Review – Becket

Richard Burton and Peter O’Toole star in this historical drama about the relationship between King Henry II and Thomas a Becket. The period pageantry is fun, and both lead actors are at their scenery-chewing finest. But like Single White Female, this is a dishonest treatment of homosexuality. Though of course the movie isn’t free to openly acknowledge it, the lead characters are portrayed as obviously gay. So when Becket abandons the King in favor of God, Henry’s reaction is pure jilted lover. His psychotic rages and eventual death sentence for his ex-friend are the product of his perverted sexuality, though again this is implied rather than explicitly stated. If that aspect of the drama had been downplayed – or better yet eliminated altogether – this would have been a more enjoyable movie. Mildly amusing