Becket is one of those historical movies created more for entertaining audiences than for being accurate. In the movie, Henry’s mother is alive; in history, she’s dead. In the movie, he has three children; in reality, it was eight. In the movie, the wife says she will return to her father; in reality, he’s been dead for some years. In the movie, both women torment him; in reality, he relied on their counsel. And perhaps the most glaring inaccuracy is portraying Becket as a Saxon when he was, in reality, a Norman. But film writers were never ones to adhere to facts when a good rewrite would create drama to intrigue audiences, who probably forgot all their history lessons and now hear the name Becket only in plays and dramas. And audiences came to the theater because two of the best actors of the day are the leads and all the talented filmmaking professionals are doing their best to make Becket an award winner. Both Peter O’Toole and Richard Burton give tremendous performances. But it is the ever-talented, history-revising writers who would walk away with the statue.
Received an Academy Award out of eleven nominations.
