Becket

Thanks to the wonders of restoration, Peter O'Toole swaggers once again across the screen: a handsome, impetuous king, ruled by brash impulse and his tempestuous affection for Thomas à Becket. The movie is "Becket," and the 1964 production follows the volatile friendship between Henry II (O'Toole) and Becket (Richard Burton), from their early days of drinking, hunting and wenching to Becket's perilous ascension in Henry's court. When Henry appoints his closest friend as archbishop of Canterbury, it is the beginning of the end, as history has noted.

Even though we know the course of both men's fates -- assuming we were paying attention in class -- we wait nonetheless with dread for those fatal words: "Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?" "Becket" (which had 12 Oscar nominations but took one prize for Edward Anhalt's superb adaptation of the Jean Anouilh play) may seem like a movie of yesteryear, but its timeliness brims over with rousing, meditative discourses between Henry and the church leaders on the separation of church and state. Mainly, however, the rewards are dramatic, as they should be.

To see "Becket" -- hard on the heels of the Irish actor's superb performance as a love-struck octogenarian in "Venus" -- has added poignancy. We see him again exulting in his youth: that cheeky, winking arrogance; the milk-skinned prettiness; and the high-toned diction of a stage actor. It is a snapshot of a great actor in his prime and a chance for us to see one of yesteryear's great films in all its kingly luster.

-- Desson Thomson (March 2, 2007)

Contains violence and sexual situations.