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Christopher Foeckler, Sr.'s avatar

I'm not so sure about this analysis. I think the duty to honor the king, rooted in the fourth commandments is underappreciated here and possibly in the play - but not by More the man.

While the full-throated principled stand certainly has precedent (see John Fisher's handling of the situation), More's recognition of man's law as a participation in natural and therefore God's law is quite possibly a plausible explanation for his course of action.

Aquinas' opinions on the grounds for rebelling (narrow to none) would certainly be familiar to More, and should be considered in the background to his approach to Henry

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Drew Royals's avatar

Respectfully, disagree.

One man’s “Bastardization” is another man’s Lionization.

The truth here, likely, favors the latter. Bolt’s More is not a Saint, yet.

I had the privilege of playing the role of More in a production in my last year of college.

The director was very helpful, “This is not ‘The Lives of the Saints.’” His reason:

Hagiography does not make compelling theater/moviegoing.

Everybody already knows that the real More is a Saint. The challenge for the play/screenwriter is to portray the Saint as a compelling character. Hence, for Bolt’s play, the device of the driving character of the Everyman, which is absent and subsumed into Schofield’s More.

The “crisis of conscience” and “running from the Law”, on the other hand, makes for great drama. The genius of Bolt is how easy it is to relate to More. Bolt spends Two-hours getting everybody onto the side of the Chancellor of the Realm over what in fact was an obscure matter of Law and controversial religious Dogma.

I’ll accept that Bolt’s More is something of a convenient simplification of the man. But this popularization helps—not hinders—as it alerts folks to the gravity of the real need to form one’s conscience to accord with the Truth. This in fact does more honor to the Saint. That everyone can do their part, by forming well their own consciences, to imitate him.

Malick’s Jägerstätter is similar. Jägerstätter in real life, was far more evangelical and far less conflicted. But that grace is rare. Instead Malick masterfully portrays a universally accessible ‘crisis of conscience’ and as a result introduces millions of people to the Cross.

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