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.