✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
United Kingdom, United States · 1964
Rated PG-13 · 2h 28m
Director Peter Glenville
Starring Richard Burton, Peter O'Toole, John Gielgud, Gino Cervi
Genre Drama, History
Please login to add films to your watchlist.
King Henry II of England has trouble with the Church. When the Archbishop of Canterbury dies, he will appoint his old drinking and wenching buddy, Thomas Becket, technically a deacon of the church, to the post. Unfortunately, Becket takes the job seriously and provides opposition to Henry.
Dully overcomposed, the film evinces a Disneyed sense of palace life and reaches a laughable apotheosis when Henry and Becket's rendezvous on a beach is staged as a reunion between scorned lovers. In 1964, the film's innuendo might have seemed daring; today it's close to ridiculous.
Philadelphia Inquirer by Carrie Rickey
Peter Glenville's staging of the material is the opposite of cinematic, but the pleasure of these two extravagantly gifted actors at the top of their game - their diction! their conviction! their beauty! - is enormous.
One hundred forty-nine minutes of pure, unadulterated culture.
Washington Post by Desson Thomson
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.
There's much to be said for a film that, however cheesily realized, sticks in memory for four decades.
Los Angeles Times by Kenneth Turan
While major stars thrust together on screen often end up undercutting each other, one of the pleasures of Becket is how easily and generously these two commanding actors play off each other, each allowing the other the space to make the most of their individual roles.
Portland Oregonian by M. E. Russell
O'Toole just keeps turning up the volume, and it's thrilling to watch.
Chicago Tribune by Michael Wilmington
Becket, now richly restored, is one of those '60s British theatrical spectaculars that we always imagine as a bit better than they were.
Christian Science Monitor by Peter Rainer
Burton is extraordinary in one of his rare good movie roles and O'Toole is regally madcap and larger than life. No doubt his Oscar-nominated appearance in "Venus" has prompted this rerelease of Becket. They make a fascinating then-and-now combination.
Two immigrants only wish to avoid possible deportation. What happens when they unknowingly enter a corrupt situation?
In this adaption of Virginia Woolf's novel, Orlando, a gender bending aristocrat, travels through more than 400 years of English history as a man and then a woman.
Young Henry V inherits the throne — and a war with France — from his father.
The night the unsinkable sank
Lord Jim blasts the screen with breathless adventure!
The most significant reserved seat attraction of the year!
Laura Portmann signs on to a long-haul cargo spaceflight with a crew kept in suspended animation, but the captain's death prompts a close investigation of their reality.
Jean Cocteau's poetic allegory focuses on the experiences of a poet outside of time and reality.
The greatest Viking adventure of them all!
An homage to Hollywood silent filmmaking about a romance between a fading silent film star and a rising actress at the dawn of film's sound era.