What is the best Christmas film that isn’t a Christmas film? Die Hard is well up there. Edward Scissorhands? Gremlins? Even It’s A Wonderful Life, that holiday classic, isn’t technically a Christmas film in the way that Home Alone or Elf are. But for my money, the absolute peak of Christmas non-Christmas films is 1968’s The Lion In Winter.
The year is 1183 and King Henry II of England (Peter O’Toole) has gathered his remaining sons, Richard (Anthony Hopkins), Geoffrey (John Castle) and John (Nigel Terry) for his Christmas court. He’s also invited along his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine (Katherine Hepburn), who has been his prisoner ever since she helped their sons to rebel against him. Since eldest son and heir to the throne Hal died, Henry and his sons have been clashing over their inheritances. A lot of this story is historically accurate; the sons did rebel, Henry did have his wife imprisoned, and they were still fighting each other over the throne, their lands and their titles when Henry died in 1189.
It sounds like a heavy political drama, and there is a lot of wordy negotiating that happens throughout the film, which isn’t exactly Christmassy. But The Lion In Winter is much more than that. It is also a very funny, compelling watch. It’s gorgeous in the way that old-school period dramas tend to be, and it’s also romantic in places. Who would have thought a film about a medieval king’s Christmas party could be so much fun?
The relationships in The Lion In Winter are complicated, at best. Henry and Eleanor have had a fiery, loving marriage right up until the moment he put her in prison for betraying him. Eleanor loves eldest son Richard significantly more than her other boys. Henry favours John, the only son who doesn’t seem to totally hate him. The three brothers can’t stand each other, but are more than willing to use the others for political gain. Throw in the King of France, a bystander who is delighted to be at the court watching all this unfold, who also is willing to make and break alliances with the brothers if it means he gets what he wants, and you have a recipe for disaster. There are screaming arguments around the Christmas tree, dodgy dealings late at night, and some moments that are truly heartfelt, especially between Henry and Eleanor who – we have to remember – really did love each other, and might still a little bit.
It isn’t a surprise then that, ultimately, what makes The Lion In Winter the best non-Christmas Christmas film for me is that I don’t think any movie before or since captures the absolute horror and awkwardness of what it can be like to have to spend Christmas with your dysfunctional family. Yes, these Plantagenets are at the top of the tree politically and socially, arguing over things like who gets to own whole counties or who gets to take three castles, but on our own small scale, we’ve all been there with our own families at some time or another.. We’ve all been Geoffrey watching as our siblings tear into each other and feeling quietly superior. All of our dads have been Henry at some point, furious at his ungrateful kids. All of our mums have been Eleanor, despairing at the absolute state of everyone. They’re royal, and they’re an excellent example of why hereditary kingship is a very bad thing, but they are also very human.
The line that absolutely sums up The Lion In Winter’s Christmas vibe for me comes at the end of one of Eleanor and Henry’s roof-shaking arguments, when he storms out of her bedchamber and she follows him to the door, screaming. Eleanor sinks to the floor and says the iconic line, ‘What family doesn’t have its ups and downs?’. Katherine Hepburn got an Oscar for her role in this film, and I personally would have given it to her solely based on the delivery of that line alone. Nothing sums up the darkly funny film better, and little compares to the sheer unadulterated joy we get watching a family Christmas like any other play out before us.
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