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The Christmas Movie Everyone Ignores
Debates about Christmas movies have been around as long as Christmas movies themselves. Is Die Hard (1988) a Christmas movie? What about The Godfather (1972)? And what about Jaws (1975)? OK, that’s a bit far-fetched, but who knows. The great thing about Christmas movies is that there is something for everyone. Heart-warming stuff like Love Actually (2003), funny like Home Alone (1990), families who love each other, families who reunite after many years apart… and dysfunctional families who hate each other.
What’s it all about?
The Lion in Winter (1968, dir. Anthony Harvey) centres around the royal family of Henry II (Peter O’Toole in his third Oscar nomination), Eleanor of Aquitaine (Katharine Hepburn in an Oscar-winning performance), their three sons, Richard (a very young Anthony Hopkins), Geoffrey (John Castle) and John (Nigel Terry), and Phillip II, King of France, played by an even more terrifying than usual Timothy Dalton.
Henry wants John to inherit the throne, Eleanor wants Richard to take over instead. Everybody wants to rule the world, and they must all conspire against each other to do so. Merry Christmas, 1183-style.
‘What shall we hang? The holly or each other?’ Henry II
