Movie Stats:
Released 1968 (USA)
American & British, in English
Director - Anthony Harvey
Stars - Peter O’Toole, Katharine Hepburn
Plot Summary:
Based on historical events, at Christmas time in 1183, King Henry II (O’Toole) and his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine (Hepburn) scheme against one another; each of them wants a different son to inherit the throne upon Henry’s death.
Warnings:
Violence; very minor gore.
Bad Stuff:
All the arguing & scheming gets pretty tedious after a while.
They don’t really talk to one another like I suspect people talked in the 12th century. It’s not like I wanted to listen to a whole bunch of “thou hast forsaken me” or what have you, but I don’t want to hear a bunch of people in medieval garb talk like they’re from the 1960s either.
It’s quite melodramatic at times.
Good Stuff:
The love-hate relationship between Henry and Eleanor is fun to watch in a schadenfreude sort of way.
There’s a lot of delicious verbal sparring.
Loved the costuming and set design.
About the Performance:
I don’t think it’s any great secret that I’m not a fan of K. Hepburn. There’s something very snooty tooty about her that she brought to a lot of her roles (in fact, she played a lot of snooty tooty characters). I find her off-putting and one note. That being said, I thought she was excellent in this. Her character is conniving, vicious, and manipulative, but only because she’s a deeply wounded, lonely creature. Hepburn conveys that very well.
Other performances of Hepburn’s I’ve reviewed: Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner; The African Queen; The Philadelphia Story; Bringing Up Baby.
The Verdict:
This film had all the hall marks of a movie I would hate. It’s from the 1960s, stars an actress I don’t like, and covers a topic I have little interest in (old school British royal succession). Surprisingly, however, I thought it wasn’t that bad. While I did find it somewhat tedious/boring, and occasionally melodramatic, it was a lot more interesting than I expected. All of the performances were great (except I didn’t care for Nigel Terry as Prince John). O’Toole & Hepburn were particularly good. I also appreciated that it assumes its audience is intelligent, that we know who these people are and what their history is. My knowledge of this time period is somewhat limited, so it encouraged me to look things up, which I liked.
I give it 3.5 stars.
2 comments:
From my 2011 review: “This is sort of like the play Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, but the parents have four children!"
I think Katharine Hepburn did have a very snooty tooty attitude; but she came from that class of people and totally talks in the snooty tooty class voice. I like her longevity. It's fun being able to see her in movies from a very young age to a very old age.
We watched this movie in Western Civ and I remember the teacher stopping the movie after the opening scenes and pointing out to us how each of the sons' character traits were introduced by there actions. I think on re-watch I found this to be a rather laborious endeavor.
I like the comparison with Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. The themes are very similar in terms of love/hate, plus the endless sniping at one another. I wish I could better remember in what way each of the sons were introduced, because I think that's pretty neat, that their actions were so closely tied to their character, but I don't see myself watching this film again any time soon.
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