Instinct

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

Instinct (1999) is not an impartial film. It is an indictment of how humans are dangers to the Earth. It stresses how people are so self-centered that they fool themselves into thinking they should be the masters of their world.

The opening shows gorillas in the wild, where the land stretches out far into the distance. It then shifts to a man, Dr. Ethan Powell (Anthony Hopkins in a terrific performance), the last name implying a physical punch, who is a famous anthropologist. He was missing for two years and now looks animal-like with scruffy long hair and beard. He is wearing chains in a cage in Africa. We are used to seeing animals held captive for no reason except for our amusement, but not humans, unless they have committed crimes. Ethan has broken human laws. Guards transport him in a truck with growling guard dogs. By the time they arrive at their destination, the dogs are docile and Ethan is petting them. The man has connected to the animal in himself and thus to other non-human creatures.

People from the U. S. State Department arrive and say they have Ethan now. Even though they remove the chains, he still has no freedom. The shift to Dr. Theo Caulder (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) treating a psychiatric patient under the approving eyes of his teacher, Professor Ben Hillard (Donald Sutherland), tells us that Ethan will be examined as a psychiatric patient. We discover that Ethan used to work at the same university as the psychiatrists and he killed two people and injured three others which explains his imprisonment. For two years he has not said a word, which emphasizes his detachment from human society. Theo exhibits pride when he says he can handle the research on Ethan’s case in a very short time.

When alarms go off at the facility where his captors have brought the now primitive Ethan, he becomes agitated and attacks all those trying to restrain his freedom. He has reverted to instinct, not contemplative intelligence, and is in a flight or fight mode. When he sees his daughter, Lynn (Maura Tierney), he stops his resistance and is overcome by guards. Her appearance summons up his connection to family, which, we later discover, was the reason for his violence in the jungle.

Theo (the name suggests “theocratic,” that is, a god-centered governance, ironic, as we discover) is only a resident but wants Ben to give him Ethan’s evaluation. He is ambitious and sees Ethan as a way of becoming famous by writing a bestselling book about the case.

Ethan is at an institution for the criminally insane called Harmony Bay, an ironic title since there is no “harmony” there. Theo must compromise his lofty ambition to treat the other inmates.

                                    

Theo’s first encounter with Ethan shows how the prison overmedicates him and uses a Taser on the man if he does not comply with rules. There is a literal line across the table that he is not allowed to cross. There is only an attempt to control, not understand him. Theo meets Lynn who says that her father was distant, obsessed with his work with little concern for his family before he went to Africa. Theo borrows pictures that she took when she visited Africa. When he shows them to Ethan, he smashes the picture of her. When Theo acknowledges that Ethan would rather be an animal, he adds that his daughter wants him back. He finally speaks and says “Goodbye” to his daughter’s photo. He now shows that he is not a psychotic divorced from reality by saying, “Have I made your fucking day?” Theo sees the picture of the jungle as his home, not his house in America. Theo promises to cut his medication if Ethan will tell him about Africa. Why does he allow Theo to gain access? The story shows he sees in him the potential to understand Ethan’s viewpoint.

The two meet in privacy now. Ethan describes his time in Africa, and the film visualizes his experiences there. It is vast, beautiful, and removed from human civilization. By increments he became closer to the silverback leader of the gorilla family. He says the clicking sound of his camera disturbed the gorilla. Once he abandoned the piece of technology, he says he “really” saw animals as Ethan became more one with nature. He felt he was getting in touch with something lost long ago and was now remembering. It became harder to leave them and eventually did not go back to his camp. He was able to touch them. He says to Theo that there was more danger in a city than in those forests.

After Ethan has spoken, he tells Ethan that the use of the cards to determine which inmate goes outside is the facility’s way of controlling the patients. He calls the institution’s operatives “takers,” because they remove the freedom of others. When Theo tries to say the session isn’t over, Ethan calls him a “taker.” Theo says he’s “free to go.” Ethan’s response is “Am I? Are you free?” Ethan is just going from one cell to another and implies that although not incarcerated, Theo is imprisoned by the expectations of society.

Ethan is right about the cards. The guards allow the survival of the fittest in an animal-like controlled environment by permitting the strongest, Bluto (Paul Bates), to get the Ace of Diamonds from others to get the privilege to go outside. The supposed civilized are not acting like their name when they allow people to be most primal. When Ethan gets the ace and Bluto attacks him, Ethan overpowers the man and the others back him up so that democratic humanity finds a way into this prison. Dr. John Murray (George Dzundza) says to Theo that even though every inmate is supposed to have a daily period outside they do not have the manpower to supervise many at once, so they let the cards act as a random way of allowing outside privileges. Theo says that the strongest have the advantage and Murray says that it causes the patients to focus their aggression on each other and not the guards. This system shows the awful way the civilized world treats its outsiders.

