The Lion in Winter (1968)

One of the nominees for Best Picture of 1968, The Lion in Winter suffers a bit from its origins as a play. While the dialogue is sharp, much of the action feels confined so that the actors are able to speak all of their lines to each other. The cast is filled with talented performers, but they are often given little else to do but talk. I would imagine that such restrictions worked better on the stage than they do in the film. I enjoyed the scenario, but it would have been a stronger movie had there been more action added to the screenplay.

The film concerns the decision by King Henry II (Peter O'Toole), also known as Henry Plantagenet, over which of his sons shall be his heir upon his death. All of the family, including Henry's exiled wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine (Katharine Hepburn), have been summoned for what is dubbed "Christmas court" in 1183 so that they can determine who shall be the proper successor. Henry fears he has little time left to make a suitable choice, given his age, so he wants his three sons to demonstrate their appropriateness for taking his place before he makes his final decision.

In truth, none of the three seems like a good choice. The youngest son, John (who would, indeed, later become King John), is his father's early favorite, but he seems, to be charitable, rather dim-witted for the monarchy. John is played by Nigel Terry. Eleanor favors the eldest son, Richard (who would descend to the throne upon his father's death and become Richard the Lionhearted), but his father does not trust Richard. You would undoubtedly recognize the actor playing Richard; he's a young Anthony Hopkins, and his distinctive voice and confident acting style are already clearly on display in this film. The third son is Geoffrey, who is very deliberate in his plans to eliminate both of his brothers from consideration so that he could lay claim to the throne. Geoffrey is played with malicious glee by John Castle.

While all of this is going on, Henry is also attempting to negotiate with King Philip of France (Timothy Dalton) over the marriage of Alais (Jane Merrow), the French king's half-sister who has lived with Henry and Eleanor since she was a child. She is now Henry's mistress, but he initially plans to marry her to John. She had initially been promised to Richard, the heir apparent as the oldest son, but she truly loves only Henry. Philip wants Alais to be married, or he will demand that Henry return her dowry.

There's a lot of confrontations between the characters in this film. The three sons are perpetually squabbling. Henry battles with each of his sons. Eleanor too fights with the sons at different times, but she saves her harshest criticism for Henry himself. They have long been estranged from each other, hardly surprising since he has had her imprisoned for at least ten years. They still have romantic feelings for each other, but the old wounds they have inflicted upon each other have not yet healed. Both king and queen also fight with Alais, who manages to get in a few barbs of her own now and then. And, of course, Philip gets a chance to denounce almost everyone in the royal family, particularly in one scene where all three princes wind up in his room and their father storms in to confront the French king.

There are deals and alliances enough to make a year's worth of Survivor episodes. And there are betrayals of almost everyone. The most stinging has to be Philip's betrayal of Richard. He admits to Henry that the two young men had a love affair--well, he uses the more clinical term of "sodomy" much of the time--but while Richard and his brothers are still hidden in the room, Philip claims that the relationship meant nothing to him. The look on Hopkins' face shows the pain that this confession causes Richard. Before the narrative ends, Henry will lock all three of his potential heirs in the dungeon and banish his wife back to Salisbury Tower. That's not how the film ends, of course, but I suspect that the ending is the least important aspect of the movie anyway.

Historically, of course, none of this happened. There was no Christmas court in 1183. The line of succession was always relatively clear because English tradition calls for the eldest son to be the next king. And Richard and Philip never had a relationship. It was Philip and Geoffrey who were lovers in real life. (There is an exchange between the two actors that would suggest such an attraction.) Really, though, it's all just an exercise in speculative narrative carried out by the playwright/screenwriter James Goldman, who won an Oscar for his script here. He certainly has given some good lines to the performers. One of my favorites is from Eleanor: "Had I been sterile, darling, I'd be happier today."

The best performance in the film, by far, is the one by O'Toole. He gives masterful line readings and can show both great bluster and deep sorrow in the space of an instant. It's quite a showy part, and O'Toole makes the best of it. He has always impressed me since his first major role as the title character in Lawrence of Arabia. All of the actors portraying the princes are good, too, but Hopkins definitely stands out. Both he and Dalton demonstrate here the promise of what would be long, successful careers.

If there is one person who is miscast, sadly, I think it's Hepburn. It isn't that she can't portray Eleanor with the dignity of a queen or that she can't deliver the lines with the archness that they require. It's that she doesn't sound French or English or anything other than the New England Yankee that she was. It's rather jarring to hear her surrounded by all of these classically trained English actors with those wonderful and appropriate accents. Oddly enough, she was the only member of the cast to win an Academy Award, famously tying Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl for Best Actress of 1968. If that doesn't show the depth of love the Academy had for Hepburn, I'm not sure what does.