But we're talking about the original 1968 version. One thing I noticed was how real the sets looked. The castles looked real, they should, as they were real! Instead of using a glitzy, decked out Hollywood set, the castle looked cold and austere, very authentic.

It must have been cold because in one scene with Hepburn and O'Toole I could see Hepburn's breath. They did a lot of on-location shooting for both interiors and exteriors. They shot in France, Wales and Ireland. All this attention to detail and realism, made the film seem...well, real.

The Lion in Winter is not an easy film to watch. I found if I didn't pay close attention I would miss bits of dialogue and lose my place in the ongoing, plans-within-plans. The dialogue is very stage like and reminded me of a modern adaption of a Shakespearean play.

I do love historical period pieces but this film is really about cleverly written verbiage. Really the things they say are very witty and roll of the actors lips like fine tuned proses.

This was my favorite line.

Elanor: "Of course he has a knife, he always has a knife, we all have knives! It's 1183 and we're barbarians!..." A bit of a conceit to the audience, but it made me chuckle.

And look, I just wrote a bunch more about this movie. I think I'll stop before I write a novella. The Lion in Winter is a one of a kind movie, so watch it already!