It's funny you should say that because, according to historical facts, one of King Henry's barons plunged his sword into Becket's skull, not behind his upper back, as it shows in this classic. Here is a detailed account of the actual event of the death of Becket that took place in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170 from Wikipedia. It's not a pleasant read I have to admit :-( The impious knight suddenly set upon him and [shaved] off the summit of his crown which the sacred chrism consecrated to God. Then, with another blow received on the head, he remained firm. But with the third, the stricken martyr bent his knees and elbows, offering himself as a living sacrifice, saying in a low voice, "For the name of Jesus and the protection of the church, I am ready to embrace death." But the third knight inflicted a grave wound on the fallen one; with this blow, his crown, which was large, separated from his head so that the blood turned white from the brain, yet no less did the brain turn red from the blood; it purpled the appearance of the church. The fifth, not a knight but a cleric who had entered with the knights, placed his foot on the neck of the holy priest and precious martyr and (it is horrible to say) scattered the brains with the blood across the floor, exclaiming to the rest, "We can leave this place, knights, he will not get up again." WOW!!!! What a way to die for God, Jesus, and Holy Mother Church.

@@isabelbeckerman9226 Not only that, the knights also left their swords under a tree outside at first. They demanded Becket come with them to Winchester to answer for his acts of excommunicating his opponents (the latest batch of excommunications having been performed on Christmas Day, only four days prior), Becket refused, the knights left the cathedral. Monks attempted to bolt the doors, but Becket stopped them, declaring that the House of God shall not be made into a fortress. The knights burst in, yelling something along the lines of "Where is Thomas Becket, Traitor to King and Country!?", after they found him Becket merely countered that he was no traitor. One knight attempted to grab him and drag him out, Becket grabbed on to a pillar and bowed his head, then the murder happened.

He has heard us!

Pagan heathen! Worshipping idols !

@@Jorn41 stupid Athiest/Agonistic butthurt

@@Jorn41 Your KJV translation is a fruit of your reformers ego. The day you left the Apostolic Church is the day you started carrying the flag of Satan.

@@Jorn41 No idols in here buddy, please do some research before saying we worship anything other than the Almighty. I hope you are educated on this stuff soon!

Actually an old-fashioned way of acting, stilted and unrealistic. Film actors have come a long way since then.

​@@smkh2890What exactly is realistic about acting? The hint is in the name. It's a medium that resembles reality, but it's just a representation. This film is quite theatrical, but even so called 'reslistic' acting is highly fabricated with multiple takes, dialogue and everything else in-between is false.

@@hunterluxton5976 Mainly the stiltedness of British actors of an earlier generation is due to the being trained on the stage, and doing Shakespeare! Without going meta, it is a style of acting, like 'method' acting in fifties America, that soon seems dated.

@@smkh2890 Yes ... if only Burton and O'Toole could be as realistic as Ryan Reynolds and Ben Afleck.

@@alanodwyer2203 The really good actors don't draw attention to themselves, they seem so natural and fitting the emotions of the scene. I like Branagh a lot, but even he can be mannered because he trained on the stage.

🤣🤣🤣

It lives as memorial to a great saint of the Catholic Church. Saint Thomas a Beckett, pray for us.

And it rang off the tongue so beautifully as he begins the Chant of the Divine Office. Exceptional screenwriting!

Amen

Where's the bit where Becket sends his "Broadsword to Danny Boy" message?

He could have been a saint.

I believe He is

But there are plenty of priests and acolytes who can -- and ex-priests and ex-Catholics who can do it quite well, for the amusement of others.

I expect its his Welsh upbringing.

The life and times of tony Blair and Emma Harrison and dianne abbot is a script within itself. It's not even French farce

Watch this and A Man For All Seasons- acting clinics!

We must all do our penance.

@@jeffreyjeziorski1480 Thomas Becket as the Archbishop of Canterbury served at the discretionary power of the King Henry II. The reigning Monarch was the Head of State. Therefore he had discretionary enumerated Constitutional powers to determine the fate of Thomas Becket.

