The Lion in Winter (1968 film)

The Lion in Winter is a 1968 historical drama centred on Henry II of England and his attempt to establish a line of succession during a family gathering at Christmas 1183.

His efforts unleash both political and personal turmoil among his estranged wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, their three surviving sons, the French king, and the king's half-sister Alais, who is Henry's mistress. The film stars Peter O'Toole and Katharine Hepburn, was directed by Anthony Harvey, written by James Goldman, and produced by Joseph E. Levine, Jane C. Nusbaum, and Martin Poll. Actors John Castle, Anthony Hopkins (in his first major film role), Jane Merrow, Timothy Dalton (in his film debut) and Nigel Terry appear in support.

Based on Goldman's play "The Lion in Winter", the film was a commercial and critical success, winning three Academy Awards (including Hepburn's tie with Barbra Streisand for Best Actress, making Hepburn the first three-time winner in the category). A television remake of the film was released in 2003.

Plot

It is 1183 in the medieval Angevin Empire. Fifty-year-old Henry II of England seeks to establish a line of succession while he is still powerful enough to do so. He summons his family for Christmas at his castle in Chinon, Touraine. He wants his youngest son, John, a weakling, to inherit his throne, while his estranged wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, reprieved from imprisonment in England by Henry for the holiday, favours their eldest surviving son, Richard, a proven warrior.

Henry invites Philip II of France, son and successor of Louis VII, Eleanor's first husband, to settle some important outstanding business with him. Louis had made a treaty with Henry pledging Philip's half-sister Alais, currently Henry's devoted mistress, in troth to Henry's future heir; Philip demands either a wedding or the return of her dowry, the strategically important county of Vexin near Paris.

Henry comes up with a solution that will make nobody happy. He agrees to give Alais to hard-hearted Richard to wed, and make him heir-apparent, in return for Eleanor surrendering the Duchy of Aquitaine she wishes to keep to the wretched John, buying with her gift her precious freedom. When the arrangement is revealed at the wedding, Richard, who coveted the Aquitaine himself, refuses to go through with the marriage – just as Henry had anticipated.

Perceiving treachery in Henry's ploy, John is easily manipulated by his scheming middle brother, the "unloved" Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany, to plot with Philip to make war on Henry, in return for being named John's chancellor. Richard then appears and plots with Philip, being easily maneuvered while John and Geoffrey hide behind a curtain. Henry and Philip then meet to discuss terms, with all three princes in hiding. Philip reveals he had been caballing with John and Geoffrey, then with Richard separately, and that he and Richard may once have been lovers. Philip casts their romantic liaison as always having been a scheme. Richard emerges and decries this, but Philip, saying he had always loathed Richard's sight and touch, just turns the knife deeper.

Recognizing his sons' limitations, and their various and multiple plottings against him, Henry dismisses all three as unsuitable heirs to his throne and endungeons them. He readies a train to travel to Rome to demand an annulment of his marriage to Eleanor by the Pope, intending then to wed and have new sons with Alais. She protests he will never be able to release his treasonous offspring from prison as they will slay any new legitimate heir. Eleanor confirms this, thrusting a verbal dagger into her husband by telling him not to worry, they will wait till he is dead to do so.

Henry recognizes the peril to his plan and confronts all three sons at once, holding them at bay three knives to one. Condemning them to death, he raises his sword over Richard first, but brings the blade down harmlessly upon Richard's mailed shoulder. Weeping, he lets the threesome escape.

Realizing all his hopes are lost, and that he has been successfully checked by Eleanor, he is resigned, and falls pitifully into her arms.

In the morning she leaves on her barge, waving affectionately while he bellows cheerful nonsenses, each realizing their love for one-another and their mutual plight as beholden to the other's spell. They will resume their jousting next year.

