I have adored this movie from it’s beginning! It was THE movie that my first fiancée and I fell in love with. The actors and the characters and the dialogue were MAGICAL! We have long since parted ways but I did acquire the DVD.

KH too old. PO not bad. Others are just OK except young girl who isn’t, it’s also too stagey, being a play. But if you liked the Becket, Man for All Seasons etc you’ll like this. (I’d move on to Polanski’s Macbeth for real stuff).

If I could give this Zero Stars, I would. A script so bad even the great Peter O'Toole can't save it. Kate Hepburn stinks up everything she's in, and here she's exactly a quarter century older than her leading man, 61 to 36, utterly unconvincing as his queen. Her voice, always annoying, has a post-menopausal rasp - not "On Golden Pond" bad, but bad. There's unintelligible dialog making the already baffling character motivations even more obtuse, but you won't care about any of them anyway especially the youngest, John, portrayed as a complete buffoon. O'Toole shouts a lot but that's not acting - again, a bad script and bad direction. Anthony Hopkins attempts his best impression of Richard Burton. To cap it all off the score is shrill and intrusive. When Kate boards her royal barge at the conclusion resolving absolutely nothing, with O'Toole looking like the Fiddler on the Roof, you'll know it's two hours 17 minutes you'll never get back. How this PoS received any critical acclaim is beyond me. Good reviews are based solely on the reputations of the two leads and that's not enough to carry a film. Lots of good actors have been in stinkers, and this Stinks to High Heaven.

One of the worst historical dramas I've seen. The core premise is that rival claimants to the throne are hanging around a castle to hatch plots against each other. It is completely implausible from start to finish. Their relationships are inexplicable, their schemes unintelligible. The script is effectively an overwrought melodrama communicated in the most purple prose imaginable. The characters' actions make zero sense: they are warm and affable and then suddenly cold, murderous then suddenly incestuous. It is absolutely impossible to follow. One of the most ridiculous films I've seen and it gained half a star for that superlative alone.

What immediately caught my attention was the unique theme—Henry II and his wife, medieval England, and Christmas. The 12th-century life is brilliantly portrayed with costumes, sets, and overall atmosphere. Although the marital life of Henry and Eleanor is somewhat “romanticised” and exaggerated, the queen’s outstanding performance and sharp humour more than makeup for it. Now is the perfect time to watch this film, as the events, as I mentioned, take place during Christmas. So, make sure to jot down the title!

Goldman's screenplay is glorious, both melodramatic and savagely funny. O'Toole and Hepburn play off each other so well, a great melding of two generations of acting styles.

A classic & deserving of the designation. O'Toole & Hepburn are superb.

Extraordinarily well-written and well acted. Nothing but intriguing, back-biting, plotting and machinations all the way down.

An epic scale period drama, the inside is a family melodrama. This owed to acting by Hepburn and O'Toole, strong Shakespeare company style. I liked the cinematography of its landscape.

A sparse drama from a period when historical cinema was still trying to distinguish itself from theatrical productions. Atmospheric on-set locations with stern 'Laurence Olivier at the Royal Shakespeare Company' type performances from most of the cast. The most memorable performance from Katherine Hepburn, who is hypnotic as she oscillates between scorned wife and ambitious queen

This film is was good 👍🏼

I gave up on watching this. I failed to find any characters likeable so became uninterested in the storyline.

Listen to every word in every scene... Hepburn and O'Toole are at their best in this Masterpiece of Dialog!

10/11/23 - 3.5/5 - saw it again and gave it a good try. It was better than I remembered and perhaps it was because I didn't fall asleep this time? Good acting, drama and writing. Sadly, some of the allusions to loose morals seemed off, but maybe that's the way it was. Regardless, it is a quality drama. Saw on TCM. 1/7/21 - A good time period drama, but it was dark and sad. Good cast. Saw it on TCM. 3/5

Its all about the acting and the banter. The verbal interplay is practically is really well executed.

I think everyone involved did some of their worst work. The script is also embarrassingly bad.

