The Cavalier daily :: Tuesday, October 7, 1969 :: University of Virginia Library

Eleanor and the Aquitaine,
Henry and Eleanor, and Christmas
court at Chinon are the bases of
"The Lion in Winter." Presumably,
much can be done with the
aforesaid items, and James Goldman,
in his screenplay for the
movie, based on his Broadway play
of the same name, tries to do as
many things as possible with the
"presumably much." In the space
of a yuletide the audience is treated
to fun and games, walpurgisnacht,
and an exorcism. Which three
concepts bring to mind another
Broadway-Hollywood blast, "Who's
Afraid of Virginia Woolf."

Indeed "The Lion in Winter" is
best described as a Twelfth Century
"Virginia Woolf." However James
Goldman is not quite as talented as
Edward Albee as concerns dialogue,
and because of basic preconceptions
about the treatment of
history, Goldman is forced to be
extremely careful, which he is not,
always. From George and Martha,
Honey and Nick we will accept any
comment, any drivel, any witticism.
From Henry Plantagenet, Eleanor
of Aquitaine, and Richard, Prince
and Lionhearted, it is slightly more
difficult to accept basic asininities.

Goldman handles the script
fairly well and nearly brilliantly.
Only one truly glaring mistake is
evident (although I guess someone
could find others which seem to
him equally glaring). Eleanor never
should have turned and looked at
the camera from her position on
the floor and asked, "What family
doesn't have its ups and downs?"
The line is funny; it is outrageous.
Yet it is also apparent that the line
would better have been left out. I
can imagine Goldman sitting in his
study writing, when suddenly the
hilarity of such a line strikes him.
Its brilliance is too much. So he
types it in. The next day he goes
back over what he has written and
thinks "God, that's funny" and
"but maybe it doesn't fit." But he
wonders how such a line can be
edited. It would be lost to posterity
(which I guess would have been the
case, grapevines extending only so
far, and Henry and Eleanor not the
general topic of conversation these
days). So he worries and includes it,
waiting to be pounced upon,
hoping it might just be acceptable.
Actually I enjoyed the line, and I
am glad he included it because out
of context it works well; but it is
not acceptable in the movie and I
think he was mistaken to have left
it in.

The script is good, though, very
good. Eleanor crosses the Channel
to France. Henry wonders at the
fact that the seas were flat, but
questions why she did not ask the
waves to part. She replies that she
asked for the calm sea and that she
"did not think to ask for more."
John, later to sign the Magna Carta,
is surprised to find his brother
Richard carrying a knife after the
inept prince arouses the wrath of
his more illustrious brother.
Eleanor explains, "Of course he has
a knife, we all have knives. It is
1183 and we are all barbarians."
That I think is a very good line, and
the one which save the story from
irrelevance. I do not think that
"Virginia Woolf" had anything to
save it from irrelevance.

Here, as in "Virginia Woolf," it
is brilliant dialogue that moves the
story. Words from one mouth or
another, rather than human interaction
constitute all of "Virginia
Woolf" and the greater part of
"The Lion in Winter." Without the
line concerning the knives all that
the movie is, is a picture of barbed
people thrusting their barbs at one
another, showing to the world a
good deal of their downs with a few
ups included. Despite how easy or
obvious the analogy is, when the
movie was made it was 1968 and
we, too, still carry knives, and we,
too, are still barbarians. And those
knives need not only be tangible
weapons. They are also the cold,
unfeeling, destructive words and
attitudes exhibited at this Christmas
court.

Goes Deeper

The movie does go deeper than
its dialogue within the script. And
it is a very good movie cinematically,
also. Anthony Harvey's direction
is at least equal to the caustic
language. An instance of his perception
which is notable is when
Philippe, the King of France, enters
the court. The Court is particularly
tawdry, an almost tribal place.
Nonetheless when the King of
England greets the King of France
there is ceremony. Henry dons a
bold brocaded robe. He and his
queen walk before the cheers of
their subjects. Philippe enters to a
formal welcome. It is cold. They
enter the royal chambers where
Henry promptly doffs his robe,
positions himself in front of the fire
in the hearth, and rubs his nether
quarters with his hands. He, the
King of England, has a freezing ass.

Excellent Acting

The abrupt cut from the formal
sophistication of the greeting to the
absolute casual naivete of a basic
need is done very handily. Throughout
the movie there are other such
breaks and cuts which add up well.
Never once does the juxtaposition
of scenes or characters fail. Harvey
manages to bring added depth to a
predominately one dimensional
screenplay.

The acting is excellent. Peter
O'Toole and Katherine Hepburn
role out their lines with a precision
that the super-intellectuality of the
script demands. Their sons, John
Castle as Geoffrey, Nigel Terry as
John, and Anthony Hopkins as
Richard, beautifully act the
machine, the dolt, and the emotionally
wounded respectively. Hopkins
does a particularly good job. Jane
Merrow as Alais is something else.
Either her role is rather insipid or
she is. No character commands
much sympathy, but O'Toole, Hepburn,
and Hopkins are strong actors
in strong roles and they cannot be
ignored.

Hints Of Humanity

Dwight MacDonald has not liked
many, if any pictures since "Citizen
Kane" and "Children of Paradise."
"The Lion in Winter" is not a great
picture and it stays too close to the
one dimension of dialogue. It is
saved from that one dimensionality
by excellent production, help from
one line in the script, and hints at
humanity. But all one needs do is
see "Can Herionymous Merkin Ever
Forget Mercy Humppe and Find
True Happiness?" to understand
that although "The Lion in Winter"
is not equal to the best movies, it is
worth seeing and immeasurably
better than the worst ("Merkin")
and much better than most films
we see. Dwight MacDonald notwithstanding,
there are degrees of
bad as well as good, and "The Lion
in Winter" is a good picture, though
not a "Citizen Kane."