, Robert Shaw
Directed by: Fred Zinnerman
Written by: Robert Bolt
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), English DTS-HD MA 5.1, English, French, German, Italian DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono
Subtitles: English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Korean, Norwegian, Swedish, Thai, Turkish
Studio: Sony Pictures
Rated: NR
Runtime: 120 minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: October 22nd, 2024