A 1968 Movie for Now

Quote of the day:
“Of course we carry knives. It’s 1183 and we’re Barbarians.”
--James Goldman, from the script for "A Lion in Winter."

Follow-up to “The Most Amazing Story of 2006?” and “Amish Values: Aren’t They Interesting?”:
“We need to accept it. There is no other way we can go on.”
--The family of one of the girls killed in the Nickel Mines school shooting.

The plot of "A Lion in Winter" is an attempt by British King Henry II to choose an heir to his throne among his three sons. It sounds simple enough. And it sounds boring, especially if you don’t like period pieces. But there is as much action here as in any Bruce Lee movie. Few movies contain this much emotional movement.

This is likely Katharine Hepburn’s best performance, and Peter O’Toole is equally good. A young Anthony Hopkins plays the oldest son. The writing and the acting are worth the price of admission, but there’s much, much more here.

This film is startlingly contemporary, more so than than "The Graduate," which also came out in 1968. It is about relationships and politics, and how each complicates the other, and spoils the other.

As I watched, I slowly realized that there were very few words passing the characters’ lips that were not deceptive or manipulative. I found myself thinking how pervasive this kind of conversation is today, from the national political arena to our workplaces.

The question the movie left with me was this. Can relationships survive in the face of never-ending desire for triumph? Can there even be any authentic human contact, when everything must be calculated for political or personal-advancement purposes?