List #40: 5 Incredibly Brilliant Quotes from Becket (1964)

My girlfriend thinks Peter O'Toole sort of looks like Colin Farrell in this poster.

Short and geeky post today. I have just seen Becket, a 1964 film adaptation of Jean Anouilh’s play and I cannot believe that I have not heard of this film before. It was almost easy to ignore the historical inaccuracies due to the brilliant performance of both Peter O’Toole as Henry II, sporting a Manchurian-like beard, and Richard Burton as Thomas Becket, Chancellor of England and later on, Archbishop of Canterbury. I probably sound like an overzealous fan right now but just take a look at these 5 Memorable Quotes from the movie and imagine really REALLY good old school acting (both O’Toole and Burton were nominated Best Actor for this film) to get an idea of what I’m talking about:

Henry II: Have you any idea how much trouble I took to make you noble?

Thomas Becket: I think as I recall you pointing a finger saying ‘Thomas Becket, you are noble.’ The queen and your mother became very agitated.

Henry II: (Laughs) They are always agitated.

Now if it were that easy to make things happen, the first thing I would probably do is point to myself in the mirror and say, “David Garcia, you are rich.” Unfortunately, no amount of begging has caused my reflection to grant me immense wealth yet. You’ll hear it here first when it does happen.

Becket: Tonight you can do me the honour of christening my forks.

Henry: Forks?

Becket: Yes, from Florence. New little invention. It’s for pronging meat and carrying it to the mouth. It saves you dirtying your fingers.

Henry: But then you dirty the fork.

Becket: Yes, but it’s washable.

Henry: So are your fingers. I don’t see the point.

I have had a similar conversation with my mother about my pile of laundry. Telling her that my clothes would just get dirty again only resulted to me doing my AND my entire family’s laundry that weekend. Incidentally, Richard II, another Plantagenet, had a different view on cutlery and required everyone in his court to use spoons in particular. Another bit of geeky trivia, Richard II was the first English king to use a handkerchief to clean his majesty’s nose.

Becket: England is a ship. The king is the captain of the ship.

Henry: That’s neat! I like that.

This one, I think, needs you to actually see how O’Toole’s face lights up when he says his line to fully appreciate it. It still sounds neat by itself though. Just imagine a medieval king mostly interested in battle saying “neat” when you show him your new iPad. Sucky example, I know.

Henry: I am suddenly very intelligent! Probably because of making love to that French girl last night. I’m subtle. I’m even profound. Oh, I’m so profound it’s making my head spin!

Probably one of the best things I like about the film’s idea of Henry II is that he constantly thinks himself an idiot. While I can’t really see any of the medieval monarchs admitting their own shortcomings, I find it hard to ignore the possibility that they might really have talked like this. Well, in French or Latin, anyway. It’s just so human.

And finally, we have this one line from Henry II’s mother who reinforces an idea that will inevitably pop up in viewer’s heads while watching the film:

Empress Matilda: You have an obsession about him that is unhealthy and unnatural!

Unhealthy indeed. Poor Thomas Becket was assassinated in Canterbury Cathedral AND voted the second worst Brit on BBC’s poll after Jack the Ripper.

Now isn’t that just neat.