The Lion in Winter - StudioCanal Vintage Classics 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

“Nothing in life has any business being perfect.”

There’s a time when I genuinely hate reviewing a movie I love. My brain whirls around trying to figure out the in for my approach to covering it, constantly second-guessing myself. The story? The excellent actors? The score? The director? How am I going to plunge into this piece and pull out something that’s even legible let alone interesting to read? Fortunately, in the case of The Lion in Winter, our own David Krauss already wrote a magnificent review for Kino Lorber Studio Classics’ 2018 50th Anniversary Blu-ray. 

Before I turn it over to his words, I will reiterate this is one of my favorite films. Anthony Harvey’s impeccable production dutifully earned Hepburn an Oscar for Best Actress with O’Toole earning one of his many nominations for Best Actor that he unfortunately never won. It’s a Christmas film filled with political intrigue and familial betrayal as two parents aim to pit their sons against each other. The winner of this little family squabble would inherit the throne of England and half of France when European Christians were gearing up for another Crusade to retake the Holylands. There’s the natural leader and warrior Richard (Anthony Hopkins), the cunning and conniving Geoffrey (John Castle), and Henry’s youngest and favored son John (Nigel Terry). Waiting in the wings is King Phillip II (James Bond) eager to reclaim his native lands for France. What better time to settle this business than the Christmas holiday? 

I was very young when I first saw this film and it’s been a favorite ever since. I was mesmerized by Peter O’Toole’s incredible commanding performance as Henry. I loved Hepburn as Eleanor of Aquitaine pulling the strings pitting her sons against their father. I loved the comedic banter and playfulness between Henry and Eleanor with this undercurrent of distrust. It’s a genuinely spicey Oscar-winning screenplay from James Goldman brought to life by director Anthony Harvey complete with a rousing Oscar-winning John Berry score. It’s one of the few movies I never get tired of watching and would damn near call a perfect film.

Anyway, here’s what Mr. Krauss had to say for his review: 

Royal families may live in opulent palaces, exude an air of rarefied sophistication, wield considerable power, and command enormous respect, but deep down they’re just people...and they’re riddled with all the same faults and insecurities that plague the rest of us. That’s the idea playwright James Goldman strives to convey in his captivating domestic comedy, The Lion in Winter, which bitingly chronicles a fraught family Christmas filled with all the bickering, rivalries, power plays, hurt feelings, tender moments, and rueful recriminations to which all of us can all too well relate. The only difference is King Henry II of England (Peter O’Toole) and his estranged wife Eleanor of Aquitaine (Katharine Hepburn) preside over this particular cantankerous clan, yet their lofty pedigrees and imperious nature can’t quell the petty sniping and rebellious attitudes that consume their unruly brood and threaten to crack the family’s foundation.

The Lion in Winter did not take Broadway by storm when it premiered in 1966 (it ran for only 92 performances), but director Anthony Harvey’s 1968 film version, brilliantly adapted by Goldman, won far more success and acclaim. Opening up the drama broadens its scope, while filming in medieval castles in Wales and the South of France brings welcome authenticity to the tale, which is distinguished by innumerable brisk, poetic exchanges that cleverly blend a Shakespearean rhythm and formality with contemporary turns of phrase. And hearing the delicious quips, put-downs, and comebacks roll off the tongues of such esteemed performers as O’Toole, Hepburn, Anthony Hopkins, and a young Timothy Dalton in his film debut is one of the picture’s great pleasures.

Shortly after his 50th birthday, Henry II comes to terms with his impending mortality, and his intense desire to keep his realm secure and intact compels him to begin contemplating succession. He invites his three sons - Richard (Hopkins), Geoffrey (John Castle), and John (Nigel Terry) - as well as his imprisoned wife Eleanor to celebrate Christmas at his castle in Chinon, France, where he plans to select his heir to the throne. Henry favors John, but Eleanor campaigns hard for the lionhearted Richard, and over the course of the tumultuous holidays, everyone - including the neglected Geoffrey - spins devious webs, double-crosses their adversaries, and enacts Machiavellian manipulations as they jockey for the king’s favor and seek to gain the upper hand.

