Thomas Moore lived in the late-15th/early-16th Centuries, was the man who wrote the book Utopia, was canonized by the Catholic Church, and brutally persecuted the followers of Martin Luther. How then can he be considered an existential warrior? As expressed a few times already in this article, one of the key components of existentialism is a flexible identity of the self. Unlike nihilism however, existentialism does not reject the formation of a self, but rather a concrete identity of the self, leaving the individual in a awkward balancing act of always becoming but never fully being. It is this precarious limbo, of being principled but not so principled that an individual's morals dictates every action, that is displayed so deftly by the Thomas Moore of the film. If you're not familiar with the life of Thomas Moore, Moore was a close confidant and advisor of King Henry VIII until the King decided to break away from the Catholic Church in order to obtain a divorce from his first wife. Henry demanded that all his subjects fall in line, but Moore, a devout Catholic, refused to do so but not without first trying to find any loophole possible. Instead of outright denouncing the king like a stubborn fool, Moore instead refused to let his enemies define his position. As he is pressed to denounce Henry VIII so that he may be tried for treason, Moore speaks in only vague terms, maintaining the principles he has chosen for himself but expressing them carefully, refusing to be pigeon-holed into a position. Eventually, he is convicted of treason anyway, at which time Moore lets his feelings be known, but not before dancing a beautiful existentialist ballet first.
A film fanatic at a very young age, starting with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movies and gradually moving up to more sophisticated fare, at around the age of ten he became inexplicably obsessed with all things Oscar. With the incredibly trivial power of being able to chronologically name every Best Picture winner from memory, his lifelong goal is to see every Oscar nominated film, in every major category, in the history of the Academy Awards.
