if you're one of those people who would DIE without a little good old-fashioned DRAMA in your life, THIS IS A MUST SEE!!!!!!!!!!!!
Fourth April film for 3 Twits and a Brit Movie of the Week Club (Bond actor theme)

There are so many great movies like this I still haven't seen that sometimes I feel my frame of reference for judging movies is a bit inadequate. I know the only way to progress forward is to keep doing my best, but occasionally it feels like there's just too much out there for me to wrap my head around it all.

In any case, this brought me back to my college days studying Shakespeare. Definitely feels like a play, and it's a bit slow and long, but the dialogue is just so perfect and snappy and all the characters work phenomenally well. Everyone was cast perfectly. Production design was through the roof. Very classically shot. A real pleasure.

hmmm... i think i'll round up for this one

8.5 /10

Could've been gayer tbh but still pretty good

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! every single person being the MOST dramatic, katherine hepburn nailing her performance, anthony hopkins being explicitly gay.... what more could i ask for

Take Game of Thrones' best dialogue, political maneuverers, and family interplay, times by 10, and you have The Lion in the Winter.

"It's heavy... Oh Eleanor, you've brought me my tombstone! You spoil me!"

I imagine a young George R.R. Martin was watching this when it came out. It may occasionally betray its stage origins, with characters delivering speeches rather than dialogue but it's a fantastic script, full of power and often wit, frank about sex and sexuality and a history lesson in the mix. And of course the pairing of Peter O'Toole and Katherine Hepburn creates sparks just on their own, their scenes together being the highlight - Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf for the medieval set.

- based on a play which is a devastating and wicked little work: the extent of their Machiavellian deceptions and the depth of their sin is both fascinating and repulsive.
- being a movie based on a play, particularly a period piece, the temptation is to linger on scenery, costumes and other expensive aspects of movie sets that are inaccessible to the stage. in "The Lion in Winter," this is not the case: the movie's editing style seeks to cut as soon as possible, dispensing with any indication of time so that one weekend visit is a staccato condensation of evil people saying evil things to deceive one another. it's great. this can be one of the best stage adaptations, because it is.

Peter O'Toole reprises his role as King Henry II in an electric drama concerned more with characters' complex minds than anything (even the direction and editing).

This was so fucking well written holy shit!!?? And Peter and Kate are absolutely incredible with a just a good supporting cast as they are. While it's incredibly odd in terms of characters and script that on the hinge of madness, it works and comes together so well despite everything and I loved it so much. Like I had no expectations going in really and I was happy with what I'd found.

James Goldman adapted his own stage play in this pretty fantastic all around production. This is just a masterclass of acting here, with the late Peter O'Toole and Katharine Hepburn holding center court. When Anthony Hopkins eventually shuffles off this mortal coil, he can take solace in knowing that he went toe to toe with two of the BEST! DCP