Murray says that it was worse before he got there although one would not want to think about how that could be. When the inmates fight each other, Dacks (John Ashton) lets them go at each other saying they work it out among themselves. The film suggests that gorillas in the jungle treat each other better than humans behave with their own kind. There is a self-destructive patient who likes to bang his head against the wall. Instead of trying to help him they gave the man a football helmet instead. That doesn’t stop the man from hurting himself. Theo isn’t prepared to deal with this type of chaos. We see Ethan perched high above near a window edge, like an animal in a tree observing all this craziness of the people below and is probably feeling justified in abandoning the human community for the gorilla one,

Ethan corrects Theo, saying that he did not live as an animal but as a human among animals, the way it was long ago before people became “takers,” trying to control everything, destroying the harmony (that word again) in the environment. The gorillas reached over that “line,” a metaphorical one unlike the one on the table before, to accept a human into their family, something humans can’t seem to do with their own kind.

Ethan will not talk about his wife and daughter, knowing that he left them behind and doesn’t want to be reminded of that. He knew humans were there even in the jungle because he saw trapped animals, because snaring is what people do, limiting the freedom of other life forms. He left behind his machete, his binoculars, things that connected him to modern times. He wants Theo to tell his story, to share what he learned, which he can’t do because he is no longer part of the current world inhabited by people. Theo is supposed to direct the flow of the treatment. He keeps pushing for Ethan to deal with his daughter, saying he is in control here. Ethan manhandles him and takes tape from his armrest and gags Theo. He threatens to kill him unless he learns the lesson that Ethan is teaching. After two failed attempts Theo gives the right answer, that Ethan has taken away Theo’s illusions that the psychiatrist has control over his life when he is really adhering to the routines prescribed for him.

When he sees Ethan again, he has drawn a map of the world on his cell walls as it was, he says, millions of years ago. Hunters and gatherers then only killed what they needed, only planted what they required. They were “part of the world” and “they shared” what they had. Theo asks are people supposed to give up the cities and go back to the jungle? Ethan says, “We have only one thing to give up. Our dominion. We don't own the world. We're not kings yet. Not gods. Can we give that up? Too precious, all that control? Too tempting, being a god?” Ethan is asking for a different way of looking at the Earth, and the part people play in it.

Theo brings a box with every patient’s name in it into the gymnasium where they gather. He says there will be no more cards, no ace, no fights. Each day a different name will be drawn so each man can have a chance of going outside. It is a random selection that is fair to all and denies Dacks control over the fates of others. When Dacks tries to intimidate Ethan, he rips his card and all the others do the same. Theo has learned Ethan’s lesson about giving up “dominion.”

Warden Keefer (John Ayleward) is not happy with Theo changing the rules. He says that Theo doesn’t have the authority to alter the program. It doesn’t matter that the rules were harmful and unfair, and That Theo used a better system to decide outside privileges. Dacks said that Ethan was threatening, but he wasn’t. To Dr. Murray’s credit, he backs up Theo by saying that Ethan was not violent. Murray is generous enough to see that Theo made a breakthrough. But all Keefer wants is to keep his “dominion, his “control.” (The name Keefer has the sound “key” at the beginning, which suggests he likes to determine who gets freedom and who he locks up).

Keefer exerts his power to limit how long Theo can stay at his institution. Theo has a week, and Hillard says he must find out why Ethan used violence, and if possible, why he no longer will be violent. A tall order. Ethan admitted to Theo that he murdered the men, but adds that there were many murders, which is what Theo must investigate.

Theo decides to reach Ethan by taking him to a zoo to visit the gorillas. In the past, Theo brought back a silverback, and he considers that action a betrayal on his part. Ethan says that the animals are “shadows of gorillas, born in cages.” They do not know their true selves because, like the slaves brought to America, the owners cut them off from their true identities. The silverback is named Goliath, a name suggesting power, but Theo says the animal has been broken and is now insane. He admits his part in that atrocity.

Ethan says that there was a female gorilla who took good care of her child. She allowed Ethan to hold the baby. This flashback stresses how Ethan did not show much affection toward his daughter. The silverback in the wild took care of them all, him included. The silverback showed “tolerance, acceptance,” attributes we admire when people show them.

We finally view through Ethan’s retelling the “many murders” that took place. Men came and shot the gorillas. Ethan hid the baby and then tried to defend the others by using a wooden club, killing and harming the men. There were too many “takers,” and they wounded him in the leg and overpowered him. When the silverback charged, trying to help Ethan, they shot the gorilla in his tracks. The men had Ethan’s machete and binoculars. They tracked him. Ethan feels profound guilt for his part in what happened. Theo correctly says that Ethan was only protecting his new “family.” He takes a pen from Theo and opens the cage, but Goliath will not try to escape. He says that the gorilla could get freedom over the fence, but the idea of escaping is now only something he dreamed of, something not real. That statement is a foreshadowing of what is to come.