Cast

• Peter O'Toole as Henry II, King of England, Lord of Ireland, Duke of Normandy and of Aquitaine, Count of Anjou
• Katharine Hepburn as Eleanor of Aquitaine, his estranged queen
• Anthony Hopkins as Richard the Lionheart, their eldest surviving son
• John Castle as Geoffrey, their middle son
• Nigel Terry as John, their youngest son
• Timothy Dalton as Philip II, King of France
• Jane Merrow as Alais, Philip's half-sister and Henry's mistress, betrothed to Henry's heir by treaty
• Nigel Stock as Captain William Marshall
• Kenneth Ives as Queen Eleanor's personal guard
• O. Z. Whitehead as Hugh de Puiset, the Bishop of Durham

Production

Writing

The original stage production had not been a success, getting a bad review in The New York Times and losing $150,000. Producer Martin Poll optioned Goldman's novel Waldorf for the movies. They discussed Lion in Winter, which Poll had read and loved. He hired Goldman to write a screenplay.

Casting

Poll was meant to make a film with Joseph Levine and Peter O'Toole, The Ski Bum (which would be written by James Goldman's brother William). That project fell through and Poll suggested they do Lion in Winter instead. O'Toole, who was 36, and had portrayed Henry II in 1964's Becket, plays him at age 50.

In October 1967, the actors rehearsed at Haymarket Theatre in London. Production started in November 1967 and continued until May 1968.

Filming

The film was shot at Ardmore Studios in Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland, and on location in Ireland, Wales (Marloes Sands), and France at Abbaye de Montmajour, Arles; Château de Tarascon, Carcassonne; and Saône-et-Loire. In an interview Peter O'Toole said that Katharine Hepburn, who was sixty years old, was at her best early in the morning while he favoured starting work in the afternoon. They came to a compromise and shot their scenes from 8:30 to 16:00 each day.

The sculpted stone figures which appear during the main title sequence were discovered by the director along a driveway near a shooting location in France. They are portrayed as appearing on interior walls of the castle in the film.

After the seeing the completed film, Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman offered Timothy Dalton the role of James Bond for the first time, as a replacement for Sean Connery in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969). Dalton declined because he felt he was too young, although he would later be cast in the role in The Living Daylights (1987) and Licence to Kill (1989).

Reception

Box office

The film premiered on 30 October 1968 (29 December 1968 London premiere).

The film earned an estimated $6.4 million in distributor rentals in the domestic North American market during its initial year of release. It was the 14th most popular movie at the U.S. box office in 1969.

Critical

Renata Adler of The New York Times wrote that the film was "for the most part, outdoorsy and fun, full of the kind of plotting and action people used to go to just plain movies for."

Variety called it "an intense, fierce, personal drama put across by outstanding performance of Peter O'Toole and Katharine Hepburn. Anthony Harvey, a relatively new director, has done excellent work with a generally strong cast, literate adaptation by the author, and superb production values assembled by Martin H. Poll, who produced for Joseph E. Levine presentation under the Embassy banner."

Roger Ebert gave the film 4 stars out of 4, writing in 1968, "One of the joys which movies provide too rarely is the opportunity to see a literate script handled intelligently. 'The Lion in Winter' triumphs at that difficult task; not since 'A Man for All Seasons' have we had such capable handling of a story about ideas. But 'The Lion in Winter' also functions at an emotional level, and is the better film, I think."

Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times declared, "Top honors for the most literate movie of the year, and for the finest and most imaginative and fascinating evocation of an historical time and place, can be awarded this very day to 'The Lion in Winter.'"

Pauline Kael of The New Yorker was less positive, writing that the film miscalculated in attempting to elevate the melodramatic plot "with serious emotions, more or less authentic costumes and settings, pseudo-Stravinsky music, and historical pomp. And it just won't do to have actors carrying on as if this were a genuine, 'deep' historical play on the order of 'A Man for All Seasons' ... They're playing a camp historical play as if it were the real thing—delivering commercial near-poetry as if it were Shakespeare."

In a mixed review for The Monthly Film Bulletin, David Wilson called Katharine Hepburn's performance "perhaps the crowning achievement of an extraordinary career" but described the film as a whole as being "essentially a piece of highly polished theatricality, and not much else if one looks beyond its insistently sophisticated surface gloss."

Rotten Tomatoes collected 43 reviews through October 2021, amalgamating to a 91% approval and an average rating of 8.2/10. The critical consensus reads, "Sharper and wittier than your average period piece, The Lion in Winter is a tale of palace intrigue bolstered by fantastic performances from Peter O'Toole, Katharine Hepburn, and Anthony Hopkins in his big-screen debut."