The tape version| if one exists| may be 114 minutes but the film| on original release| ran the same 140 minutes in the USA as it did in England. It is an
experimental transposition of the Eliot play to the screen and| as such| and Eliot a poet| the film deals more with sound and meaning than it does film movement|
i.e.| static shots with voice overs. It is the story of Thomas Becket| Archbishop of Canterbury| and his struggles against temptation and personal vanity prior to
his murder in the great Cathedral.