THE LION IN WINTER

UK, 1968, 134 minutes, Colour.
Peter O'Toole, Katharine Hepburn, Jane Merrow, Anthony Hopkins, John Castle, Nigel Terry, Timothy
Dalton.
Directed by Anthony Harvey.

The Lion in Winter is an excellent example of history in modern style. The contemporary language and idiom helps Henry II and his family of 1183 to communicate their personalities and preoccupations to us so that we understand the way they think and feel. The film, while quite spectacular in its vivid re-creation of the twelfth century, is not principally a historical spectacular. In fact the main part of the action takes place in about twenty four hours, in the one place and, generally, Inside the castle of Chinon, where Henry is holding his Christmas court.

Henry II has been a popular enough subject for literature, especially in his relationship with his chancellor Thomas Becket and Becket's subsequent murder. This was the subject of T. S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral and, more recently, Jean Anouilh's Becket. The older Henry features in Christopher Fry's Curtmantle, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry's wife (and previously wife to the king of France), was also legendary in her lifetime and later, being associated with the spread of the medieval troubadours and the traditions of courtly love. Henry's sons are also well remembered in history: Richard, the Lionheart, who succeeded his father, and John, who strove with the Barons and was forced to sign England's Magna Carta; however, this film, which James Goldman adapted from his play, shows us a day of ambition and intrigue within this family in view of the succession to Henry and the possession of French counties.

Peter O'Toole takes up the role he had in Becket, but shows Henry as less moody and neurotic; here he is ageing, more humorous, but with plenty of leonine vitality in his winter. (This role, as in Becket, gave him another Oscar nomination.) Katharine Hepburn has greater scope for acting range than usual in her portrayal of old Eleanor, fully conscious of her regal state and with intrigue in her blood. (She won her third Oscar for this performance.) The film also set Jane Merrow, Anthony Hopkins and Timothy Dalton on strong film careers.

The film was the second film directed by Anthony Harvey (who edited a number of Bryan Forbes1 films), the first being the unusual Le Roi Jones' drama, Dutchman. Since then, he and author Goldman have made They Might Be Giants (1971). The Lion in Winter is an impressive film on all counts.

1. What was the point of the film? Was it meant to be a spectacular historical, pageant?

2. What does the title mean? What do you know of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine? (Note Becket, Murder in the Cathedral, Curtmantle.)

3. How modern did the film seem to you - its language and colloquialisms, its psychology of the characters? Did you feel that their interests and issues were close to contemporary interests and issues? How well do you think you understood this family?

4. One of the principal themes of the film was intrigue. How attractive did it make a life of intrigue? Why do people like intrigue and spend their lives at it, even if it means futility and imprisonment like that of Eleanor?

5. How much cruelty did the principal characters show? By the end of the film we realise that some really did love each other e.g. Richard loved his father. Other examples. Why did they spend their lives hating and plotting if, underneath, there was some love?

6. Consider each of the principal characters and try to understand the complexity of their personalities and motives, considering especially their ambitions, selfishness, self-will, capacity for love and hatred, using of others, ability to lie and intrigue, moral standards - as medieval royalty.

7. This was a film about a family. Comment on the frequency with which the sons complain that their parents never showed that they loved their children and how the parents continually say that they do not like their children much.

8. Did you feel sorry for Alois? How sincere in her feelings was she? Comment on the way her position and emotions were 'used'.

9. How happy were each of the characters?

10. What scenes remain in your memory? Why?

11. What happened ultimately to each of the characters? Did history show that Henry won, or did Eleanor?