Theo believes he can have a hearing and get Ethan free. Lynn is there and Theo says he will not tell her “Goodbye” for Ethan; he must do it himself. Theo keeps pushing Ethan to show the same attention to his true child as he did for the baby gorilla. He meets Lynn and tells her if he had the chance now and she was a baby he would keep her close and never leave her. The only possession he kept with him was a photo of her when she was a child. They move that photo back and forth over the line on the table, showing defiance of the overly restrictive controls.

Those in authority can’t let go of their power, however. Dacks brings Ethan back to his cell that has been wiped clean of his drawing of the ancient world, metaphorically removing the cooperation of the ancient world species. The guard starts to hit him with the nightstick when Ethan hesitates to go back into the cell. The other inmates apologize to Ethan about his cell and Dacks starts to attack another inmate. Ethan has a new family among these misfits. So, he attacks Dacks. Even Bluto helps hold the guard against his cell.

The problem now is that Ethan has shown violence again and has now reverted to his anti-social ways by reverting to his mute state. To show how much Ethan has affected Theo, the psychiatrist, in response to Hillard’s comment how Theo may be losing control, says, “Wouldn’t that be nice.”

In the gymnasium, up near the window where he stares out at freedom, Ethan sways like a restless animal. Theo talks to him, and it appears that Ethan is closed off, not paying attention to him. Theo says he was good at playing the “game,” of playing by the rules. But he wasn’t close to anybody. He says that Ethan showed him how to live outside the game, to truly live. But, because of the way things are, he will go back to the “game,” but wishes he didn’t have to say goodbye to the one who showed him a different way to be.

As Theo leaves, Ethan turns sideways, showing he paid attention to Theo. In his hand is the pen he took to open Goliath’s cage. He has been using it to scrape away at the hinge that holds the window. One may think of The Shawshank Redemption, and Andy’s small hammer.

The next scene has the guards, Dr. Murray and the patients watching a baseball game. Pete (Thoams Q. Morris) pulls the electric plug so they can’t watch the TV. Murray uses gentle persuasion, that he learned from Theo, to get the electric cord back, saying it’s a guard’s birthday, and Pete should give him the cord as a present. It’s all a diversion. In the commotion, Ethan escapes.

Ethan left a message for Theo. It says that he thanks Theo for going on the journey with him and getting him his daughter back. He says, “You were right. Freedom is not just a dream. It's there, on the other side of those fences we build all by ourselves.” He’s saying we imprison ourselves if we allow it. Later in the rain, Theo stops covering himself, just as Ethan did earlier in the wilderness. Theo spreads his arms and looks up at the sky, another similarity to Andy gaining freedom from the prison in Shawshank.

The last shot is Ethan heading back to the jungle. Another one flew over the cuckoo’s nest.

The Elephant Man

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

The black and white cinematography in The Elephant Man (1980) gives it a documentary, realistic, grim feel. Mel Brooks produced the movie but didn’t want it publicized because he wanted the film taken seriously. David Lynch is the right person to direct a movie about what society considers grotesque versus the frightening reality of the world at large. The first shot is of the close-up portrait of an attractive woman which is then offset by a heard of elephants marching across the screen. The elephants cry out and we see the woman on the floor silently screaming, supposedly being killed by the elephants. We hear a baby crying, implying a birth has taken place. We then shift to Anthony Hopkins’s character, Dr. Frederick Treves, a surgeon in London, at a sideshow, an appropriate setting for where so-called normal people go to reassure themselves that they are not what deviates from norm.

People either laugh or leave crying as they view those behind human cages, like scary animals in a zoo. Treves follows policemen who wish to remove The Elephant Man display because, as one says, it is inhumane to have this exhibit. The man who presents The Elephant Man, Bytes (Freddie Jones), says that there must be another move, indicating that his entry goes beyond even the average sights at the sideshow. He calls his act “my treasure.” It is an ironic phrase since it can be a term of endearment but also something of economic worth. Exploitation comes to mind.

The background sound of the film is like an industrial hum, similar to what Lynch used in Eraserhead. The usage fits with the scene that has Treves operating on a man who is a victim of a machine accident. The doctor says there have been more of these accidents lately, and he adds “you can’t reason with machines.” That echoes the ominous industrial landscape in Eraserhead and comments on the dehumanization ushered in by the Industrial Revolution. That feeling is backed up by the bleak urban setting with steam and fire present that implies a hellish backdrop. We later get a shot of polluting smoke belching out of smokestacks.

