Geoffrey: “You don’t think much of me, do you?” Henry: “Much? I don’t think of you at all.”

I was 15 the first time I watched this. You can imagine how long it took to recover from my head exploding.

I always thought this film should have been called "CHRISTMAS WITH THE PLANTAGENETS"

My favourite film. I watched it again a few days ago. Everything about 'The Lion In Winter' is top notch.......the actors (particularly O'Toole and Hepburn), the dialogue, the story-line, the photography, the music score by the very talented John Barry.........a truly brilliant film.

I have always adored this movie. I saw it when it first came out and saw it on the big screen. What is so much fun is Henry and Eleanore are my family from long ago. John eventually had one of my grandfathers beheaded. I love the looks of the castle.

Have you guessed...this is my favorite film! Thanks for the video!

What always surprised me about this film was John Castle's performance: to me he was the most interesting character. He is a modern villain. Dalton was wonderful. As for the legal system; Henry invented the grand jury system, still used in the U.S. today.

this was Hopkins first film... just out of the Royal Academy, he tried all these different techniques and Hepburn took him aside and told him- just listen and react... Hopkins maintains 30+ years later, it was the best advice he ever got.

Not just a fabulous film, but my siblings and I descend from so many of the historical individuals in the plot - Henry, Eleanor, John, Alais, Philip and William Marshal - we consider it our family’s Christmas home movie 👑👑👑🎄

I’ve been in a Norman period re-enactment group for 3 years and only just discovered your channel 😂

the music won an Oscar- the composer, John Barry, wrote Bond film scores before this- showing his range... later did Out of Africa.

A Xmas favorite

This is undoubtedly a brilliant narrative upload, Schola Normannorum. I enjoy every minute of watching your knowledgeable anecdotes relating the classic film with the actual historical accounts of the medieval reign of King Henry ll. It's like sitting in a history class and you're lecturing the dysfunctional infringements the historic Royal Family challenged with each other, especially Henry and Richard. My compliments for your insightful commentary and a chalice of warm Brandywine to you for a job well done here on KZfaq.

One of my favorite films and I love all the characters. My favorite historical family.

Schola, thank you for this! I break down this movie historically in my head every time I watch it (usually as a double feature with Becket, I call them the Henry 2’s) and that is the chief joy of it. Goldman’s play actually has a disclaimer on the front page stating that all anachronisms are deliberate and intended for effect. Great play, great film. It isn’t a simple plot about Good vs Evil, but a complicated odyssey of Love vs Hate, with Love coming out the victor at the end…by just a little bit.

The Lion in Winter is one of my favorite films as well. And if you're a fan of the HBO series Succession, check this film out; it has that same energy.

Excellent film! One of my longtime favorites.

Really enjoyed that, thank you 😊 Haven't seen the film but will definitely give it a watch over the holiday, I hope you enjoy yours

I also can't separate Kathryn Hepburn from the historical Eleanor, in the same way that I can only imagine Elizabeth I as looking and speaking exactly like Glenda Jackson, since the miniseries Elizabeth R left such an indelible impression, reinforced by her performance in "Mary, Queen of Scots".

I just shared the link to your video on my Facebook time line, and this is what I wrote: "For personal biographical reasons, I recently acquired a book about Eleanor of Aquitaine antiquarian: "Aliénor d'Aquitaine" by the French author Régine Pernoud from 1965, published in German in 1976 under the title "Königin der Troubadoure" ("Queen of the Troubadores"). I quickly found out that it is not considered historically quite accurate nowadays, so I googled for the lady in question. In the process, I also came across the film "The Lion in Winter", whose famous version from 1968 is unfortunately not available for free on KZfaq. But what I did find is a really amazingly good private KZfaq video about this film, historically as well as literarily and cinematically appropriate. Its author calls it "The Best (Medieval) Christmas Film!" because its plot is set around Christmas of the year 1183. Try to get to the movie in the original, but this video gives a good overview of the content (without a "spoiler"). Christmas greetings from Germany !

I love this film, and I enjoyed your discussion of it!

Film journalist Trevor Wilsmer thought this the perfect Christmas movie: Nobody gets what they want, and everyone is trying to kill each other.

This masterpiece and Billy Wilder’s ‘The Apartment’ are my favorite Christmas movies. And Alistair Sim’s film of Charles Dickens’ The Christmas Carol.

I had never thought of the Lion in Winter as a Christmas film, but it so is. Perhaps this year I will spare my other half Love Actually and show him this. PS He will thank you very much

Love that movie 💗 my brother bought the blu ray for me last year ❣️ I don't usually like Hepburn, but I adore Eleanor of Aquitaine, ballsy independent and fearless woman of her time ❣️ all performances were great, oh, apart from whoever played John - nobody told him it wasn't a pantomime I think ❣️❣️

and- if Eleanor had been in confinement since 1173, she couldn't have gotten rid of Rosamund in 1176... Rosamund had retired to Godstowe Abbey and was no longer with Henry by then.

Eleanor is not only wearing black, but Marshall barely gets out "Your Majesty", before she says, quietly: "There's to be a Christmas court." Though bricked in, she knows Henry well enough to understand what's happening. Her character note.

"He married out of love, a woman out of legend."

Not a bad review! One of my favorite movies as well. According to IMDB, Margaret Rutherford was Peter O'toole's choice to play Eleanor.... Very debatable point, but I would LOVEd to have seen that version!

It’s a brilliant mesh of history and personal exploration. James Goldman - who wrote another great Medieval piece, Robin And Marian - grew up in a chaotic alcoholic family and this very deliberately echoes that chaos too.

God, what a great movie. And your commentary is clever and entertaining as well. Bravo and thank you.

Outstanding analysis! Thank you! My favorite film of all time-I’ve held a Boxing Day viewing party every year since 1975.

the historical films of the 60s and 70s are FAR more accurate than later films... they don't even try today- using google or wikipedia would multiply the accuracy 10 times.

Thank you

Superb movie!!!

This is also one of my favorite movies. Hepburn and O'Toole were sensational and Anthony Hopkins gave hints as to the quality of performances he would grow into. Spoilers? They're all long dead.

Brilliant analysis of a favorite, brilliant film.

After all the wars Henry won against Philip's father, Louis, you'd think he'd demand Aquitaine and Normandy be part of England/Angevin Empire rather than France- he had the power in victory to do that, didn't he?

My favorite too for 50 years.

Fantastic work. Mad respect

They put up a tree in this film. That was an anachronism.

This is a great review, thanks!

Oh yeah just a thought. How does King Lear fit in as a reference in 1175ish ???

We're a knowledgeable family

No doubts one of my top 5 movies of all time....still can't believe it lost best picture too....OLIVER ?!?!?!? $^*&%#@#@%&( is what I say to that !

All historical films are more children of the time they're produced than fruits of the real historical set. And why not? It's a play showing us topoi of theatre and history.

Don’t suppose you’ve any idea what the other film is that I confused with this. Probably from the same period and it’s something to do with the Norman over the Lord, always having the right of the Saxon verging on her wedding night

I prefer Becket.

Richard preferred French.

I'd take The Lion in Winter any day over the Shite that passes for medieval fiction today, that seems to think the entirety of Middles Ages was a 1000 year long period were people just dressed in gray, ate mud and beat women for the crime of reading!

The injection of homosexual themes into this movie seemed strained to me. The politics of 1968 were not the politics of 1183.

so the movie is about a woman who a king keeps locked up in jail? and he wants to kill all her sons? and its a great movie? how?