Rational people who discuss the relative quality of Christmas movies (a rather small subset of people) almost universally1 agree that the two main candidates for the greatest Christmas movie of all time are Lethal Weapon and Die Hard. I acknowledge the argument for making a distinction between Christmas Movies and movies that take place during Christmas but that is a debate for another day.
What I want to talk about today is the inclusion of a third candidate for greatest Christmas movie of all time; The Lion in Winter (1968).
Based on the play of the same name by James Goldman, and adapted by him as well, the movie tells the story of Henry II of England’s Christmas court in 1183, and the interpersonal and political dramas among Henry, Eleanor of Aquitaine, their children, and their guests.
The script runs the whole emotional spectrum over the course of the movie and is full of sharply funny and poignant dialogue. The cast is full of enough heavyweight actors that it bends light2 and even the soundtrack is extraordinarily good.
It is not a perfect film by any stretch. The directing and cinematography are not great, by modern standards at least, but it is still a towering achievement that easily deserves consideration as a Christmas classic.
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1 I would argue that disagreeing with the idea of those two movies being among, if not at the top of the list could almost certainly be used as evidence that would exclude someone from the “rational” category.
2One of the more enjoyable parts of the movie for me is Katharine Hepburn’s performance. She plays Eleanor of Aquitaine, who was notoriously French, but not only does she makes absolutely no attempt at a French accent, she doesn’t even make any attempt to conceal her own, quite broad, East Coast/New England accent (in her first scene she mentions that she’ll be attending a “Christmas co-aaht”). In spite of that she gives a performance so compelling that it almost pulls you into the screen.