Movie Quote of the Day (“Becket,” on the “Supreme Irony” of His Life)

“It is a supreme irony that the worldly Becket, a profligate and libertine, could find himself standing here at this moment. But here he is, in spite of himself. The king, for good or ill, chose to pass the burden of the church on to me, and now I must carry it. I’ve rolled up my sleeves and taken the church on my back. Nothing will ever make me set it down again.”—Archbishop Thomas a Becket (played by Richard Burton), on his unexpected appointment to his post by friend (later enemy) King Henry II, in Becket (1964), directed by Peter Glanville, screenplay by Edward Anhalt, based on the play by Jean Anouilh