Hello friend, I recently wrote a Quora answer to the question:
What is the greatest single image in movie history?
The answer did very well, amassing over 27,000 views, getting 273 upvotes, and 4 shares. It proved so helpful; I thought I’d share it in this post.
Here is the exact breakdown I shared that resonated with thousands of people:
The scene at the end of the film A Man for All Seasons, when Saint Thomas More is about to be beheaded.
If you don’t know the story of Saint Thomas More, he was the chancellor of England during Henry the Eighth’s reign, but because Henry’s wife Catherine of Aragon didn’t bear him a male heir (to be future ruler) he wanted a divorce, and Saint Thomas More did not give his approval for him to divorce because it was against the teachings of the Catholic church and thus against what he believed in.
Henry the Eighth tried to convince Saint Thomas More to give him his approval regarding Henry marrying Anne Boleyn, but he never did. This brought about the church of England, where King Henry wanted to be recognised as the supreme ruler of the Church of England.
Thomas would not approve of King Henry marrying Anne Boleyn, nor did Thomas see Henry as the head of the church. And it ultimately cost Saint Thomas More his life because Henry the Eighth had him beheaded on charges of treason based on false testimony by Richard Rich.
Richard Rich told lies that Thomas spoke against King Henry’s supremacy as ruler, which was the final nail in the coffin of Thomas’s beheading. Richard Rich became the attorney general of Wales for telling this lie. He really did gain Wales, but sold his soul by doing so.
In the picture at the start of this post comes at the end of the film, where Thomas forgives his executioner for what he’s about to do (behead him), then Thomas makes the sign of the cross, and the executioner does his deed.
What we can learn from Saint Thomas More
I’ve only recently learned about Saint Thomas ever since my local parish priest told me to watch A Man for All Seasons. And he’s quickly become one of my heroes. What I admire about Thomas is that he had values that he stood for that were steeped in the Catholic faith, and he had the courage to stick to those values even though it cost him his life.
If you watch the film, you’ll notice that Thomas had many chances to bow down to King Henry, but he knew that doing so would have gained him the world, but he would have lost his soul.
Saint Thomas was willing to die before he would sell his soul.
What values are you willing to die for?
Final thoughts
Final thoughts
What I admired most about Saint Thomas was his ability to stick to his guns when he had every reason not to. He was a stubborn man, and he stuck to his guns till the very end. Humans are very fickle, so when I first heard about Saint Thomas’ story, it made me realise “yes, humans are fickle, but we don’t need to be, we can stand for something if we choose to.”
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