Customer Reviews

The Lion In Winter (1968 Film)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Rhapsodic and darkly brooding, this classic score is absolutely thrilling. The main theme alone deserved the Oscar, and there are so many enchanting melodies, all lushly orchestrated, throughout this amazing piece of music. Eleanor's Arrival is one of the most beautiful, chant-like compositions ever written for a film -- it is as wonderful to hear as it is to see on screen!

No musical score has remained more influential upon my imagination and emotions than this one. The play (and film adaptation) also remains perhaps my favorite - all things considered. I agree with others who have already commented, that this score is Barry's best, and that is saying alot about the genius of it to evoke powerful emotions: wistful, threatening, angry and even insane: there is that finale, where hope (for eventual triumph) is also vividly felt through the music.

Dramatic music to accompany a dramatic film and one I believe will become a classic.Very evocative of a more elemental age and swinging from warm melodies to brutal dark ages foreboding. I think Henry 11 would have approved!

This CD is entirely faithful to the original sound from the film and one
only has to close ones eyes to be right back in front of the screen watching the superb performances of the cast of the film. A most successful transfer from screen to compact disc player.

I saw the movie when it first came out and fell in love with both the movie and the score. Peter O'Toole and Katherine Hepburn are riveting! And the music is even more riveting.

If you liked Henry V, then try this one. It conjurs 13th century Briton and the Norman inlfluence. "Gai, Gai, Gai" is close to idylic and the processionals will bring you to your feet.

From the opening scene, the music is so appropriate for the time and period that it's seamless. Sets the stage for what is to follow which is an amazingly literate screenplay about a fascinating period of time, the rise of the Plantagenet family, and the feuds and conspiracies of this amazing family. Eleanor was quite a female, (a feminist way ahead of her time). A lot of what is shown is accurate (to the best of my reading, allowing for Hollywood license) and can well encourage viewers to seek nonfiction for the truth about the Plantagenets whose reign ended with the death of Richard III (a much maligned Plantaganet).

I love this cd and have worn the lp to death.

Very good score! For the composer better known for his James Bond scores, John Barry surprises with his score for the 1986 film "The Lion in Winter". It features prominently excellent writing for choir, (see track 2, also throughout album) and a very decent, and simple theme, worthy of Prokofiev, with its harmonic twists. Exoticism throughout, hinting at 12th century English music. About 37 minutes of music, but overall a good buy. An excellent score for an excellent film!

John Barry's score for "The Lion In Winter" is without a doubt the absolute apex of all his scores, before or since. The Oscar Award winning score, to keep in context with the nature and time period of the film for which it was comissioned for, combines polyphonic mediaeval plainchants sung in Latin, as well ominous and haunting choral passages mixed with powerful orchestration and signature Barry brass and rhythms. The powerful and memorable main theme is repeated in various forms throughout the score, but is not domineering; the same can be said about the secondary themes. The musical dynamics of the score are astoundingly good. Ominous, emotive, haunting, regal, and beautiful, John Barry's score to "The Lion In Winter" begins strong and ends strong, with nothing short of brilliance in between. A score that stands just as well on its own as it does for its employment in the film. Someone once said that music equals emotion: this score bares that out.

Highly, highly recommended.

Film music exists to support the overall the film, and as such it is rarely able to stand alone. Even so, a number of film composers have been consistently able to transcend this circumstance; names like Bernard Herrmann and Max Steiner, to name but two, created works for film that crossed over to both popular music and concert hall. John Barry (b. 1933) is among this elite, making a name for himself in pop music before jolting moviegoers with his arrangements for the James Bond film DR. NO. He would go on to arrange a dozen Bond films, but he quickly moved beyond that franchise to become one of the best known and best regarded composers of film music--and winning an armload of awards, including five Academy Awards, in the process.

Barry's first Academy Award came with THE LION IN WINTER. The James Goldman play had been well liked by critics, but in spite of good reviews and considerable star power (the original stage production featured Rosemary Harris, Robert Preston, and Christopher Walken) played a scant 92 performances. It was not until the 1968 film production with Katherine Hepburn and Peter O'Toole that the acidly funny, highly dramatic tale of King Henry II and the Queen Eleanor made a major impression--and while certainly the potent cast had much to do with the film's success, no one could deny that Barry's score was also a major factor. It was not in the least "singable" in any popular sense, but it possessed grandure, scope, and power that grounded the film to remarkable effect.

With the film set in 1183, Barry responded with a mixture of royal-sounding brass and unexpected strings--a combination that would eventually be seen as something of a trademark in his work--and combined them with Latin chants. It was and is a potent mixture, with the Main Title theme a case in point, almost overpowering in strength, strident and martial, darkly incantory in style. You've little doubt that something worth attention is about to happen. It commands attention. "Chinon/Eleanor's Arrival" is equally fine, possessing a gliding, river-like quality that perfectly matches the river scenes over which it plays, and yet still maintaining a sense of power and strength.

Had Barry's work for the film been limited to these selections alone the score would still be extremely memorable, but the soundtrack for LION contains a number of additional delights: the delicate "Allons Gai Gai Gai," which is later echoed in "Christmas Wine;" the dramatic "Damn You," which like many other selections refers back to the main theme in style but which does so without being repetitive; other selections strange yet powerful mixtures of the ominous and the hopefull. Truly, there is nothing about which to complain this collection, be it heard within the context of the film or standing alone. Everything about it is remarkable, fresh, unexpected, and exact. Strongly recommended.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Dramatic music to accompany a dramatic film and one I believe will become a classic.Very evocative of a more elemental age and swinging from warm melodies to brutal dark ages foreboding. I think Henry 11 would have approved!