Spicing up the brew is a special house guest, the young King Philip II of France (Dalton), the son of Eleanor’s ex-husband, who harbors his own agenda and refuses to be marginalized and dismissed by the larger-than-life Henry. And then there’s Philip’s half-sister Alais (Jane Merrow), whom Eleanor helped raise and who now occupies Henry’s bed as his devoted mistress, much to Eleanor’s chagrin. Alais becomes a pivotal pawn in the diabolical succession games, but Philip proves a formidable opponent for the beleaguered Henry, who begins to fear no one is qualified to replace him and the country he has fought so hard to build will ultimately collapse.

Goldman’s Oscar-winning script tries hard to educate us on English and French history while the shenanigans play out, but a brief brush-up on who’s who and who did what to whom prior to viewing will improve the experience immeasurably. The period is incredibly fascinating, and the depiction of Henry’s court as a primitive fortress populated by unkempt peasants, free-running chickens, and a lusty barbarism (it is 1183, after all) shows just how far the British monarchy has evolved over the past eight-plus centuries.

And yet the family dynamics Goldman so astutely dramatizes remain strikingly unchanged. Siblings campaign for favor, nurse wounds inflicted by parental neglect, and pit their parents against each other, while the battling mother and father and husband and wife constantly butt heads. In a delicious display of verbal gamesmanship, Henry and Eleanor try to find common ground while endlessly seeking an advantage over the other and furiously paddling away from all the water that’s flowed under their marital bridge. The underlying love remains, but sometimes finding it amid the muck is a challenge...and embracing it is even harder.

Hepburn won her third Best Actress Oscar (tying with Barbra Streisand for Funny Girl) for her bravura portrayal of the calculating, cunning, fiercely maternal yet oh-so-vulnerable Eleanor. The 61-year-old star was already a grande dame of Hollywood, and she portrays this medieval grande dame with a mesmerizing mix of fury, tenderness, and acerbic - at times even bawdy - humor. Once seen, her majestic entrance on an open riverboat will be long remembered (as will her radiant farewell on the same vessel), and her crackling chemistry with O’Toole ignites the screen.

O’Toole had previously portrayed Henry II in 1964’s Becket, but this performance, which received a Best Actor Oscar nomination, is more robust and free-wheeling. Like the titular lion, the bearded, bushy-haired O’Toole growls and bellows as he leaps around his castle trying to protect his turf and vanquish all pretenders. Eleanor constantly evens the playing field, and her feline machinations drive the blustery Henry to distraction.

Hopkins, in only his second feature film, makes a strong impression as the sexually conflicted Richard, who shares an abnormally close bond with his manipulative mother while harboring a fierce desire for the dashing French king. Dalton holds his own with the current and future cinema legends, while Terry, who also makes his film debut here and would later portray the noble King Arthur in Excalibur, contributes a colorful turn as the grubby, spoiled, immature John.

Though the acting and writing steal the show, The Lion in Winter remains a deeply satisfying film. Harvey also nabbed an Oscar nod for his direction, and his expertise is evident in almost every frame. From the beautiful cinematography and production design to the memorable Oscar-nominated music score and Oscar-nominated costumes, the movie constantly excites the senses while stimulating the brain. This Lion has both bark and bite, so sit back, relax, and let him roar.

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray 
The next king of England will be decided thanks to a new 4K UHD of The Lion In Winter from StudioCanal Vintage Classics Collection. For this review, we were generously provided a check disc. The film is pressed on a Region Free BD100 disc. The disc loads a language menu option Germany or the United Kingdom before arriving at an animated main menu with standard navigation options. The discs are housed in a two-disc case, each disc getting its own tray and no disc stacking. Completing the set is an identical slipcover. 

Billed as sourced from a “newly restored 4K version,” I don’t know if this is the same 4K restoration used for the 50th Anniversary 2018 Blu-ray or if StudioCanal did in fact do a brand new scan and restoration. Those details are a little unclear. Regardless, The Lion in Winter looks fantastic in 2.35:1 2160p with a beautiful HDR grade. Something of note, and I hope it’s an anomaly limited to my check disc, but there seems to be an issue with the Dolby Vision layer while playing the main feature. On my Oppo player, it triggers successfully for the main menu, but when playing the film, it defaults to HDR10. None of my other players support Dolby Vision, so I have no way to test this anywhere else. I’ve let my contacts at Studiocanal know of the issue so hopefully it’s something that’s been caught before final retail discs are replicated. 

[Update 1/27/25 - I just heard back from our friends at Studiocanal that the issue with the Dolby Vision grade not firing when the main feature started was caught in the check disc phase (what we reviewed) and should not affect final retail editions. We'll reconfirm that as soon as we have hands on a final copy in the next couple of weeks.]

