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The Lion in Winter
The Lion in Winter
	Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Anthony Harvey
Screenplay by	James Goldman
Based on	The Lion in Winter; 1966 play; by James Goldman
Produced by	Martin Poll
Starring	Peter O'Toole; Katharine Hepburn; Jane Merrow; John Castle; Timothy Dalton; Anthony Hopkins; Nigel Stock; Nigel Terry;
Cinematography	Douglas Slocombe
Edited by	John Bloom
Music by	John Barry
Color process	Color
Production; company	Haworth Productions
Distributed by	AVCO Embassy Pictures
Release date	October 30, 1968;
Running time	134 minutes
Countries	United Kingdom; United States;
Language	English
Budget	$4 million
Box office	$22.3 million

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 win for Best Actress, making her 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 and summons his family for Christmas at his castle in Chinon, Touraine. He wants his youngest son, John, 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 business. Louis had made a treaty with Henry pledging Philip's half-sister Alais, currently Henry's 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.

Katharine Hepburn as Eleanor of Aquitaine, an Oscar-winning performance

Henry agrees to give Alais to Richard to wed and make him heir-apparent in return for Eleanor surrendering the Duchy of Aquitaine. She wishes to keep to John, buying with her gift her 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 anticipated.

Perceiving treachery in Henry's ploy, John is manipulated by his middle brother, Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany, to plot with Philip to make war on Henry in return for being named John's chancellor. Richard then plots with Philip while John and Geoffrey hide behind a curtain. Henry and Philip meet to discuss terms, with all three princes in hiding. Philip reveals that 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, turns the knife deeper.

Recognizing his sons' limitations and plottings against him, Henry dismisses all three as unsuitable heirs 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 that he will never be able to release his treasonous offspring from prison as they will slay any new heir.

Henry recognizes the peril to his plan and confronts all three sons at once. Condemning them to death, he raises his sword over Richard but brings the blade down harmlessly upon Richard's mailed shoulder. Weeping, he lets the threesome escape. Realizing his hopes are lost, and that he has been checked by Eleanor, he is resigned and falls pitifully into her arms.

In the morning, she leaves on her barge, waving while he bellows cheerful nonsenses, each realizing their love for one another. 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.^[3] 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.^[4] Production started in November 1967^[5] and continued until May 1968.^[6]

Filming

The film was shot at Ardmore Studios in Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland, and on location in Ireland, Wales (Marloes Sands),^[7] 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.^[8]

After 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).^[9]

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.^[10] It was the 14th most popular movie at the U.S. box office in 1969.^[11]

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."^[12]

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."^[13]

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."^[14]

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.'"^[15]

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."^[16]

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."^[17]

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."^[18]

Accolades

Award	Category	Nominee(s)	Result	Ref.
Academy Awards	Best Picture	Martin Poll	Nominated	^[19]
	Best Director	Anthony Harvey	Nominated
	Best Actor	Peter O'Toole	Nominated
	Best Actress	Katharine Hepburn	Won^[a]
	Best Adapted Screenplay	James Goldman	Won
	Best Costume Design	Margaret Furse	Nominated
	Best Original Score	John Barry	Won
British Academy Film Awards	Best Actress in a Leading Role	Katharine Hepburn^[b]	Won	^[20]
	Best Actor in a Supporting Role	Anthony Hopkins	Nominated
	Best Screenplay	James Goldman	Nominated
	Best Cinematography	Douglas Slocombe	Nominated
	Best Costume Design	Margaret Furse	Nominated
	Best Film Music	John Barry	Won
	Best Sound	Chris Greenham and Simon Kaye	Nominated
	United Nations Award	Anthony Harvey	Nominated
British Society of Cinematographers Awards	Best Cinematography in a Theatrical Feature Film	Douglas Slocombe	Won	^[21]
David di Donatello Awards	Best Foreign Production	Martin Poll	Won	^[22]
Directors Guild of America Awards	Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures	Anthony Harvey	Won	^[23]
Golden Globe Awards	Best Motion Picture – Drama		Won	^[24]
	Best Director – Motion Picture	Anthony Harvey	Nominated
	Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama	Peter O'Toole	Won
	Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama	Katharine Hepburn	Nominated
	Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture	Jane Merrow	Nominated
	Best Screenplay	James Goldman	Nominated
	Best Original Score	John Barry	Nominated
Laurel Awards	Top Drama		Nominated	^[25]
Laurel Awards	Top Female Dramatic Performance	Katharine Hepburn	Won	^[25]
National Board of Review Awards	Top Ten Films		7th Place	^[26]
New York Film Critics Circle Awards	Best Film		Won	^[27]
	Best Actor	Peter O'Toole	Nominated
	Best Screenplay	James Goldman	Nominated
Writers Guild of America Awards	Best Written American Drama		Won	^[28]
Writers' Guild of Great Britain Awards	Best British Screenplay		Won	^[29]

Preservation

The Academy Film Archive preserved The Lion in Winter in 2000.^[30]

Historical accuracy

Though the background and the eventual destinies of the characters are generally accurate, The Lion in Winter is fictional: while there was a Christmas court at Caen in 1182, there was none at Chinon in 1183. In reality, Henry had many mistresses and many illegitimate children; the "Rosamund" mentioned in the film was his mistress until she died. The Revolt of 1173–1174 provides the historical background leading to the play's events. There was also a second rebellion, when Young Henry and Geoffrey revolted in 1183, resulting in Young Henry's death. While some historians have theorized that Richard was homosexual, it is not certain.

Geoffrey died in 1186 in a jousting tournament held in Paris (with some speculation that Geoffrey was involved in plotting against Henry with Philip at the time). A third rebellion against Henry by Richard and Philip in 1189 was finally successful, and a decisively defeated Henry retreated to Chinon in Anjou, where he died. Richard the Lionheart succeeded Henry II, but spent very little time in England (perhaps 6 months), after which he became a central Christian commander during the Third Crusade, leading the campaign after the departure of Philip. Richard won some considerable victories, but he did not succeed in retaking Jerusalem. John finally succeeded Richard in 1199 after Richard's death. During his unsuccessful reign he lost most of his father's holdings in Northern France and angered the English barons, who revolted and forced him to accept and add his seal to Magna Carta. John is also known for being the villain in the Robin Hood legends. Lastly, William Marshal, who during the film is harried about by Henry II, outlived the English main characters and eventually ruled England as regent for the young Henry III.^[31]