@@seanburns4168 .....I was quoting from the movie after Henry (Peter O'toole) received his lashes and he spoke to his cadre of murderers, preparing to throw them under the bus(as it were). I meant to put it in "quotes"....

@@jeffreyjeziorski1480that would have been a good idea? Lol

@@seanburns4168 air quotes worked well for Dr Evil. "Laser". "Magma".

I'm not sure whether Henry really intended THAT! First of all - they came into the church but wanted to arrest him and at first they actually went into unarmed - only when he refused (they hadn't any royal order or even any "write" afterall! - they were just 4 knights and their servants) - only then they decided to "arrest" him, although...on what "authority" are you gonna arrest not just a simple "cleric" but an Archbishop?? MORE! - the Archbishop of Canterbury!? I think Beckett must have asked them something like: "...WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU??", which must have pissed them off! Henry didn't give them any orders to do that! I don't think the 4 or 5 DRUNKEN MORONS that went into that Church thought it through! ... Beckett and Henry were friends for a long years, afterall...

@Hurricane Polk I think it's worth considering that perhaps Henry may have ordered the death of Becket. It's definitely not outside the realms of possibility that the Royal household quickly realised how large of a mistake they'd made and put out a lie and a false story that's lasted almost 1000 years. The relationship between Royalty and Religion was still in infancy in the 12th century - it's not unreasonable to suggest that Henry was nowhere expecting the backlash he received upon Becket's death and that it was imperical to him to put out the fire. Blaming 4 Knights and putting it down to pure miscommunication seems a fairly unlikely story to me - any competent knight of that time would have known you can't just go and kill an archbishop without consent from the King (let alone 4 of them).

Yeah Henry did not mean to kill him

@John M what they considered to be bad language and what you do are two very different things.

Henry II had Thomas Beckett. Henry VIII had Thomas More.

Yes, they sliced the top of his headoff like an egg so you could see his brains.

History is always far more accurate the further away from Hollywood…

It would be hard to depict this death accurately even today without getting an NC-17. Brains and blood everywhere.

Didn’t they split his head open and scatter his brain all over the floor?

@@spc1689 yes

Message received Broadaward. All sins forgiven. Mind the step.

Notes on 11th century British personal hygiene: after Becket was killed and his body began to cool, a huge procession of **LICE** began to march away from his corpse. Their constant biting must have been worse than any possible hair-shirt. (Needless to say, bathing was "rather infrequent", even for royalty, during those primitive times...)

@@CLASSICALFAN100 Actually had mites and lice sometimes crawling out of eye lids......we cannot comprehend those people long ago what smells and dirt they had in them and around them!!!.....truly.....

I thought the top of his head was lopped off.

@@princessofthecape2078 I can't find the bit in the movie, where Becket fights two of the knights on a cable car.

​@@CLASSICALFAN100Am calling bullshit on that. Source?

micjosisa--Up until the late 1960s, church doors--especially Roman Catholic church doors--were NEVER locked. One could enter to pray at any hour. There were, up to that time,at least three priests and a deacon in just about every parish. The deacon and the youngest priest cared for the spiritual needs of the youth. The middle aged priest counseled the married and middle aged. The elderly priest tended to the aged of the flock. In some parishes there was a retired priest who took over the masses of priests on vacation or who were ill. I remember watching the priests walk around the outer perimeter of the parish garden in their cassocks with their breviaries, reciting prayers. There were usually convents attached to the parish and nuns were always in and out of the church, sometimes comforting and praying with people. There was also a parish parochial school and a parish hall. Then, in the late 1960s, things began to change. Parishes grew smaller; convents closed; fewer priests were ordained and schools shut down. Churches were vandalized, altars desecrated, sacred objects stolen. Church doors began to be locked.

Where you asking a question? “Who bolts the doors during vespers!” [sic] should have a question mark (?) Not an exclamation mark (!)

@@onemercilessming1342 You can thank Vatican II and the advance of Liberalism for all the changes.

