Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3649 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-08-25
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 129 minutes

Synopsis
Set over Christmas of 1183, this acclaimed adaptation of James Goldman's play concerns Henry II's effort to choose a worthy successor. Powerful Henry II (Peter O'Toole) favours his youngest son John (Nigel Terry), while his strong-willed wife Eleanor (Katherine Hepburn) feels the honor should be bestowed upon eldest son Richard the Lionhearted (Anthony Hopkins, in his screen debut). This disagreement leads the family to a war of wills that will stress every bond of love, trust, and honor.

Customer Reviews

The ultimate family Christmas movie
No movie sums up Christmas or brings back so many memories of Christmases Past than The Lion in Winter. It's 1183 and Henry II's let his wife out of prison to decide the succession at Christmas court in Chinon: he favors John, she favors Richard and nobody cares for Geoffrey. Cue daggers, plots and reopened wounds as everyone tries to kill everyone else and nobody gets what they wanted for Christmas. Part costume drama, part Who's Afraid of Eleanor of Aquitaine? as these jungle creatures scratch and claw at each other's weak spots and almost certainly a lot closer to history as it was lived than as it is written thanks to a truly great screenplay by James Goldman (who stumbled across the plot while researching a play about Robin Hood that would later become the sadly underrated Robin and Marion) that's done justice by it's cast. Katherine Hepburn may have got the Oscar, but Peter O'Toole before the rot set in, reprising and bettering his role from Beckett, matches her tooth and claw, with Anthony Hopkins, Timothy Dalton and John Castle picking up a few tricks en route. The weak links are the reliably awful Nigel Terry's overstated John and Jane Merrow's Alais, a performance as flat as her singing voice, but as they are required to be simpletons and ciphers they don't get in the way. Terrific nasty fun.

A right Royal Christmas - when large than life personalities clash
If a family meets for Christmas very often it ends in disaster as all the family troubles not having bespoken about for the rest of the year and slowly poising everybody's mind erupt.

Well, why should it be different in the Royal Family? But here it is worse than usual: the first Plantagenet King's family was known for its temperaments. Henry II and his consort Eleanor of Aquitaine and their sons Young King Henry, Geoffrey of Brittany, Richard the Lion Heart and John Lackland are stuff for legends and endless books. On top the cousin of France poisons the atmosphere further. The struggle for power and crowns, greet, jealousy, hate and sexual lust are a powerful mixture which creates a most explosive atmosphere. If the main characters are portrayed by Katherine Hepburn (Queen Eleanor) and Peter O'Toole one is in for a rare treat. Mrs. Hepburn's performance earned her 3 Oscar. The move is a great classic and one can really feel the tension; it seems to be simpering from the screen.

Well, let's hope that none of us will ever have such a right royal Christmas!!

Simply exquisit
I watched this on VHS about 6 months ago. Its simply fantastic & the dialogue is superb. I'm not big into old movies or period pieces but the acting, script & dark English wit are executed perfectly. Pure Joy.