Rating: 
Summary: This movie is fantastic!
Review: This is the first movie I rent when I want something intelligent and fast-paced with brilliant dialogue and acting. Peter O'Toole and Kathern Hepburn at their best! I have been trying to find this movie to purchase since the first time I saw it 2 years ago.
Rating:
Summary: Thought-provoking, excellently-acted historical drama.
Review: O'Toole and Hepburn at their best! This is one to which you have to pay attention! Plot twists, drama, romance and revenge! What fun! Who will be the next King of England when Henry bites the dust? Henry has one of his three sons chosen. Unfortunately, his wife Eleanor has other plans. Of course, all three sons would like to wear the crown. Will it be the sniveling boy-child? What about the quiet but deadly son? Or will you put your money on the bully brother who shares a secret alliance (and other things!) with the young French King Louis? Louis has his own ideas about who should sit on the English throne! Don't miss this one!!! Academy-award winner and deservedly so!
Rating:
Summary: Best Source of One-Liners in Hollywood
Review: For many years my three nieces, aged sixteen to twenty-two, and I have thrilled to this perfect portrait of the ultimate dysfunctional family. The acting is breath-taking and the reparte is over-the-top. Since their early teens my nieces have been able to quote all of the best lines (with English accent, of course) from the movie. Since it's a family tradition now, rather than check it out again I'm going to buy a copy so we can enjoy it forever! Thanks Amazon!
Rating:
Summary: A HUGE Hepburn fan from Houston
Review: I've been searching for a copy of this video for years. It is my favorite Hepburn film (w/o Spencer Tracy) and a tour de force from the entire cast. She poured her heart out over the loss of Spencer in this film and it is a triumph. If you see no other Hepburn film, see this one! Her third oscar winning role is by far her most meaty.
Rating:
Summary: The best film of 1968!!
Review: The film "The Lion in Winter" is a wonderfully acted and brilliantly done. It is a simple story. Henry II (played marvelously by Peter O'Toole) wants his youngest son John (played by Nigel Terry) to be his successor to the English throne. His wife, Eleanor of Acquitaine (played brilliantly by Katharine Hepburn who deserved an Oscar for her performance) wants her son Richard (played by newcomer Anthony Hopkins) to sit on the throne. They battle it out over the Christmas holiday with the King of France in attendance (played by Timothy Dalton in his debut as well) This film is great beacuse it features so many great things. Marvelous acting, super direction and a rousing music score. (by John Barry who also won an Oscar) Not to mention a spectacular storyline. (James Goldman who won an Oscar as well) If you're looking for a great dramatic film this is it!!! A landmark achievement!!
Rating:
Summary: A great, great film
Review: The acting in this movie is flawless. Katherine Hepburn is simply stunning. The intrigues of the Plantagenet empire are fascinatingly portrayed in this wonderful film. I cannot praise it enough.
Rating:
Summary: A grand tale of ruse and redemption in the court of Henry II
Review: Fours years after his award winning film Beckett, Peter O'Toole returns to the role of Henry II. This older, more cunning Henry is faced with the grave problem of who should succeed him. His eldest son, Henry, is dead, leaving the throne open for one of his three remaining sons. Henry calls his family together to decide who should be his heir. The stage is now set for a story of plots and deceptions, which is almost Shakespearean in magnitude. Peter O'Toole is brilliant Henry. Katharine Hepburn (Queen Elinor) is wonderful in the role Henry's estranged wife. Anthony Hopkins is great in the role of Prince Richard. John Castle (Prince Geoffrey), and Nigel Terry (Prince John), fill their roles well, even if both are prone to fits of overacting. This well made, throughly entertaining film is one of my favorites.
Rating:
Summary: A must have for any movie fan!
Review: I have been searching for this movie for the past 3 years! Katherine Hepburn is absolutely spectacular in this film. She is vindictive and conniving in one scene, then heartbreakingly vulnerable in the next. This film truly is a triumph of excellent acting. I cannot wait to see it again...
Rating:
Summary: Superb
Review: Could not resist adding my praise for such a superior motion picture. Set in a violent, unstable time of frequent wars and unrelenting political machinations, "The Lion In Winter" captures a vivid 12th Century reality. A story set in the latter part of the reign of England's Henry II (Peter O'Toole), it explores the convoluted dynamics of royal family politics and medieval intrigue. Eleanor of Aquitaine (Katharine Hepburn), Henry's Queen, is released from her confinement in an English castle to join Henry at the Christmas court in France (at this time, Henry ruled large parts of modern France as well as England). Eleanor was confined due to her support of Henry's sons in their uprising against him. Henry does not want a reoccurence. Their sons included Richard, the Lion-Hearted (Anthony Hopkins) and the Magna Carta's King John, who are also at the Christmas court. A truly amazing cast of characters are propelled by magnificent performances and just about the best written dialogue ever put on film. Miss Hepburn's Eleanor won her an Academy Award for best actress. A terrific accompaniment to the movie is Alison Weir's recent book "Eleanor Of Aquitaine". Eleanor was the wife of two kings, the mother of three kings, the great-grandmother of two saints and lived through two Crusades. A fascinating woman, she lived into her 80s, outliving eight of her ten children. Henry succeeded in building and holding together an empire that stretched from Scotland to the south of France.
Rating:
Summary: Save Your Marriage--See This Movie
Review: I think it is perfectly appropriate to personalize great works of art such as this film. By this I mean that this film has practical implications and application. Do not judge this film simply on its artistic merits, but use it as a mirror on your own life, and indeed on society's. By that standard, this film is not just a cautionary tale, a fascinating character study, an exciting slice of life, or an exhilarating arc of performance, but a thing with actual usefulness.Who cannot relate to the pathologies on display here? Who could deny that most families have their own version of the "dramas" discussed in this timeless film? Who hasn't had a Christmas at one point or another where "drama" overtook the phony and forced familial facade? The next time you get into a fight with a loved one, take the time to see how bad it can get and watch and discuss this movie. It is a rare thing when art rises to such stature, and this film is a tour de force of the dramatic arts.
|