John Merrick (John Hurt) is the title character, and his extreme deformity may be due to a combination of neurofibromatosis type I and Proteus syndrome, although, as IMDb notes, the exact diagnosis was never discovered. That fact implies that it can be difficult for us to understand those that do not swim in the mainstream of society’s waters. At the beginning, Bytes says he “owns” Merrick and Treves calls him “it,” which shows that others do not think of Merrick as a human being. Bytes does a private viewing for Treves after being paid. He says that the mother met her fate in her fourth month of pregnancy on an “uncharted” African Island in an encounter with an elephant. This strange tale creates a fiction for the audience to escape into and to indulge human curiosity into what is considered the deviant aspect of the world. (According to IMDb, many parts of the film do not represent the actual story. For Instance, Merrick was not mistreated as described and could not speak as clearly as depicted).

Treves’s initial motivation in seeing Merrick is selfish as he wants to grow his reputation by also exploiting the man. However, when Treves sees Merrick he neither laughs nor is frightened. Instead, he shows some empathy by shedding a single tear. The first viewing of Merrick is in shadows, so Lynch does not present his physical appearance right away.

 When Merrick appears at Treves’s office, he wears a bag over his head and a bulky coat. It’s one thing for some to pay for a temporary viewing of the grotesque but it’s quite a shock to watch it circulate freely among society. Merrick initially will not respond to Treves and appears frightened of him, probably because of the harsh way others have treated him. It is interesting that his appearance should frighten others, but it is Merrick who is scared.

Treves displays him at The Pathological Society as a specimen, not a person, centering his talk on the extreme deviations from normal appearance. Again, we do not view Merrick yet as the camera shoots an outline of him behind a projection screen. The delayed revealing builds the audience’s suspense but also paves the way for us to get used to the idea of his deformity and accept him as a victim instead of as a monster.

Treves assumes that Merrick was deformed since birth and based on the man being unresponsive assumes he is an imbecile, adding he hopes so since being conscious of his condition would be unbearable. Treves is not exactly being empirically scientific in his conclusions here.

A drunken Bytes beats Merrick upon his return. Merrick has asthma and is suffering after the beating. The youth, who is Bytes’s assistant (Dexter Fletcher), shows concern for Merrick and goes to Treves who admits Merrick to the hospital. It is a young boy, possibly because he maintains some innocence in this depraved situation, who seeks help for Merrick.

Carr Gomm (Sir John Gielgud), the head of the hospital, tells Treves that Merrick should be in a place that deals with “incurables” and not in the hospital. The relegation of those that suffer without hope of being herded into an asylum shows the lack of compassion that existed toward society’s outcasts.

An unsuspecting female aid brings breakfast to Merrick and witnesses his deformed body. She screams in horror. We finally see what she does, but the audience has been somewhat prepared, and the shock is less for us. Treves begins to show more humanity as he attempts to treat and shelter Merrick.

In addition to the background humming there is mechanistic thumping heard. Along with those sounds are the highlighted ticking of a clock, the tapping of shoes on the floor, the striking of a match, and the hiss of gaslights. These become ominous noises, especially to the vulnerable Merrick. He is immediately in jeopardy of becoming exploited by the night porter, Sunny Jim (Michael Elphick), quite an ironic name, who wants to make money off a freak just like Bytes.

Bytes shows up at the hospital and confronts Treves, saying he wants Merrick back. Treves is now in protective mode and says that he knows Bytes beat him and that he is capitalizing on Merrick’s suffering. However, Bytes argues that is exactly what Treves was doing when he wanted to display him for his own betterment. At this point Gomm appears and supports Treves, implying that the police would not look kindly at how Bytes treated Merrick. We have a more humane side appearing on the part of the doctor and Gomm. Treves also gets Merrick to start to talk with him, which shows that if given a chance society’s shunned can be heard.

Treves rehearses Merrick to make a good impression on Gomm, but Merrick is nervous and is not used to conversing. Treves taught Merrick part of Psalm 23 from the Bible, and as Merrick says how “goodness and mercy” shall be part of his life, it seems ironic since that is not what others have shown him. Gomm feels that if his bronchitis gets better and he has recovered from his beating, the hospital is no longer a place for Merrick as he concludes that no further progress is obtainable. But, Merrick continues to recite the psalm beyond the part they rehearsed. Merrick reveals to Treves and Gomm that he read the Bible and The Book of Common Prayer when he was young. He is actually intelligent and knowledgeable. Gomm implies that it must have been horrible for someone the world would not allow to reach his full potential because of the way he looked.

When Merrick’s story becomes known there are two different responses. An actress, Mrs. Kendal (Ann Bancroft, Brooks’s wife) is interested in his mind. Sunny Jim wants to capitalize on his deformed body and charges others to witness the shock of seeing him. Thus, we have the two aspects of the world toward what is aberrant.

