The Lion In Winter

There is a secret club out there – a club that belongs to die hard fans of the movie The Lion In Winter (ever heard of this movie? At least seen the play? No? Shame on you! Weep tears of repentance this very instant!) I belong to it. Before I continue raving about it, I should probably tell you what the heck this movie is about.

The Story

King Henry II (the aging king at 50 .. hence the metaphor, the lion in winter) wants his youngest son, John (later Mad King John), to succeed him as the King of England. Eleanor of Aquitaine, his estranged Queen, wants Richard to be king (later King Richard the Lionheart). Henry's mistress Alais, sister of King Philip of France has her own ideas. Verbal assassinations, broken alliances, wanton liaisons, and sharp-tongued banter spice medieval intrigue with contemporary wit.

What LA Times said, "The Lion in Winter has more wit in every speech than some hits have in an entire evening...a growling, snarling, skin-piercing, skull rattling exhibit couched in marvellously articulate language with humour that bristles and burns." -Los Angeles Times."

The Talent
Katherine Hepburn won an Oscar for this. Never seen why people go gaga over this actresses. She is good, but she aint Bette-Davis-good in my opinion. So what if she wore pants on screen when no woman dared to in the 30s and 40s? But, after this movie, I grudgingly admit that Katherine Hepburn's performance is unparalleled and incomparable.

Now, lets get started with Peter O'Toole's performance. Words fail me.
All those people who have never seen a single O'Toole movie in his heydays, remember the recent animation, Ratatouille? Don't you think the voice of the food critic Anton Ego moved the movie from the Average lot to the Good lot? Remember the critic's monologue towards the end? "In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment…" Well do you know who rendered the voice for Ego? Peter O'Toole. So, if a voice can do so much for a movie, can you imagine what a form and a face can do? Need I say more? His bellows, his insecurities, his wily ways, his courage, his desolation and his wit...

There is this one scene in which he discovers the treachery of all of his sons. He utters the below dialogue to a room with his sons and King Philip but addressing no one in particular with a look of utter desolation and yet towering strength that .. that… well, you get the point.

"My life, when it is written, will read better than it lived.
Henry Fitz-Empress, first Plantagenet, a king at twenty-one, the ablest soldier of an able time. He led men well, he cared for justice when he could and ruled, for thirty years, a state as great as Charlemagne's. He married out of love, a woman out of legend. Not in Alexandria, or Rome, or Camelot has there been such a queen. She bore him many children. But no sons. King Henry had no sons. He had three whiskered things but he disowned them"

The Dialogues
Marvellous! Wicked! Leaves you gobsmacked! Few movies come this close to intelligent, meaningful dialogue.

A sampling of the dialogues:

[Upon seeing his wife after she arrives for Christmas Court]
Henry II: Ha! What shall we hang... the holly, or each other?

Eleanor: How dear of you to let me out of prison.
Henry II: It's only for the holidays.

Eleanor: What would you have me do? Give out? Give up? Give in?
Henry II: Give me a little peace.
Eleanor: A little? Why so modest? How about eternal peace? Now there's a thought.

Prince Richard: I am a constant soldier, a sometimes poet and I will be king.
Prince Richard: I will have the crown
Henry II: You will have what Daddy gives you.
Prince Richard <shouting>: I am next in line!
Henry II <bellowing>: To nothing!

Prince John: I thought I'd come and gloat a little.
Eleanor: Mother's tired. Come stick pins tomorrow morning; I'll be more responsive.

Prince John: A knife! He's [Prince Richard] got a knife!
Eleanor: Of course he has a knife, he always has a knife, we all have knives! It's 1183 and we're barbarians! How clear we make it. Oh, my piglets, we are the origins of war: not history's forces, nor the times, nor justice, nor the lack of it, nor causes, nor religions, nor ideas, nor kinds of government, nor any other thing. We are the killers. We breed wars.
This dialogue is really powerful, especially in the turbulent 60s with the V war and everything.

Prince Geoffrey: I know. You know I know. I know you know I know. We know Henry knows, and Henry knows we know.
[smiles]
Prince Geoffrey: We're a knowledgeable family.

What are you waiting for? Go rent it and watch it over the weekend!