A Man for All Seasons (1988 film)

Infobox Television Film
name = A Man for All Seasons


format = Period piece
director = Charlton Heston
writer = Robert Bolt
starring = Charlton Heston
John Gielgud
Vanessa Redgrave
cinematography =
editing =
released = December 1988
runtime = 120 minutes
country = USA
language = English
amg_id = 31130
imdb_id = 0095578

"A Man for All Seasons" is a 1988 television movie about Sir Thomas More, directed by and starring Charlton Heston. It is a remake of the 1966 film "A Man for All Seasons" and is based on the play by Robert Bolt of the same name. "A Man for All Seasons" was the first made-for-TV film produced on behalf of the TNT television network.

The film stars Heston as More, Vanessa Redgrave (who cameoed in the 1966 version) as his wife Alice, Sir John Gielgud as Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Martin Chamberlain as King Henry VIII, Richard Johnson as the Duke of Norfolk, and Roy Kinnear as the narrator, "The Common Man", who was cut from the previous film. (The "Common Man' functions in the manner of a Greek chorus throughout the play, appearing at crucial moments and seeming to comment on the action.)

The 1988 film follows the original stage play more literally, runs a half-hour longer than the 1966 film, and could be considered more "stagy" than that earlier film, which not only divided the Common Man into several more realistic characters, but omitted small portions of the play itself.

Overall, this version of the play is perhaps the most religious form, where the sainthood of St. Thomas being at the centre of the play, as opposed to the more political and worldly environment of the 1966 production. Some critics have also observed the nature of St. Thomas in the 1966 version is 'priggish' and an unsympathetic character, whereas Heston's St. Thomas is a learned, affectionate scholar more in keeping with the historical chancellor, as related in Will's biography of the saint.