The Lion in Winter
|
List Price: Our Price: $6.99 You Save: $7.99 (53%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $2.47 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of The Lion in Winter
Movie Review: Fantasic!
Summary: 5 Stars
I've watched this many times and I just enjoy it more and more. It certainly has differences, but Glenn Close and Patrick Stewart pull of an amazing performance. If you are tired of computer-generated movies and a lot of speacil effects this is for you. The acting is suberb and I would reccomend this to anyone who wants to see acting at its finest!Movie Review: A disfunctional family in royalty...for sure!
Summary: 5 Stars
Superb acting Glen Close and Patrick Stewart! A must have for those who enjoy Midieval drama and an enjoyable frolic back to when even kings and queens had their "petty" family dramas. It's a hoot to see Patrick Stewart and his disfunctional family go at it!Movie Review: Glen Close is amazing!
Summary: 5 Stars
I have long been a fan of the original version with Katherine Hepburn but I am sorry to say that Glen Close is amazing in the role. She is rivoting on the screen. Strongly recommend!Movie Review: A near miss
Summary: 4 Stars
The 1968 screen version of THE LION IN WINTER (Lion1) is the most excellent film I've ever seen, or likely will see in my lifetime. But, I've a lot to say about various aspects of this new version (Lion2), so I'd better get on with it. I'll make an effort to be evenhanded.
First, a concise history lesson in the context of the film.
King Henry II of England is also overlord of Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and half of France. Henry keeps his wife Eleanor, the Duchess of Aquitaine and the former first wife of King Louis VII of France, under house arrest in Salisbury Castle for revolting against him. In better times, Henry and Eleanor had, in addition to three daughters, five sons: (in order of birth) William, Henry, Richard, Geoffrey, and John. William died at age three. Henry, the anointed heir, died aged 28 in the summer of 1183. It's now the Yuletide season of that year, and Henry II is holding Christmas court at his French stronghold, Castle Chinon. (To be accurate, there's no record of a Christmas court at Chinon in 1183, but that's irrelevant to the essential theme and tone of the story.) Joining him are his surviving sons and, released from confinement for the festive occasion, Queen Eleanor. An aging Henry wishes to cement his succession. His favorite is John. Eleanor's is Richard. Geoffrey, nobody's favorite, maneuvers to get what he can. Complicating the gathering is the presence of Princess Alais and King Phillip II of France. Alais, Louis VII's daughter by his second wife, was betrothed to Richard by treaty between Henry and Louis when she was but a child. Alais has been living at the English court for years, and is Henry's mistress. (Author Sharon Kay Penman in her book Devil's Brood effectively argues against Alais having been Henry's mistress. But, no matter; it adds to the film's plot.) Phillip, aged 18 and King since 1180, is Louis VII's son by a third wife. Phillip either wants the marriage of Alais and Richard to take place, or Alais's dowry, the French province of the Vexin, back. Phillip hates the English monarch, and will use Henry's sons against him any way he can. The holiday skullduggery is so thick as can be pierced with a backstabbing dirk.
The music score is positively anemic compared to John Barry's original. Of particular note in Lion1 are the vaguely menacing "Main Title" that serves as introduction to the destructive passions in the plot, the elegant "Eleanor's Arrival", which accompanies her regal progress up river by open boat to Chinon, and the finale - "We're Jungle Creatures" - that underscores the approaching end to Henry's reign, but the beginning of the great Plantagenet dynasty.
Costuming and sets are too pretty and finished. In Lion1, the interior of Chinon is gloomy, cold, rough-hewn, and smoky (from the torches) - perhaps to be expected in a 12th century pile. And the clothing, even for the royals, wasn't elegant by any stretch. (My favorite scene in the original has Henry casually throwing on a crown and royal cloak over otherwise plain garb before striding through the mud, dogs, chickens and peasants in the castle courtyard to greet the arriving Phillip.) In Lion2, the costumes are too fine and the castle interior, especially the main circular staircase, is too obviously a film set.
The dialogue, perhaps the best ever heard on the Big Screen, is virtually the same in the two productions. However, the nuances from facial expressions, body language, and timing raise Lion1 to the realm of the sublime.
The scripted action is also pretty much identical in both, except for three unnecessary sequences: an opening scene of Eleanor's failed rebellion in 1174, a silly shot of Richard riding his horse up Chinon's circular stairs, and another of Richard attempting to escape house arrest by rappelling down Chinon's walls.
And how about the acting?
