I write this just having watched Becket again.
Beckt is, perhaps, the finest biopic ever made. Richard Burton is Becket and Peter O'Toole (gods, he looks young) is Henry II of England. For those of you who know the period well, it is my understanding that it is not all that historically acurate other than there was the conflict between the two, but the movie is remarkable and I highly reccomend it.
Another film about Henry (starring O'Toole) is The Lion in Winter, is also based on a play, and may or may not be particularly historical. Henry's foil in this piece is Eleanor of Aquataine - his wife, who is played by Kate Hepburn. You can imagine! Timothy Dalton plays the young Louis of France and Anthony Hopkins appears as Richard the Lionhearted. This is a wonderful film as well and I highly reccomend it, too.
Can we learn anything from these movies? I suppose we can learn from Beckett that there when you have what you feel to be a higher calling you should fight for it with every tool at your discretion. From Lion, it's that we're all barbarians, although they had it being 1183 as an excuse. It's not much to have learned, but it applies, which means it's worth learning.
What're the movies or tv you're watching these days?
I'm in somewhat of a contemplative mood, so I'll add a really good song by Gackt (yay) called Shima Uta.