Treves has a well-dressed Merrick at his house for tea, and his wife, (Hannah Gordon), treats him with sensitivity. He is overwhelmed that a beautiful woman would treat him so nicely, so alien it is to his experience. They look at each other’s family pictures. The doctor and his wife display photos of their parents and children, showing a connected family. Merrick has a picture of his beautiful mother who has been absent from his life, and says he would be a disappointment to her, which, of course, is no fault of his own. His appearance has deprived him of any sense of family.

Merrick reveals artistic ability as he constructs a paper replica of a cathedral and draws accomplished pictures. One displays what it would be like to be able to lie down like others and have the luxury of sleep without the threat of suffocation due to the weight of an oversized head. The actress, Mrs. Kendal, visits, and she gives Merrick the works of Shakespeare. They read a section of Romeo and Juliet. She is moved by his reading and plays the role of Juliet, and he is Romeo, with the scene ending with a kiss on his cheek. She sees beyond his superficial covering and declares that he is not The Elephant Man. He is Romeo, she says, because she sees he is a romantic at heart. The audience understands society has not nourished the possibilities for this man and has decided that he should not be allowed to flourish.

Because Mrs. Kendal accepts him, and she is regarded as a person of excellent taste, she, in essence, gives Merrick the stamp of approval, and other refined people seek him out. He says that “people are frightened by what they don’t understand.” That is so in his case, because our first impressions are by way of our senses, and we judge by what we see, the packaging, and not what the wrapping envelops beneath the surface.

Mothershed (Wendy Hiller), who supervises the hospital support staff, tells Treves that she does not believe that these sophisticated visitors should meet Merrick. She was resistant at first about caring for Merrick, but now she calls him John, and says that she and her nurses have “bathed,” “fed,” and “cleaned up” after Merrick, which shows “loving kindness.” She claims that the visitors only see Merrick to show that they are providing the appearance of caring so as to be accepted by their peers. She says that Merrick is now on display to be looked at again, only in a different context. She is implying that these upper-class citizens are not appreciating Merrick for his true worth. He admits that he may be like Bytes because he has used Merrick as a curiosity. Although his wife says Merrick is living better than he ever did, Treves still questions his motives. Despite what happens in the daytime, the nighttime (symbolically a demonic part of the day here) allows Sunny Jim to use Merrick as a sideshow freak.

The hospital governing committee meets to determine Merrick’s status. One member says that the man is an abomination and that the hospital is not a zoo which houses animals. That rant contrasts with a shot of Merrick using his imagination to complete the model of the cathedral he has only seen part of. However, Gomm has enlisted the support of the royal family, and the Princess of Wales reads a letter from Queen Victoria that urges a Christian attitude toward Merrick. Gomm gets the hospital to grant a permanent home for Merrick.

This benevolent act contrasts with the cruel actions of Sunny Jim and those who pay him to abuse Merrick, laughing at him, manhandling him, forcing women to kiss him, pouring whiskey down his throat, and making him look at himself in a mirror. Bytes is part of the crowd and kidnaps Merrick. (One could criticize the representation of lower-class individuals as the ones who primarily exploit Merrick).

The steeple that Merrick put on his model is knocked over, signifying the un-Christian-like activity that occurred. When Treves discovers what happened, he is enraged, and confronts Sunny Jim, who is ready to attack the doctor until Mothershed knocks him out from behind.

Bytes takes Merrick to France and puts him in another freak show. He continues to abuse Merrick, beating him and placing him in a cage next to violent baboons. After experiencing a taste of decency, it seems Merrick continues to be the victim of the depraved aspects of people. It takes the other carnival freaks to save him, helping one of their own. They place him on a ship to England. But again, he cannot escape the cruelty of others. Boys harass him, and in his escape, he knocks over a girl. Pursued by a gang he stands up for himself and others like him as he declares, “I am not an elephant! I am not an animal! I am a human being. I am a man!”

The police return Merrick to Treves. Merrick’s health is in decline after all that he has been through. He tells Treves that he has been able to experience happiness because he finally has felt love. After all that has happened to him, he somehow is not an angry, bitter individual, but remains a gentle, sensitive person. He is finally able to go to the theater, a place that Mrs. Kendal said was a beautiful spot to visit. He can experience the beauty of an evening of art, which he can appreciate since he himself is an artist. The show is a fantasy, an escape from the harshness of what most of his life has been. Kendal dedicates the performance to Merrick, and he receives a standing ovation as everyone there sees him, possibly acknowledging his inner beauty.

In his room, alone, he says his model is done, which may also refer to his life being completed. He looks at his drawing of someone who lays down to sleep. He removes the stacked pillows from his bed and lies down for his last mortal rest. It appears that he has finally received what he always wanted, the love of others, and is ready to leave this life in that state. We hear his mother say, “nothing dies,” and it appears his spirit travels down a tunnel to her. The film ends as it began, with an image of her, as Merrick is reborn, free of his mortal coil.

