--- title: "The Lion in Winter" year: 1968 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-lion-in-winter" fi1m_score: 81 critics_score: 79 critics_reviews: 12 published: "2026-09-20T05:06:49.740947+00:00" updated: "2026-09-20T05:06:49.977480+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # The Lion in Winter (1968) Directed by Anthony Harvey · 2h 14m · MPA PG · Drama, History **Fi1m score: 81** · Critics 79 from 12 reviews *In a sentence:* Christmas with the Plantagenets: the fires are real, the dogs are real, and every embrace is checked for daggers > Anthony Harvey’s film of James Goldman’s play is a family quarrel in a cold castle, and O’Toole and Hepburn talk it into something close to blood sport. The plotting circles in the last hour; the two of them never do. ## Synopsis Christmas at the castle of Chinon. Henry II of England (Peter O’Toole), old by the standards of his day and not ready to admit it, summons his family to settle who inherits. He lets his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine (Katharine Hepburn), out of the prison he keeps her in so she can attend. Their three surviving sons come too: Richard (Anthony Hopkins), the soldier Eleanor favours; Geoffrey (John Castle), the clever one nobody favours; and John (Nigel Terry), the youngest, whom Henry wants on the throne. Also at table are Henry’s young mistress Alais (Jane Merrow), promised as a bride to whichever son becomes heir, and her brother Philip II of France (Timothy Dalton), who has come to collect on old treaties. Henry wants his kingdom kept whole after him. Eleanor wants her own son crowned and her husband beaten. ## Review James Goldman wrote the play and then the screenplay, and he has not tried to hide where it came from. *The Lion in Winter* is a handful of people in a handful of rooms, talking. Henry II has summoned his family to Chinon for Christmas to name an heir, and by the end of the first scene everyone in the castle has a candidate and a plan. Anthony Harvey’s job is to stop this looking like a play that has wandered outdoors, and he mostly manages it, chiefly by refusing to make anything pretty. Douglas Slocombe shoots the castle as a working building in December. The light is grey, the stone is wet, there are dogs and geese in the yards and the fires give off smoke you can see. Margaret Furse and Lee Poll put the royal family in heavy wool and fur that has plainly been worn before, and the crowns look as if they weigh something. When Eleanor arrives by river barge, sat upright in the cold, it is the film’s one grand entrance, and Slocombe holds it wide and lets the water do the work. John Barry’s score opens with a choir singing Latin over brass and then, sensibly, stays out of the way of the dialogue for long stretches. The dialogue is the point. Goldman writes the Plantagenets as people who know they are witty and cannot stop, and O’Toole and Hepburn take it at a gallop. O’Toole’s Henry is loud, physical, delighted with himself, a man who bellows at his sons across a banqueting hall and means about half of it. Hepburn’s Eleanor is still and watchful, waiting for the gap. Their first scene together, walking the castle trading insults about their ages, told us inside a minute that these two had been married a long time and had enjoyed a good deal of it. We laughed more than we expected to at a film about a twelfth-century succession. The tagline says every family has its ups and downs, and for once the tagline is right. What got at us was quieter. About halfway through, Eleanor spends several minutes taking Henry apart, and when the door shuts behind him she sits down and simply stops. Harvey and his editor John Bloom hold on Hepburn’s face with nothing on the soundtrack, and it moved us more than any of the speeches, because it is the first time the film shows the wit costing something. The sons are well cast, with one exception. Hopkins plays Richard with a clenched jaw, a soldier who cannot bear his mother’s affection and cannot do without it. John Castle’s Geoffrey is the best-written and least-noticed of the three, the middle boy who has worked out that being cleverest earns nothing. Nigel Terry plays John as a sulking, spotty child, which is what Goldman wrote, and it is a problem, because nobody watching could believe Henry wants him crowned and the plot needs us to. Timothy Dalton, young and cold, plays Philip as the only adult in the building, and a sequence in his chamber staged like a bedroom farce, with princes arriving one after another and nowhere to put them, is the funniest and the nastiest thing in the film. Jane Merrow’s Alais is bargained over by everyone and gets to say, plainly, what she wants, which makes her rarer here than she sounds. The