King Henry VIII of England was indeed a conflicted figure of history, consumed by his power and driven to a type of madness with his obsession to have a son. With the inability of his dour, depressed wife Catherine of Aragon (Irene Papas) to have a male heir, Henry looks to someone assumably more fertile for that desire, and that led to plenty of scandalous actions that could fill a mini-series like "I Claudius" would do about ancient Rome. In fact, it did, two of them, one about Henry's daughter who became the greatest queen in history prior to Catherine of Russia, Queen Victoria and the modern queen Elizabeth.
This story was told more recently in a different aspect as "The Other Boleyn Girl" which focused on Anne and her sister Mary, and here, the scheming Sir Thomas Boleyn (Michael Borden), seems to be heavily involved in utilizing his beautiful daughters to gain favor with the King. He has been in a liaison with Anne's sister, and now has closed off relations with her when Anne appears in court, inciting the jealousy of Queen Catherine. She storms out of the dance in the throne room,
"Women give love to the King like paying taxes", Henry tells Anne upon making an agreement with her, admitting that he wants to be loved for himself. With these lines coming out of Richard Burton, you really believe them, and this is not the Henry of Charles Laughton (in two films including an Oscar winning performance) or other interpretations where he was nothing more than a heavy set egotist. This was the year John Wayne finally won an Oscar, and it seems true gaul that Burton didn't go home with the prize.
Excellent supporting performances by the Oscar nominated Anthony Quayle as Cardinal Woolsey, John Colicos as Thomas Cromwell and William Squire as Thomas More. Colicos, the Anthony Hopkins of his time, would go on to play the notorious Mikkos Cassadine on "General Hospital", the same year he played the cuckhooled husband in the remake of "The Postman Always Rings Twice".
His widow on "GH" was ironically played by Elizabeth Taylor who appears in an uncredited extra bit here, and you have to be very sharp to point her out. She wanted to play and, but they wisely went with the younger and very alluring Genevieve Bujold who more than holds her own against Burton, and whom you can't help but come out of this really admiring.
The film is one of many great epics of the 1960's on British history, and nearly tops "The Lion in Winter" made the previous year. These two films were my choice for the best pictures of '68 and '69, although I find it amazing that director Charles Jarrett did not receive a nomination for this. This is beautifully made in every single way, and at two and a half hours, you do not have one boring moment. It's also amazing that this play has not been revived on Broadway.
Anybody who has studied world history knows how this turns out, but the opportunity to see the interpretations of how these people really were (or could have been) makes for a diverse view of one of the most notorious kings, scorned by some researchers but certainly one of the most memorable rulers in European royal history.
It may not have been wise to even have been a woman introduced to him (for turning him down was never an option), but this does not villainize him, only revealing him to be a complex man with many conflicts who thought that any woman who couldn't bear him a son was cursed by God and therefore not worth keeping around. While we had passed the age of reason, some of that was lost on Henry, and in that sense, you can't help but feel sorry for him. But for Richard Burton and Genevieve Bujold, it was a triumph, although Maggie Smith was much deserving of her Oscar that year, with Genevieve really an extremely close runner up.
This story was told more recently in a different aspect as "The Other Boleyn Girl" which focused on Anne and her sister Mary, and here, the scheming Sir Thomas Boleyn (Michael Borden), seems to be heavily involved in utilizing his beautiful daughters to gain favor with the King. He has been in a liaison with Anne's sister, and now has closed off relations with her when Anne appears in court, inciting the jealousy of Queen Catherine. She storms out of the dance in the throne room,
"Women give love to the King like paying taxes", Henry tells Anne upon making an agreement with her, admitting that he wants to be loved for himself. With these lines coming out of Richard Burton, you really believe them, and this is not the Henry of Charles Laughton (in two films including an Oscar winning performance) or other interpretations where he was nothing more than a heavy set egotist. This was the year John Wayne finally won an Oscar, and it seems true gaul that Burton didn't go home with the prize.
Excellent supporting performances by the Oscar nominated Anthony Quayle as Cardinal Woolsey, John Colicos as Thomas Cromwell and William Squire as Thomas More. Colicos, the Anthony Hopkins of his time, would go on to play the notorious Mikkos Cassadine on "General Hospital", the same year he played the cuckhooled husband in the remake of "The Postman Always Rings Twice".
His widow on "GH" was ironically played by Elizabeth Taylor who appears in an uncredited extra bit here, and you have to be very sharp to point her out. She wanted to play and, but they wisely went with the younger and very alluring Genevieve Bujold who more than holds her own against Burton, and whom you can't help but come out of this really admiring.
The film is one of many great epics of the 1960's on British history, and nearly tops "The Lion in Winter" made the previous year. These two films were my choice for the best pictures of '68 and '69, although I find it amazing that director Charles Jarrett did not receive a nomination for this. This is beautifully made in every single way, and at two and a half hours, you do not have one boring moment. It's also amazing that this play has not been revived on Broadway.
Anybody who has studied world history knows how this turns out, but the opportunity to see the interpretations of how these people really were (or could have been) makes for a diverse view of one of the most notorious kings, scorned by some researchers but certainly one of the most memorable rulers in European royal history.
It may not have been wise to even have been a woman introduced to him (for turning him down was never an option), but this does not villainize him, only revealing him to be a complex man with many conflicts who thought that any woman who couldn't bear him a son was cursed by God and therefore not worth keeping around. While we had passed the age of reason, some of that was lost on Henry, and in that sense, you can't help but feel sorry for him. But for Richard Burton and Genevieve Bujold, it was a triumph, although Maggie Smith was much deserving of her Oscar that year, with Genevieve really an extremely close runner up.