Becket (1964)

Richard Burton: Becket, Thomas Becket

Photos 

Quotes 

• Thomas a Becket : Tonight you can do me the honor of christening my forks.

  King Henry II : Forks?

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

  King Henry II : But then you dirty the fork.

  Thomas a Becket : Yes, but it's washable.

  King Henry II : So are your fingers. I don't see the point.

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

  Thomas a Becket : I think so; I recall, you pointed a finger and said, "Thomas Becket, you are noble." The Queen and your mother became very agitated.

• Thomas a Becket : [returning the Lord Chancellor's ring]  Forgive me.

  King Henry II : You give the lions of England back to me like a little boy who doesn't want to play anymore. I would have gone to war with all England's might behind me, and even against England's interests, to defend you, Thomas. I would have given away my life laughingly for you. Only I loved you and you didn't love me. That's the difference.

• Baron : Becket! You are a liar. You are a traitor!

  [draws his sword on Becket] 

  Thomas a Becket : Sheathe your sword, Morville, before you impale your soul upon it!

• Thomas a Becket : Oh Lord, how heavy thy honor is to bear.

• King Henry II : Am I the strongest or am I not?

  Thomas a Becket : You are today, but one must never drive one's enemy to despair; it makes him strong. Gentleness is better politics, it saps virility. A good occupational force must never crush. It must corrupt.

• Thomas a Becket : Nobility lies in the man, my prince, not in the towel.

• Thomas a Becket : [chanting]  Deus, in adjutorium meum intende.

  ["O God, come to my assistance."] 

• Thomas a Becket : God rest his soul.

  King Henry II : He will, He will. He'll be much more use to God than he ever was to me.

• King Henry II : Are you mad? You're Chancellor of England; you're mine!

  Thomas a Becket : I am also the Archbishop, and you have introduced me to deeper obligations.

• Thomas a Becket : Lord Gilbert, Baron of England by the grace of his majesty, King Henry II, seized upon the person of a priest of the Holy Church and unlawfully did hold him in custody. Furthermore, in the presence of Lord Gilbert, and by his command, his men seized upon this priest when he tried to escape and put him to death. This is the sin of murder and sacrilege. In that Lord Gilbert has rendered no act of contrition or repentance, and is at the moment, at liberty in the land, we do, here and now, separate him from the precious body and blood of Christ, and from the society of all Christians. We exclude him from our Holy Mother Church and all her sacraments, in heaven, or on Earth. We declare him excommunicate and anathema. We cast him into the outer darkness. We judge him damned with the devil and his fallen angels and all the reprobate, to eternal fire and everlasting pain!

  [slams candle to the ground] 

  Monks : [chanting]  So be it.

• Thomas a Becket : Yes, we have soldiers disguised in the crowd to encourage enthusiasm.

  King Henry II : Why must you destroy all my illusions?

  Thomas a Becket : Because you should have none, My Prince.

• Thomas a Becket : [Looking on in reverence at the Holy Crucifix]  I wonder Lord, are you laughing at me.

• Thomas a Becket : It is here now, the supreme folly, this is its hour.

• King Henry II : [Thomas comes to Henry's bedchamber to find the King nursing a hangover]  French wine. I had a little too much last night.

  Thomas a Becket : It's their major contribution to civilization.

  King Henry II : Here's another.

  [he pulls back the blankets to reveal a naked young woman] 

• Brother Philip : Your Grace, there are armed men at the doors. I bolted the doors, but...

  Thomas a Becket : It's time for Vespers. Does one bolt the doors during Vespers? I've never heard of it.

  Brother Philip : But, your Grace...

  Thomas a Becket : Open them. Everything must be as it should be for divine service.

• Thomas a Becket : Honor is a private matter within; it's an idea, and every man has his own version of it.

  King Henry II : How gracefully you tell your king to mind his own business.

• King Henry II : So what in most people is morality, in you it's just an exercise in... what's the word?

  Thomas a Becket : Aesthetics.

  King Henry II : Yes, that's the word. Always "aesthetics."

• Brother John : I don't mind if I am just a grain of sand in a machine. Because I know by putting more and more grains of sand in a machine, one day it'll come grinding to a stop.

  Thomas a Becket : And on that day - what then?

  Brother John : Well, we'll have a fine, new, well-oiled machine in the place of the old one. And this time we'll put the Normans into it instead. That's what justice means, doesn't it?

• Thomas a Becket : We must manage the church. One can always come to a sensible little arrangement with God.

  King Henry II : Becket, you are a monster.

  Thomas a Becket : You flatter me, My Lord.

• Thomas a Becket : [bleeding from a cut on his hand from an attacking peasant]  My horse bit me.

  King Henry II : Hahaha! It's too funny! My lord here makes us all look silly at the jousts with his fancy horsemanship, he goes to his saddlebags, and gets bitten like a groom. You look quite shaken, little Saxon. Funny, I can't bear the thought of you in pain. All this, just to get me a drink?

• Thomas a Becket : There, Lord - I'm ready: adorned for Your festivities.

• Thomas a Becket : We are both aware of the delicacy of my position. Let us trust that God will find a solution for it.

• Thomas a Becket : One does not carry arms into God's house. What do you want?

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

  King Henry II : That's neat. I like that.

• Brother John : You betrayed your Saxon race, now you betray God.

  Thomas a Becket : Perhaps you will succeed in teaching me humility, it's a virtue I've never really mastered.

• Thomas a Becket : My Lord Jesus, I find it difficult to talk to you. What can I say, I who have turned away from you so often with indifference? I have been a stranger to prayer, undeserving of your friendship and your love. I've been without honor and feel unworthy. I am a weak and shallow creature, clever only in the second-rate and worldly arts, seeking my comfort and pleasure. I gave my love, such as it was, elsewhere, putting service to my earthly king before my duty to you. But now, they have made me the shepherd of your flock and guardian of your church. Please, Lord, teach me now how to serve you with all my heart, to know at last what it really is to love, to adore, so that I worthily administer your kingdom here upon earth and find my true honor in observing your divine will. Please, Lord, make me worthy.

• Thomas a Becket : Don't do this!

• King Louis VII of France : Why does he hate you so?

  Thomas a Becket : He's never forgiven me for preferring God to him.