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Actors: Peter O'Toole, Katharine Hepburn, Anthony Hopkins, John Castle, Nigel Terry, Timothy Dalton
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| Review Summary and Plot Commentary about The Lion in Winter |
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It's Christmas 1183, and the Royal Family gathers for the holiday. King Henry II (O'Toole) is 50, a ripe age for the Middle Ages, so he's thinking about choosing a successor from his three sons for his sizable kingdom, which stretches from Britain far into France. But he and his detested wife Eleanor of Acquitaine (Hepburn) have fought all their lives, and they predictably disagree on the most deserving successor: the oldest, Richard the Lionhearted (Hopkins), whom the queen favors; the youngest, pathetic and foolish John (Terry), whom the king adores; or the middle boy, Geoffrey (Castle), a plotter whom neither of his parents likes? A further complication is that King Philip of France (Dalton) is in attendance with his sister Princess Alais (Jane Merrow), whom Henry has promised to marry off to the next British king but whom he has taken as his own mistress. James Goldman adapted this 1968 film from his own play, so it's pretty talky and short on action, but the dialogue is bitterly snappy and the acting volcanic. The movie does a good job of showing how uncomfortable and dirty medieval life was, even for the royals, though it plays a bit fast and loose with history (Alais is a fictitious character, for instance). It was the film debut for both 22-year-old Dalton and 30-year-old Hopkins, who had to get permission from Laurence Olivier to be in the movie (and that entailed flying home from location shoots in Ireland, Wales, and France most evenings to play his roles in productions of "As You Like It" and "Much Ado About Nothing"!). Hepburn, reportedly a descendant of the character she played, took home her third of four Oscars for this role.
--David Loftus, Resident Scholar
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| Analysis of The Lion in Winter |
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Time/era of movie:
- middle ages
Job/Profession/Poverty Story?
Yes
Job:
- prince/king/queen/knight
Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Profession/status:
- Prince/Nobleman/King
Age:
- 40's-50's
Eccentric:
Yes
- wild
Hair color?
- blonde
Hair type
- (man) short/standard straight
Events of movie makes character more...
- irritated
Ethnicity/Nationality
- British
How sensitive is this character?
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor?
- Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- average physique
Secondary Main Character
Identity:
- Female
Hair color
- brunette (Brown)
Hair style
- (woman) medium/shoulderlgn wavey
Body type
- (woman) very skinny
How much in movie?
- 90%-100%
Ethnicity/Nationality
- British
Setting
Europe
Yes
European country:
- England/UK
- France
Misc setting
- castle
Style
Accounts of torture and death?
- no torture/death
Movie makes you feel...
- challenged
Non-American film?
Yes
What language?
- English
Subtitles?
- No
Is this movie based on a
- play
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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