@@robertwilliamson6121 Oh ye of little education; it was a rhetorical question, and a rhetorical question maybe punctuated by a question mark, full stop, or exclamation mark at the writer's discretion, depending on his intent.

I just cannot see him as the Uber masculine Henry II. I love him, don’t get me wrong, but I think he’s just too foppish for the part. I always thought Burton should have played him, switched parts.

@@mangot589 have you seen The Lion in Winter?

CLASSICALFAN .100 x Thomas Beckett to Henry II was Thomas More to Henry VIII

Well you can tell that story about anyone, though. I see no need to invent a fictional story around Thomas Becket ("Saxon"? Really?), but it has a dramatic stabbing ending, so there's that, I guess. It's not just the decorations that are wrong. It's everything, beyond being about two egomaniacs with one of them getting stabbed at the end.

True. I prefer an ending where Brian and Stewie arrive in the nick of time and turn the tables.

kzfaq.info/get/bejne/pbechMiYxrq4Z6s.html

Now I was not there, but it looks like a post Henrician Church.

You know, reformation happend meanwhile, lots of iconoclasm.

Maybe more stuff made of Gold??

The re-creation of Canterbury Cathedral, built on Shepperton's Stage H and designed by John Bryan, was the largest single interior set built in Europe up to that time.

It had felt decorations with gumbie saints, rainbows , and big ❤️ s

As with this medieval Henry, we might as well said 'poor Henry' too for the early modern Henry. His desire to continue his dynasty eventually came to nothing, since his son died without any issue and so too his daughter Elizabeth I. To this end, I think he is one of the English monarchs whose reputations are not as good, though he founded today's Britain's national religion...

@@michaeljasonsaputra19991121 You have confused Henry I with Henry II. It was Henry II who got Becket killed, while it was his grandfather Henry I who was succeeded (rather controversially) by his daughter Matilda. Henry II is the progenitor of the Plantaganet dynasty which ruled England untill Henry VII came.

That was particularly mean-spirited of Henry VIII, but he was a mean-spirited sort of man.

despicable, disgusting, destructive Henry VIII. He was deplorable and irredeemable.

@@michaeljasonsaputra19991121 Henry II murdered St. Thomas Becket. Henry VIII murdered Cardinal St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More. He was cruel to his only real wife, Queen Catherine. He was cruel to his only legitimate daughter, Princess Mary. He was responsible for the death of some 60 or 70 thousand of his subjects. He outlawed the Church founded on the Rock of St. Peter. He started a new "religion" founded on his gonads. His illegitimate daughter Elizabeth killed a few hundred Catholics including a number of priests like St. Edmund Campion. But Queen Mary is called bloody by the protestant victors who wrote the history.

Why ?

@@robertwilliamson6121 read the history

@@duke3296 Oh.... I see. When he was murdered, a couple monks started pulling bell ropes. Thank you.

He wasn't a trained fighter.

Vinnie Ger--Now you have. Actually, I think he was going to use the crosier to block the blade, but lacked strength and experience.

One MercilessMing yea I get that. It’s just pretty funny either way.

Vinne Ger--I recommend a scene out of one of the Star Trek original movies. Kirk (William Shatner) is trying to get to someone (if I recall, it is Spock as he's dying) and it takes about four actors to hold him back--including the one who is blocking Kirk's (Shatner's) way, but he's hunkered down so that he doesn't get in the way of Shatner's close up. Now, THAT's funny.

@@onemercilessming1342I’m sorry bro. I can’t find the scene. What’s the movie. I’ll watch the whole thing just so I can find it.

Domine, ad adjuvandum me festina.

I think they had a choice

@@DanBeech-ht7sw They had been given instructions, that if Becket refused to come with them to see the King, they were to murder him in the church.. So they didn't have a choice other than to kill him after he refused. They probably did it in brutal fashion, because Beckett mocked them and didn't take them seriously.

@@halloweenville1 there's always a choice. Don't get me wrong, beckett was standing up for a"principle" that was no principle at all, and he shouldn't have been defending benefit of clergy. But the assassins really didn't have to do anything at all. They didn't have specific instructions., they were doing what they THOUGHT Henry wanted.

