Becket: honor and collaboration

In the beginning of the movie the King took Becket into his service, even though his counselors predicted that Becket would stab the King in the back. The king refused to believe this because he thought of Becket as a “man of honor and a collaborator.” When the King asks Beckett how he combines the two, Becket replays “…one collaborates to live…Honor is a concern of the living. One can’t be concerned about it once one is dead….Honor is a private matter within. It is an idea and every man has shown his own version of it.” This statement is foreshadow of Becket’s death by the hand of the king because by the end of the movie Becket believes his honor lies within the church and his collaboration with the King would not matter when his time passes.
When the movie began the King and Becket were loyal and close friends, both participating in mischief with women and alcohol. The King was going through a power struggle with the church and in effort to gain the upper ...