It is almost impossible to tell the story of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine badly. It is almost impossible to believe the people portrayed in "Lion in Winter" actually existed. But the truth was actually more melodramatic and implausible portrayed. As most of the other comments mention, the film's near greatness if largely due to the interaction of Peter O'Toole and Katherine Hepburn. But Henry's sons must be mentioned. Anthony Hopkins shines in his film debut playing Richard I as more than 2-dimensional English idol portrayed in countless other films. Nigel Terry plays John I in way never presented before, and knowing John's history it is easy to believe he was that mistrustful, insecure, churlish and attempting to be scheming but not quite smart enough to carry it off! Timothy Dalton as Phillip II of France is fun to watch- now cagey, now slightly wicked, now callow and occasionally creepy. However, what most reviews don't mention is how bonkers and dysfunctional this whole family was. This was one of the most powerful family in British history and ruled one of the greatest empires of Europe. Though the entire movie is based on a fictional Christmas gathering near the end of Henry I's life. But in the loud (nearly violent) arguments, witty banter & scheming is nearly the entire history of the dawn of the bloody Plantagenets. My only quibble with the film is showing Henry II and his family (rulers of England, some of Wales and Ireland, and half of France) living Monty Pythonesque squalor. Just one look at the modern renovation of Dover Castle to meticulously recreate it's appearance during the reign of Henry II reveals how grand and affluently they lived. Peter O'Toole's earlier portrayal of Henry II in "Becket" is a more authentic window to royal life in the late 12th century.

This feels like a spiritual successor to A Man for All Seasons (1966) in that it's a long, ponderous, boring British period drama in which great actors give wretched performances. I really disliked this film if you can't already tell as I found it to be absolutely tedious and it didn't even satisfy the requirements of a traditional costume drama because it's themes are not weighty or meaningful and the whole thing is a soap opera episode dressed up as prestige cinema. I can see why this film was director Anthony Harvey's only real hit because he doesn't manage to make the film feel like it's not a filmed play and draws the worst out of his talented cast. If you want to see a great period drama watch The Bostonians (1984), it's an underrated gem. The imprisoned Eleanor of Aquitane, Katharine Hepburn, is allowed out of her cell on Christmas day to visit her philandering husband King Henry II, Peter O'Toole, as they try to decide which of their sons will become King. Henry favors the lovable but unintelligent John, Nigel Terry, while Eleanor sides with the manipulative and secretly homosexual Richard, Anthony Hopkins, which causes a lot of conflict as the announcement is yet to be made. Complicating things further is the fact that Eleanor and Henry still have feelings for each other even as he wants to annul their marriage to marry his young mistress Alais, Jane Merrow. Richard's lover King Philip II of France, Timothy Dalton, attempts to manipulate the situation and the brothers all eventually turn against their father but the film has a melancholy ending that suggests better times are ahead. The biggest sin that the film commits is thinking that it is actually saying something. All of the verbose, flowery language that the actors spout as though it's the most important thing in the world serves as a sort of smokescreen to just how empty the film really is. The most exciting parts of the film came when Richard's homosexuality was revealed and his secret lover turned against him and when John almost killed his son but these are all plotlines handled with more grace and sensitivity in real soap operas like The Bold and the Beautiful. I didn't feel the passion and often felt like we spent heaps of time with situations that were fun for a few minutes but when dragged out just seemed ridiculous. If you want some trashy fun this isn't the film that will give it to you because it stretches out the camp for too long to be truly entertaining. The performances are also shameful as Hepburn, O'Toole and Hopkins all disappoint me with performances reminiscent of Robert Shaw in A Man for All Seasons. In short, they are all pretty awful. In each scene they seem to be competing against one another to see who can chomp on the scenery more aggressively, this is not pleasant to watch. Hepburn is wonderful in The Philadelphia Story (1940), O'Toole is at his best in Venus (2006) and Hopkins is at his repressed British best in The Remains of the Day (1993). I would suggest you watch all of the films before you venture to watch this film that allows them all to indulge their worst habits as actors with Hepburn's irritating accent only becoming stronger as the film progresses and O'Toole relying too much on his eyes. I find it laughable that this film received a Best Picture nomination in 1968 over 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and it's representative of all that was wrong with the Academy's tastes. They value the names attached to the film more than the quality of the film itself and it's sad to see people who have done much better work in other films be rewarded for this tripe. If I were Barbra Streisand I would be offended that somebody had equated her spirited, entertaining performance in Funny Girl (1968) to Hepburn's awfulness in this shameful picture. People deserve better from historical period dramas and it's a shame that this film is one of the most famous examples of the genre when it's such a poor representation of what can be brilliant when done right.

Surely 5 * ....its everything smart, shocking, & funny in the dialogue department that Game of Thrones isn't. And there's no daft dragon! Less is more every time, if you loved 'I Cladius' you will love this. Eleanor of Aquataine to her estranged husband Henry II ....and when you die which is regrettable but necessary you can't think Richard is going to wait for your grotesque to grow . Henry II ...You wouldn't let him do that ! Eleanor....let him I would push him through the nursery door!

A humorous and witty take on Henry II with excellent acting all around.