But speaking of just the HDR10 grade, this restoration does every bit of justice to Douglas Slocombe’s gorgeous cinematography. The facial features of our cast, the lovely costuming from Margaret Furse, and the impeccable art direction from Peter Murton are all on display. From woolen tunics to leather armor to Hopkin’s and O’Toole’s scruffy beard, everything maintains the appearance of a studiously restored film with a healthy cinematic veneer of film grain. Not too noisy or intrusive, but the look of a production shot nearly sixty years ago. The HDR10 grade nicely accents the colors, contrast, and black levels without being a revisionist work. Looking back at the KLSC disc, it has a similar tone, but primaries have more life, skin tones look a little more healthy and natural, and black levels and shadows lend to an appreciable sense of three-dimensional depth. The only odd spot I experienced is a little bit of wobble during the opening credits, but that passed as soon as the main feature started.

[UPDATE: 2/28/25]
Thanks to the fine folks at Studiocanal, I've now been able to take a full look at the final retail copy of The Lion In Winter with the corrected Dolby Vision grade and it's still a magnificent presentation. I was happy with the HDR10 and this Dolby Vision edition gives the image a nice little boost as well. I wouldn't call the differences between HDR presentations a night and day variety, more like subtle refinements. The more notable "differences" I perceived are later in the film in the shadowy catacombs and wine cellar scenes where there's limited candle light, lots of shadows, and plenty of dark patches. The Dolby Vision grade between these moments let a little more healthy color into the scenes while giving the blacks and shadows a little more stability. But really it's a damned slight difference so no matter which way you're rigged up, you're in for a beautiful transfer. 

On the audio side of this domestic drama, The Lion in Winter packs an excellent LPCM 2.0 mono track. Clean and clear, the track is free of any kind of age-related issues like hiss, crackles, or pops. Dialog is crystal clear without issue. For the 2018 Blu-ray, I thought some of the louder outbursts of the cast could sound a bit shrill, but that’s not an issue here. Even when O’Toole’s gravely voice is at its loudest it sounds well blanched and natural. Even in mono, I also love the staging of this mix letting the atmosphere of the cavernous castle walls carry a natural echo to the voices and sound effects. Then comes Barry’s incredible Oscar-winning score filling each moment perfectly. Levels are spot on without issue.

As for the bonus features, StudioCanal loads this disc with a terrific assortment of new and archival materials. An essential piece of the collection is the Anthony Harvey audio commentary, it really is a must listen for any fan of the film. The only shame of Hopkins’ new interview is that it isn’t a commentary track or run for two hours. In twenty minutes he packs so many memories about being a young actor, getting the part, and meeting O’Toole and Hepburn that you want to hear a lot more by the end. The new interview with Robin Vidgeon is also very interesting for a more production-focused look at the making of the film. Actor John Castle’s archival interview was a bit brief but also informative and editor John Bloom’s segment is also informative from a behind-the-scenes perspective. All good extras, except the restoration trailer - that’s a bit silly and over-the-top. Makes the film sound like a post-millennium action thriller. 

• Audio Commentary featuring director Anthony Harvey
• NEW The Heart of a Lion: An Interview with Sir Anthony Hopkins (HD 19:46)
• NEW Shooting Stars: An Interview with Camera Assistant Robin Vidgeon (HD 10:33)
• Interview with John Castle (HD 11:45)
• Interview with John Bloom (HD 11:39)
• Behind the Scenes Stills Gallery
• 2024 Restoration Trailer

With an incredible cast, impeccable production design, a thrilling crackling screenplay, and terrific direction, The Lion in Winter is simply one of the finest films ever made. At least for me, at any rate. One of my favorite films, I’ve seen it countless times over the years and I’m always happy to revisit it. If I can’t watch it, well it’s a safe bet I have some pieces of the score in a playlist. How Peter O’Toole never won a true Best Actor Oscar is beyond me, for this film let alone any other. Hepburn came out of retirement for the role and she delivered a masterclass performance. Watching the two of them is pure cinematic dynamite. Thanks to StudioCanal, we can enjoy this marvelous film on 4K UHD with an often stunning HDR transfer, a splendid mono audio mix, and a healthy selection of interesting and informative extras. I struggled with my final recommendation not wanting to shoot too high for a biased favorite film, but screw it, I’m calling The Lion in Winter on 4K a Must Own. 
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