This week’s pick is the 1970 British epic Cromwell which stars veteran actor Richard Harris as the man who led Parliamentary forces to victory during The English Civil War. The film also stars Sir Alec Guinness (King Charles I), Robert Morley (The Earl of Manchester), Timothy Dalton (Prince Rupert), Patrick Wymark (The Earl of Stafford), and Michael Jayston (Henry Ireton).
After years of unjust and unacceptable policies during the mid 1600’s, many members of the dissolved Parliament feel that King Charles I has forsaken his subjects and that England is in need for drastic political change. Oliver Cromwell is a good, god fearing country magistrate who is called upon by his fellow members of Parliament to exact radical change and reform in England for a government for and by the people.
Cromwell is prepared to leave England with his family for a life in the New World until he is persuaded to return to London and to sit once again in the newly resumed Parliament with its members in order to take their grievances to the King who encroaches on their lands and steals it from commoners for the rich, a policy which angers Cromwell and his fellows immensely.
King Charles (Guinness) allows Parliament to resume after eleven years in order to gain their support and to raise money against the Scots and Irish who are threatening England with invasion. Cromwell and the rest of Parliament refuse to grant the King money in order to fight until their demands are met.
Charles fears that if common men were to govern themselves, he would merely be reduced to just a figure head and lose his god given right to rule England and the Church of England which he is a devout member of, even though his French wife is a practicing Catholic. Charles along with his Catholic wife who demands him to stand firm against such an ultimatum from his subjects, refuses to come to terms with Parliament’s requests and the country steers ever closer to civil war.
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