The Lion in Winter

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

I enjoy good dialogue and there is plenty of it in The Lion in Winter (1968). James Goldman wrote the screenplay based on his play (and won a writing Oscar). The writing reveals the characters’ personalities while it entertains with its wit and ferociousness. In a way the movie is a medieval version of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolfe. The main desire here is ambition and power, and the hope of the royal offspring for acknowledgment. But also for the king and his wife it’s a game to keep them engaged in life in defiance of aging.

The titles are displayed with stone carvings of historical visages which suggest the iconic nature of these bigger-than-life people. Peter O’Toole reprises his role of King Henry II of England, an older version of the ruler he played in Becket which depicted the royal’s relationship with Richard Burton’s archbishop. He was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in both films, although I consider this performance the best in a distinguished career. The opening scene has Henry still strong enough to swordfight in his “winter” years as he says, “Come for me!” He is testing one of his sons, John (Nigel Terry), to see if he is worthy of the crown.

Henry wants his kingdom, and therefore his legacy, to last. He tells Alais (Jane Merrow), his young lover, that he doesn’t want to go the way of King Lear who divided his lands between three children and weakened the kingdom. In the twelfth century, the people thought the King was the closest individual to God. Thus, who held the position was of extreme importance. Unfortunately, in this story, the candidates are seriously flawed.

Henry flatters for the moment whoever he wants to win over and disdains those he wishes to lord over. He wants to reassure Alais by saying he has bedded many, including “countesses,” “whores,” “and little boys,” but he only loves her. He dismisses his queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine (Katharine Hepburn, tying with Barbra Streisand for the Best Actress Oscar for that year), calling her “the gorgon,” who is “decaying” where he “dungeons” her and only releases Eleanor on holidays. She is a threat to his wishes, but as we see a threat he respects.

We meet Richard, who we know as “the Lion-Hearted,” in the form of Anthony Hopkins (in his feature film debut). This son, too, is introduced in combat games as he jousts. He knocks a foe off his horse and appears to be ready to kill him with his sword until interrupted. Richard’s face appears in turmoil, as he struggles with his bloodlust.

The film introduces son Geoffrey (Johns Castle) also engaging in battle, but not personally. He does not physically partake in combat, but he instead directs troops in war games. The scene shows Geoffrey to be intellectual, aloof, seeing others do the fighting for him.

Alais reassures Henry after a bout of lovemaking that he will endure the day’s obstacles because he is like the rocks at Stonehenge, and that “nothing knocks” him down. The reference recalls the stone figures displayed with the credits, suggesting the king’s almost mythical strength.

Eleanor wants Richard to be king, and Henry wants John. But their only motives may be that they want to fight each other as opposed to believing their selections are the best ones. John is an adolescent who according to Alais has pimples and smells. He runs around like a child at play or in fear. Henry is willing to have Alais marry John for her dowry while she will remain his mistress. It seems the powerful are exempt from rules of morality. Along with the children, Alais wants some recognition, saying she could be a threat to Henry if she discloses what he wants. He dismisses her importance after previously saying how she is the only thing he ever loved. He brandishes his power, telling her that whatever he says, goes, and that includes him saying they are through or that she is to marry John.

Henry says to Alais that there may have been an “era” when he adored Eleanor. The word evokes a person whose life is attached to the ages. In contrast to that sense of grandeur, Henry moves one hair on her ahead that is askew, saying “nothing in life has any business being perfect.” There is a cynical feel to Henry sometimes, as if life is not what it’s cracked up to be.

John talks like a child, saying daddy loves me best, while Richard declares that he will be the next sovereign. Henry says to Alais he has no problem with his boys plotting against him, because it’s politics, which is a skill necessary to lead. He says, “I’ve plotted all my life. There’s no other way to be alive, king, and fifty all at once.” There is that harsh reality that Henry acknowledges about the world of rulers.

When Eleanor arrives by boat, the first thing Henry asks is whether the water parted for her. She said she told it to stay flat. They revel in the majestic nature of their positions. They smile at each other as they banter, with her sarcastically saying how he keeps her young because he lets her out for the Christmas holidays, like a schoolgirl. She is frank in her language and blunt when she tells her sons that despite her superior position, her destiny as a woman came down to what gender babies she produced. If she had not produced only girls with her first husband, she would still be queen of France and never would have met these sons. “Such, my angels, is the role of sex in history,” she says.

Eleanor says she raised Alais so she has mixed feelings about her. Richard calls her the “whore,” and yet he wants her as his queen as does John. Politics and power reign, not love. Henry jokingly says he and Eleanor will fight “tusk to tusk for eternity.” He relishes the family fight, and there is the feeling that they believe they are beyond earthly constraints and will live forever.