trouble is the plotting. Goldman’s structure is a run of reversals: an alliance is made, betrayed and remade, sometimes within one scene. For the first hour this is exhilarating. In the second we noticed we had stopped keeping score, because nothing anyone agrees to survives to the next room, and if the deals do not matter to the film they stop mattering to us. At 134 minutes it feels its length in the final stretch, and the big confrontations the story has been building to are less sharp than the small ones that came before. Some critics have found the whole thing ponderous; we did not, but we can see the film they were watching. O’Toole had played this king before, in [*Becket*](https://film.one/film/becket), and he is more fun here because he has an equal to fight. That is the reason to see it. As a film of a play it does better than most, because Harvey trusts two actors to hold a room and they do. It is a 15 certificate, for the language and the cruelty. Watch it over Christmas, after the family has gone to bed. You will recognise more of it than you would like. *Fi1m score 81, published 20 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics like it, and the praise falls almost entirely on the two leads. Katharine Hepburn and Peter O’Toole are named again and again for their sparring as Eleanor and Henry II, and the screenplay is the second most common point of admiration: literate, quick and savage in its account of a royal family carving up an inheritance. Several reviews also note the early appearances of Anthony Hopkins and Timothy Dalton, and Anthony Harvey’s direction is credited with keeping out of the way of the script. The reservations are about the film’s stage origins. The New York Times finds the climaxes and the specifically cinematic passages the weakest parts, and The New Yorker goes further, arguing that campy material has been treated with too much solemnity and that Hepburn leans on her own persona. Eye for Film, otherwise admiring, finds some of the supporting turns hammy. The spread is narrow apart from that one outright dissent, and more recent reviews tend to see it as a Christmas film about a family that cannot stand each other. ### Reviews we read (12) - **The Times**, Kevin Maher (★★★★★): The critic calls it the original Succession and highlights the star-studded cast and literate screenplay. The verbal sparring and inheritance drama at Chinon castle are singled out as the film's strengths. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/the-lion-in-winter-1968-review-original-succession-njb8ptrlz) - **Los Angeles Times**, Kenneth Turan (90/100, inferred): This restored classic still roars with its splendid language, pageantry, and spectacular lead performances by Hepburn and O'Toole as battling royals. The focus on verbal jousting and the strong cast, including early turns by Hopkins and Dalton, keeps it compelling despite its theatrical roots. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-lion-in-winter-review-20161209-story.html) - **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (90/100, inferred): The film succeeds with its literate script and intelligent direction, standing out for handling ideas and emotions effectively in a believable historical setting. Ebert praises the strong performances, especially by Peter O'Toole, Katharine Hepburn, and newcomers Anthony Hopkins and Timothy Dalton. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-lion-in-winter-1968) - **The Guardian** (A-): The critic praises the film as a lively Plantagenet family soap opera full of savage catfights and witty dialogue. Hepburn and O'Toole are singled out for their matching, delicious performances as the scheming royal couple. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/apr/01/the-lion-in-winter-reel-history) - **Variety** (90/100, inferred): An intense, fierce personal drama put across by outstanding performances from Peter O'Toole and Katharine Hepburn, with excellent work by director Anthony Harvey and a generally strong cast. The literate adaptation stands out for its treatment of treachery in Henry II's family. [Read](https://variety.com/1967/film/people-news/the-lion-in-winter-2-1200421509/) - **Empire**, Ian Nathan (80/100, inferred): The critic praises this rousing historical melodrama for its two powerhouse performances from Katharine Hepburn and Peter O’Toole. Director Anthony Harvey is singled out for creating a splendid medieval setting that supports the family intrigue. