A Tale of Two Thomases: Wolf Hall vs. A Man for All Seasons

It’s 1535. The prison is shrouded in deep shadow; only a thin white light illumines the fierce human drama taking place within its stone walls. Weak from long imprisonment, Sir Thomas More gazes fixedly at his cruel-faced inquisitor, Thomas Cromwell. They’re sizing each other up, pondering, deliberating, performing a dozen separate mental calculations. It's a meeting of great political minds, and neither will cave.

Fiction is like a mirror of society. If we are to know what a generation feels, we must look at its stories, its narratives, its fantasies. And it's difficult to think of a better example than the way the story of Thomas More and Thomas Cromwell has evolved over the years.

Within the last half-century, both have been the subject of wildly popular biopics. The first, 1966 film A Man for All Seasons, scooped up six Oscars and five BAFTAs. The other, 2014 miniseries Wolf Hall (based on the novel by Hilary Mantel), arrived amidst a flurry of critical applause, and will probably accomplish similar feats once awards season rolls around. Obviously, there's something about these two historical figures that captivates us.

Thor: The Dark World - Review

Source

In the beginning, there was darkness. 

Okay. A bit sketchy theologically, but I’ll buy it. 

And the darkness had no personality. Or character arc.

In short, it did not work as a bad guy.

First time I saw it, I didn’t like the prievious Thor movie. Then I grew up, watched it again, and thought, “Hey, this is a good movie. This transcends superhero movies.”

It had a number of things in its favor.

1. It was directed by Kenneth Branagh.

2. To offset its necessarily over-solemn Norse god feel, we spent a lot of time in a small town interacting with ordinary people. Utilizing this idea to far more effect than Iron Man 3, this link to the commonplace grounded the film firmly on, ha ha, Planet Earth. It didn’t take itself too seriously. Thor the god of thunder was spotted in a T-shirt. Thor the movie could’ve been corny as all get-out. Instead it was amusing, moving, and possibly even a little deep (for a superhero movie.) 

ABC says: The Tea Party's Fault, Yet Again.

I usually try not to let the leftist media have the honor of obtaining my disgust - they're just not worth the time. But like Scott Ott, this latest unjustifiable slander pushes me close to the edge. They've started to say that the Tea Party was behind the Batman Shootings. Talk about disgusting.

Here's the Trifecta video:

That's the video, but if you don't have time to watch it, here are the best quotes:

"I never wondered if [the shooter] were a Democrat, or a Republican, or a Communist, or a Libertarian, because it doesn't matter! Because there were seventy people with holes in their bodies that were whole a couple of days ago, and there are people who have lost family members. And when you people in the obsolete media stop thinking about everything that happens as a political circus then perhaps you'll recover some of your humanity and then quit the profession and go do something worthwhile with your lives."
-Scott Ott

Longish