King Philip (Timothy Dalton) is a young monarch, and Henry attempts to bully him about treaties, but the French leader holds his own in their initial meeting. Alais is Philip’s half-sister and the daughter of the previous king of France, Eleanor’s first husband, Louis. He had promised Alais to Henry’s heir to the throne. Philip wants that to happen so that France will have influence in England. Otherwise, Philip wants the area known as Vexin, which was Alais’s dowery, forfeited. Henry says he already occupies the land, so he owns it. But as he reveals to Eleanor later he does not want another war, and enjoys the actions of a peaceful king.

Richard has possession of the precious Aquitaine region and refuses to yield anything to John who he calls “that walking pustule.” John appears hunched over and decrepit, so Richard’s assessment of him is understandable.

Geoffrey says he will be John’s chancellor, which is a powerful position. He positions himself for that job because Geoffrey says, “no one thinks of the crown and thinks of Geoff.” He adds, “It’s not the power I feel deprived of; it’s the mention I miss. There’s no affection for me here; you wouldn’t think I’d want that, would you?” Geoffrey knows his place in his parents’ feelings, but he resents that he is not accepted by them. Thus, he must be content with being the power behind a week person sitting on the throne. So, John is his best choice to be king.

Eleanor says to Alais she prefers her to her boys, but it is just a setup to then remind her that Henry chose Alais and her land over his previous lover. The implication is that he will have no problem discarding her for his own purposes. She then says she wouldn’t hurt Alais, after she just did, and Alais understands how unscrupulous Eleanor is.

Henry and Eleanor rotate words of affection and attacks with whiplash speed. He asks how she is doing but then says he will never set her free since she led several civil wars against him. He also dismisses Alais as just an old man’s dalliance, while before he told the young woman he loved her. She says she does like seeing him again. Their respect for each other comes through here, as she says he is still “a marvel of a man,” and he says, “and you’re my lady.”

On the surface they go to dinner smiling, hand-in-hand, as they walk among the many guests. Eleanor says she will have Richard become king and cares about that because Henry cares who will succeed him. She readily admits it is just to vex him that she disagrees. He says he wants some peace, and she offers, “eternal peace,” a not-so-subtle death threat. When he says he will strike her any way he can there are dogs barking and growling in the background to stress the savagery behind his threat, and she looks worried. She asks if he ever loved her and he says no, another reversal of affections. She says it will make their fighting easier, but her asking implies that she feels hurt.

Eleanor asks Richard to see her. She says she hopes for a reunion since they have been apart. But she calls him “dull,” and when she states that his violence on the battlefield agrees with him, it is not a compliment. He doesn’t trust her, thinking he she might try to ambush him. He has the Aquitaine, but believes she wants it back. He says she’s “so deceitful,” that she “can’t ask for water” when she’s “thirsty.” She would lie even if her life was at stake. He goes on to say, “We can tangle spiders in the webs you weave.” Now that is a witty way of saying his mother can trap even those that are skillful in laying their own traps.

Henry says he is willing to give in to letting Richard be king because his son would fight him for it anyway, and at least England would stay unified. John, of course, feels betrayed.

Eleanor is always suspicious of her husband and says that the “second coming” will occur before Henry gives up on John and lets Richard marry Alais. Geoffrey has no loyalty to anyone but himself, so he quickly says he will help Eleanor if he becomes Richard’s chancellor by manipulating John. She sees his cruel selfish nature, and he acknowledges that he would sell them all out if he found a way. Geoffrey shows that Henry is right when he said that “power” is the only fact to face in the world as it is the preoccupation of all heads of state, then and now.

In another talk with Richard, Eleanor says she just wants to see him be king, but he says that all she wants is to get vengeance on Henry for locking her up, and he does not want to be used for that purpose. She goads him by saying how Henry was superior to Richard at an earlier age. She recalls when Henry was eighteen he had, “a mind like Aristotle’s and a form like mortal sin. We shattered the Commandments on the spot.”  This daunting description again shows how the two envision themselves as grander than others. It also emphasizes Eleanor’s earthiness, which is noted when she says she rode “bare-breasted” while on one of the Crusades. After being pushed, she admits that what she really wants is the Aquitaine back, and Richard believes it because it is power she wants. She says she wants it only because she can use it to bargain with Henry. When she says she loves Richard, he is cold, saying, “You love nothing. You’re incomplete. The human parts of you are missing. You’re as dead as you are deadly.” His zombie-like description of her has truth in it, but we have seen varying emotions in her. She cuts herself on the arm and he melts, as she reminds him of pleasant memories when he was a child. Is she sincere about her affections? Maybe, at least in the moment.

