Man for all seasons, particularly this one
IN HIS article on the late Paul Scofield, Mark Feeney is probably correct when he writes that the 1966 film "A Man for All Seasons" has "too much talk." Today's audience, with its limited attention, wouldn't tolerate the extensive, ideology-driven dialogue (" 'A Man for All Seasons' was an actor for all roles," Living/Arts, March 21). But I would disagree when he writes, "It's not a movie that's aged all that well." When the character William Roper complains that Thomas More, the Lord Chancellor (played by Scofield), should not give his enemy, be it the devil himself, the protection of the law, More replies: "What would you do, cut a great road through the law to get after the devil? . . . And when the last law was down, and the devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country's planted thick with laws from coast to coast . . . and if you cut them down, . . . do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then?"
In this time of signing statements, illegal surveillance, and waterboarding, these words are just as relevant as when they were first written. George Bush and his administration would do well to rent the DVD.
HARRY BARTNICK, Beverly 