In Lion2, Yuliya Vysotskaya as Alais is at least the equal of Jane Merrow's original. Yuliya presents as a slightly stronger personality, and it doesn't hurt that she resembles a blonde Audrey Hepburn. And the new Phillip (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) does a different and perhaps improved take on a relative youngster striving to be a King in the face of the formidable Henry, whereas Timothy Dalton in the role came across with the unscrupulous venom of a misplaced older man.
Rafe Spall as the latter-day John occasionally overacts, in my opinion, almost to the point of parody, unlike Nigel Terry's right-on portrayal of the pathetic youngest Prince. John Light is relatively sphinx-like as the contemporary Geoffrey compared to the sardonic and clever schemer revealed by John Castle. Andrew Howard as the new Richard, whatever the real-life man may have been like, didn't strike me as Lionheart material. The superficial trouble was the actor's unimposing voice. Anthony Hopkin's Richard, I think, would've wiped up the floor with the new guy.
Lion1 starred Peter O'Toole and Katherine Hepburn as Henry and Eleanor. Both received Oscar nominations, and the latter won her category. Only in the last third of Lion2, with Patrick Stewart as Henry and Glenn Close as Eleanor, does the power of their paired performance achieve that of Peter's and Kate's tour de force. Stewart and Close seem too amused with the familial dysfunction of their characters, almost playing them for laughs, especially in the early going. Whatever humor the audience perceives in the dialogue - and there's much, the real Henry and Eleanor, and O'Toole and Hepburn, squabbled over the succession with deadly seriousness. Also, Lion2 portrays both as white-haired ancients. In fact, Henry was only 51 at the time, though Eleanor was 11 years older.
Had I not seen Lion1, I would've given Lion2 five stars. But the former is so superlative in all respects that I cannot.
Finally, let's return to the historical record. A weary Henry, perhaps the greatest of England's monarchs, died of illness in July 1189, two days after being forced by the allied Richard and Phillip to accept humiliating terms ending a war. Richard succeeded to the throne, to be followed by John in 1199. (Geoffrey had died in 1186). Eleanor survived until 1202. John lost virtually all of his father's vast French holdings to Phillip. Alais returned to France to wed another.
Movie Review: A relatively light weight production of Goldman's drama
Summary: 4 Stars
It is impossible for me to watch this Showtime remake of "The Lion in Winter" starring Glenn Close and Patrick Stewart without constantly comparing it to the 1968 theatrical film with Katharine Hepburn and Peter O'Toole. That was the first Hepburn film I ever saw and the way she delivers James Goldman's great lines (my favorite would be "I could peel you like a pear and God himself would call it justice!") is forever etched in my brain.
However, I also think that it is clear that the specter of the original film hangs over the entire cast of this production. By that I mean that it seems like every single memorable line from the play (and there are literally dozens) is delivered in a decidedly different way. Specifically, Close plays Eleanor of Aquitaine as being much more emotional, which is rather ironic given that her ex-husband, the late King of France, is described as being a weeper. This means that when Eleanor has what should be her final emotional collapse at the end of the film, it is really just another in what has been a series of emotional moments. As for Stewart, his Henry II tends to underplay all of the key moments. It certainly seems that every time O'Toole engages in bluster and bombast, Stewart goes quiet, bordering on a whisper. Again, I can only conclude that these were conscious choices because they stand out so boldly against the original film version.
This is not to say that I am against new productions of the play. I would have loved to have seen Robert Preston and Rosemary Harris on Broadway or the Roundabout Theater production starring Laurence Fishburne and Stockard Channing. But Stewart and Close make choices, obviously endorsed by director Andrei Konchalovsky, that remove much of the fire from Goldman's brilliant dialogue. For those who have never seen a production of "The Lion in Winter" they may get a sense of the high quality of the drama, but I do not believe they get the complete picture.
"The Lion in Winter" takes place during Christmas 1183, when Henry II, King of England, summons family to his castle in Chinon, France. At issue is the question of who will be Henry's successor to the English throne. Henry wants his youngest son, John (Rafe Spall), while Eleanor supports their eldest surviving son, Richard the Lionheart (Andrew Howard), which leaves middle son Geoffrey (John Light, in what I think is the best performance because I like his spin on the character). Also along for the ride are Henry's mistress, Alais Capet (Yuliya Vysotskaya), who is supposed to marry the heir, and her brother, Philip (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers), the young King of France.
The chief attraction here is that while Henry and the rest play out their power games through a series of confrontations, feints, compromises, and sudden reversals they are delivering their lines with an extraordinary level of insight, wit, and irony. That is, of course, provided they are delivered so as not to undercut the power of the lines. The confrontations between Henry and Eleanor are supposed to be a clash of heavyweights and the cast here is dropping down in weight class.