The Saturday night movie was A Man for All Seasons  (1966).  I did a little research on this one, since it’s a historical, mostly-accurate story of Sir Thomas More, a religious cleric in the court of King Henry VIII.  Seems the king wants him to betray his conscience and swear an oath regarding the divorce issue;  Sir Thomas is very careful to not condemn the king, but he won’t support him or swear the damn oath.  There’s a lot of philosophical dialogue about integrity, doing the right thing.  He gets put in prison, still won’t sign;  finally he is beheaded.    The movie follows the play, in that there is narration by The Common Man, who also plays several roles from valet to executioner.  It is a smart play and a smart movie;  I had to pay attention.    I don’t think the whole thing was worth dying for, but his arguments were eloquent.  Paul Scofield played Sir Thomas and I think his performance went far to keeping me interested.

This morning I cleaned house while watching Oliver!  (1968).  I skipped over the 1967 winner, “In the Heat of the Night” because I knew that Casey wanted to watch it with me.   I figured Oliver! would be finished by the time Casey got home, but he arrived in time for the last parts.  I actually saw this at the theatre and it’s a good show.  That’s been 4 musicals that won Best Picture in the 60’s and the next time one wins is 2002 (Chicago).

Right now we’re taking a break to watch the Inauguration festivities….