@@DanBeech-ht7sw Brilliant, if that's what you believe, that's up to you, i am not here to change it. Have a good day.

@@halloweenville1 you have it the wrong way round. I'm not attempting to convince you about historically accurate facts.

Also lets be honest, I don't think many films back then would depict Becket's skull being cracked open and his brains leaking on the cathedral floor.

@@mattjcole908 They just weren't as much fun as today. They were all about drama and dialogue. How can that compete with blood and brain tissue? 😉😊👏

@@Xfranman I'm genuinely wanting to seek this film out and watch it. Just this scene alone has totally sold me. Currently studying Beckets tomb and material aspects of religion as part of my current degree module and I'm fascinated to finding out more about the man.

@@mattjcole908 I cannot attest to the historical accuracy. Like most Hollywood films this is heightened for entertainment value. But O'Toole and Burton are brilliant and the dialogue is superb. As a visually compelling dramatic presentation it is just a pure delight to watch. And of course its most famous line: "Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?".😊 (PS: Those kids are adorable 😉)

@@Xfranman yes I did think I'd probably have to take the historical content with a few grains of salt 😂 never the less this module has really opened up my eyes to art and history in a way I never thought possible. I will enjoy this film as a piece of entertainment but continue to seek and read the historic facts. Ps luckily my kids take after their mum 😂

Remember, this was filmed 'way back in 1964. (The Baby Boomer generation were mostly still in high school.) Movie audiences weren't to be "treated" to explicit sex & violence until a few years later, with Rosemary's Baby (1968), Fellini Satyricon (1969), A Clockwork Orange (1971) and The Exorcist (1973). It ain't been the same since...

@@CLASSICALFAN100 kzfaq.info/get/bejne/pbechMiYxrq4Z6s.html

“...kicked his brains across the floor.” That must have hurt. Your brain would get bruised from being kicked around. And dirty too. Imagine getting dirt on your brain from the cold floor.

I wonder if the stones on the cathedral floor around his Martyrdom site are the same as back then?

@@royalhero4608 only Tony Blair knows let's ask him

What?

Actually, the monks were chanting the antiphon "Rex pacificus, magnificatus est", the first Antiphon for the 1st Vespers of Christmas. Then they chanted the psalm "Dixit Dominus Domino Meo, sede ad dextris Meis etc".

Fabrizio Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto.

@@benwhitworth8881 Sicut Erat in Principio et Nunc et semper et in secula seculorum

Also todays "historical" movies add all kinds of ridiculous politically correct leftist nonsense.... they would make Beckett a black, transexual dwarf and King Henry would be a cross dressing vegan woman.

This death scene is wholy inaccurate according to historical records.

Well. Did they? Or was the story embellished a little to fast track him to canonisation?

Say it again!

Also Henry II wasn't Norman, he was Angevin. I don;t think the Saxon-Norman divide really meant that much to most people by this time, it had been over a century since the conquest, and all high-born people of that age were more like an international clique than anything else. The fact that they were nobles and the peasants were peasants was more important than the language they spoke.

It's not immensely popular.

Maybe St Thomas à Becket interceded to keep Burton out of hell!

@@wandaperi Anyone who believes our Creator damns any of His beloved children needs to upsize their deity.

It fell into a plot hole.

Henry VIII had his bones destroyed, otherwise you could still visit him.

He definitely did exist, sometimes called Thomas à Beckett

You can still visit the site of his martyrdom in Canterbury Cathedral. Although the shrine that once stood there is gone, under the order of Henry VIII, it is my understanding that there is a small marker and a candle there. And there are some churches in Europe where his relics are in the reliquaries of alters, and recorded in those churches' records. See, for example: www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2017-12/relics-of-st-thomas-becket-discovered-in-italy.html

"There is no mention of him in Cambridge Encyclopedia of History." See: exhibitions.lib.cam.ac.uk/reformation/artifacts/the-destroyed-shrine-of-st-thomas-becket/