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/lion-winter-review/) - **Film Comment**, Farran Smith Nehme (75/100, inferred): The critic notes the film's 1968 critical reception and commercial success despite some detractors, highlighting its enduring appeal as a holiday favorite centered on a dysfunctional royal family. [Read](https://www.filmcomment.com/blog/lion-winter-roars-back/) - **The New York Times**, Renata Adler (70/100, inferred): The movie is mostly outdoorsy and fun with witty, if dated, dialogue and solid acting from the ensemble, particularly the younger actors. It remains faithful to the play with energetic scenes but feels weakest in its climaxes and cinematic touches. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1968/10/31/archives/screen-james-goldmans-lion-in-winter-arrivesotoole-and-katharine.html) - **The New Yorker**, Pauline Kael (30/100, inferred): The film suffers from too much inappropriate integrity, elevating the campy stage material into ponderous historical drama with overwrought emotions. O'Toole gives a robust, histrionic performance that almost saves it, while Hepburn's portrayal draws too much on her own persona. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1968/11/09/1968-11-09-189-tny-cards-000092868) - **Eye for Film**, Keith Dudhnath (90/100, inferred): The film is made stunning by the performances of Hepburn and O'Toole, who thrive on the tight script and deliver pure brilliance in their roles as Eleanor and Henry II. Anthony Harvey's direction keeps the focus on the performances and script without overdoing it, resulting in a wonderful film that one must see, though some supporting performances veer toward hammy. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/the-lion-in-winter-film-review-by-keith-dudhnath) - **Collider**, Rhianna Malas (80/100, inferred): The critic presents the 1968 film as an ideal holiday movie due to its depiction of a royally dysfunctional family feuding over power during Christmas. She singles out the sharp dialogue, Katharine Hepburn's sass, and the relatable messiness of family gatherings for praise. [Read](https://collider.com/the-lion-in-winter-holiday-movie/) - **The Skinny**, Cara McGuigan (★★★): The review praises the venomous family power struggles and especially Katherine Hepburn's magnificent performance as the scheming Eleanor, calling the cast's energy a sight to behold. [Read](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/dvd-reviews/the-lion-in-winter) ## Details - **Director:** Anthony Harvey - **Director:** Anthony Harvey - **Screenplay:** James Goldman - **Cinematography:** Douglas Slocombe - **Editor:** John Bloom - **Music:** John Barry, John Scott - **Costume design:** Lee Poll, Margaret Furse - **Producer:** Martin Poll - **Cast:** Peter O'Toole as Henry II; Katharine Hepburn as Eleanor of Aquitaine; Anthony Hopkins as Richard; John Castle as Geoffrey; Nigel Terry as John; Timothy Dalton as Philip II; Jane Merrow as Alais; Nigel Stock as William Marshall - **Runtime:** 2h 14m - **Certificate (MPA):** PG - **Release (the US):** 30 October 1968 - **Genres:** Drama, History - **Budget:** $4 million - **Box office:** $22 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pqz3gkrmBbo ## Where to watch in the US - Tubi: free, hd, leaving 2026-10-01 - Amazon Prime Video: add-on - Apple TV: add-on, hd - The Roku Channel: add-on, hd - Apple TV: rent $3.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, hd *Checked 2026-09-20.* Also available in: AT, AU, BE, BG, CA, CH, CZ, DE, DK, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HR, HU, IE, IS, IT, LT, NL, NO, NZ, PT, RO, SE, SI, SK, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Academy Awards 1969: Best Actor (nominated); Best Costume Design (nominated); Best Director (nominated); Best Picture (nominated); Best Actress (won); Best Original Score, no Musical (won); Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay (won) ## If you liked this - *Becket* (1964), Fi1m 79: O’Toole’s first go at Henry II, with Burton as the friend he cannot keep — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/becket.md) - *Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?* (1966), Fi1m 86: Another married couple who fight because it is the only thing they still do well — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/whos-afraid-of-virginia-woolf.md) - *Ran* (1985), Fi1m 92: Kurosawa’s old warlord divides his kingdom among his sons and lives to regret it — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/ran.md) - *The Madness of King George* (1994), Fi1m 83: Another English king losing his grip while the court weighs up the heir — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-madness-of-king-george.md) - *The Favourite* (2018), Fi1m 87: Court intrigue played as farce, with the women doing all the scheming — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-favourite.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/the-lion-in-winter