A Man for All Seasons

 

A Man for All Seasons portrays the saintly Thomas More. I think that Hilary Mantel did a hatchet job on More. I read Wolf Hall and it's difficult to distinguish what is fact from what is fiction and that also applies to this film.

Mantel clearly set out to improve the image of Thomas Cromwell and destroy the reputation of More who was canonized as a saint by the Catholic Church in 1935. It can't have been easy working for King Henry VIII. I think the Chinese say that the closer you are to the emperor, the closer you are to the gallows. The Bible warns us, "Put not your trust in princes."

King Henry had More and Cromwell executed. Cromwell was King Henry's fixer. I think the French Jacobin, Louis de Saint Just, said: "Nobody can rule guiltlessly" and he was absolutely right.