“When legendary drinking buddies Burton and O'Toole get together for their verbal duels,
THE KING'S ENGLISH FLOWS IN GREAT, SONOROUS QUANTITIES.”
– Dave Kehr, NY Times (January 26, 2007)

“A FILM TO BE CHERISHED!
Retains a certain dignity that transcends its period.”
– James Bowman, NY Sun (January 26, 2007)

[four stars]
A STUNNING FILM... superbly acted and magnificently photographed on location.”
– Leonard Maltin

"Burton doesn’t overdo the verbal pyrotechnics: he gives the impression of energy held in check. O’Toole, on the other hand, lets everything hang out in prodigious display. He manages to convey what Henry never quite acknowledges in the script, even when his mother calls him “unnatural”: that his character’s attachment to Becket is, in part, homosexual. O’Toole’s Henry isn’t afraid to appear ludicrous. He has the strength of a self-made king—a strength momentarily shattered by Becket’s conversion. More than the assassins’ swords at the climax, it’s Henry’s desperate cries of love for his ex-friend that cut you to the quick."
– Michael Sragow, The New Yorker (January 22, 2007)

“BURTON AND O'TOOLE'S PERFORMANCES ARE THRILLING! O'Toole (in his first role after Lawrence of Arabia) created another revolutionary masculine portrait that has yet to receive its due... In this era of stunt performances, Becket resurrects the artistry of acting. Charlize Theron, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ryan Gosling, Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench had better get in line at Film Forum and learn something.”
– Armond White, New York Press (January 24, 2007)

“Arrives as that rarest of movies—a costume drama with content and character. Stands as a beautiful film, marked by the volatility versus immutability of the O’Toole and Burton performances, the sheer delight of language as it is spoken by them and Gielgud and the fascination of its characters and content.”
– NY Herald Tribune

(1964, PETER GLENVILLE) “Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?” In 12th century England, King Henry II decides to clear up that pesky church/state problem once and for all by making his trusted adviser, Lord Chancellor Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury—big mistake! Jean Anouilh’s stage classic, at the time a smash on the stages of Paris, London, and New York, provided the jumping-off point for the acting pyrotechnics of two legendary stars then at their hottest: the King was Peter O’Toole’s first role post-Lawrence of Arabia, and arguably an even greater performance; while Cleopatra had preemed only a year before Richard Burton’s title role, with the dueling tours de force backed by a superlative cast that included Sir John Gielgud as the French King Louis VII and O’Toole’s then-wife Siân Phillips (I, Claudius). Transcending its stage origins, Becket — while adapted almost intact — benefited from opening out to crisp locations and striking sets, most notably the massive cathedral, with Burton’s electrifying scene of excommunication the major addition to the text. Long unseen, this is its first theatrical release in decades. Nominated for twelve Academy Awards, including Picture, Director, Actor (for both stars), Supporting Actor (Gielgud), Cinematography (Geoffrey Unsworth), Art Direction (John Bryan) and Score (Laurence Rosenthal), winning for Edward Anhalt’s Best Adapted Screenplay. “Becket follows the trail of the ‘intellectual’ spectacular blazed by Lawrence of Arabia. But here the spectacle is derived from an era and an atmosphere and the detailed study of two men of opposite historic destiny... Director Peter Glenville has brought a physical scope that the stage could never supply in his sweeping scenes of the countryside, the awesome beauty of medieval architecture, the full-dress complexities of the age.” – Judith Crist, New York Herald Tribune. This stunning new 35mm color & Scope print was restored by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences, with funding from Martin Scorsese's Film Foundation."
A SLOWHAND CINEMA RELEASE.
2:00, 5:20, 8:10

Official Website

RESTORED BY THE ACADEMY FILM ARCHIVE
RESTORATION FUNDING PROVIDED BY THE FILM FOUNDATION