A Man for All Seasons (1988 film)

A Man for All Seasons is a 1988 television movie about St. Thomas More, directed by and starring Charlton Heston. It is based on the play of the same name by Robert Bolt, which was previously adapted in the Academy Award-winning 1966 film. A Man for All Seasons was the first made-for-TV film produced on behalf of the TNT (Turner Network Television) television network.

Contents

• A man for all seasons
• Cast
• References

The film stars Heston as More, Vanessa Redgrave (who had a small cameo in the 1966 version) as his wife Alice More, Sir John Gielgud as Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Martin Chamberlain as King Henry VIII, Richard Johnson as the Duke of Norfolk (historically, Thomas Howard, 3rd 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 adaptation of the play remains more faithful to the original stage version than the 1966 film, extending the runtime by thirty minutes and preserving the "stagy" essence of the source material. Unlike the earlier adaptation, which fragmented the role of the Common Man into multiple characters for a more realistic portrayal and excluded certain parts of the play, the 1988 film strives for a direct translation of the theatrical experience to the screen.