                                    

The following scenes are labyrinthine in the moves and counter moves, as all the principles jockey for position. It’s not an accident that there is a chessboard with pieces on display. Philip, Geoffrey, and John plot a war against Richard and Eleanor to make John king. Eleanor tells Henry that perhaps Richard would not believe Henry’s offer to make him king. His witty response is, “There’s no sense in asking if the air is good if there’s nothing else to breathe.” Henry’s impression of his absolute power is evident here. He wants the Aquitaine for John, and she refuses. She says she’s like the earth, “There’s no way around me.” She refuses to bow under Henry’s threats. She knows she can still inflict emotional pain on him when she says she slept with Thomas Becket. When he shudders, she admits it’s a lie, but she can see she can hurt him. She even suggests that she may have slept with Henry’s father. He offers her freedom after ten years of imprisonment if she releases the Aquitaine to John. She counters with only if Richard and Alais marry immediately. Again, there are dogs barking and growling to mimic the bestial nature of these attacks on each other.

Henry acts as if he goes along with the marriage despite Alais’s protests. She has already expressed her disgust at being used as a pawn and doubts Henry’s stating he loves her. When they are at the altar, Henry lets out that he will get the Aquitaine so that Richard will hear it and refuse to go forward with the wedding. Philip may be young, but he realized Henry’s ploy to torpedo the wedding. John is back in the picture again as a possible king. And the scheming goes round and round.

Henry says he enjoys being king as he plays with the ambitions and emotions of others. It is sadistic. Eleanor takes on the role of masochist as she asks to see Henry kiss Alais. She says it’s an intellectual exercise because she imagines it and wants to see how reality fits her imagination. However, when she witnesses the act, she shakes, and her eyes become moist. Her sense of loss is palpable.

She feels defeated and resigned to going back to her jail. Her sons visit her. Cold Geoffrey is probably that way because, as he says, he only remembers indifference from his parents. Eleanor admits that at times they did not like any of the children, which explains the young men’s insecurity. There is sibling rivalry between John and Richard to the point that Richard draws a knife. Eleanor says they all have knives. Despite the current times (1183), “we’re barbarians … We are the killers. We breed wars. We carry it like syphilis inside ... For the love of God, can’t we love one another, just a little. That’s how peace begins … We could change the world.” Her words are timeless, as she lays all crimes of violence at the feet of leaders who rule countries and members of families who feud with each other.

John blurts out that he must see Philip because they had an alliance to wage war against Henry and Richard and he must stop Henry from hearing about it to stay in the king’s favor. Eleanor, feeling revived as she sees an opening to get what she wants, tells Richard to promise Philip “anything.” Her insinuation reveals that she probably knows of Richard’s homosexual involvement with Philip in the past.

An almost absurd scene follows in Philip’s chambers as all the males maneuver for political position. John, hiding, hears Geoffrey plot against everyone else with Philip. John’s dullness can be seen as he says to Geoffrey, “You’re a stinker, and you stink.” Whereas the more eloquent insult from Geoffrey is, “If you’re a prince, there’s a hope for every ape in Africa.” Richard arrives as the other two brothers hide. Richard wants Philip’s military backing to gain the throne. The conversation reveals what Eleanor hinted at, and the affection that Richard has for Philip under his bluster is evident. As Philip said, tapestries are for hiding, so Richard now hides as Henry shows up. Henry discovers Philip’s plans of pitting Henry’s children against him. Philip tells Henry about suffering Richard’s advances and allowing Richard to believe he loved him so he could lord it over Henry. The sons come out of hiding, and Richard is embarrassed and emotional for a change as he said he would have been loyal to Henry if his father had shown some affection for him. John’s willingness to wage war against Henry hurts the monarch, but John says Henry never loved anybody. Geoffrey says he’s all that’s left to choose from to be king, but he is loyal only to his own ambitions. Henry and Eleanor’s desire to control and adopt power plays left their sons warped in emotional deprivation.

Henry is shaken by the nature of his boys and denies them all. He says he married a woman “out of legend,” still showing his admiration for Eleanor. But he says he had no “sons,” and says his children are gone.

A meeting between Eleanor and Alais contrasts them and yet shows their mixed feelings for each other. Eleanor says she may have loved Henry “before the flood,” referencing Genesis, adding to her perception of a connection to ancient and biblical times. She doesn’t like that Alais would sit next to Henry because that is her place. Alais says that Eleanor loves the kingdom whereas she just loves Henry. She says her gift for Christmas would be for Eleanor to suffer. But then they embrace, since Eleanor and she were close for many years.

Henry enters and dismisses Alais. Eleanor is tired and says she just wants things over. She says she will sign her lands over to John, but Henry just applauds her, assuming it’s a performance. They have been so devious with each other they can’t even tell what’s true, He says that he doesn’t want her to sign anything. He delights in manipulating her and finally reveals that he will go to Rome for an annulment so he can marry Alais and she can give him more sons, the current ones being defective. He says Geoffrey is “a device. He’s wheels and gears.” John cheats, lies, frequents whores, and whips servants. She blames him for John, and he blames her for keeping Richard to herself and denying him complete development. They continue to spar as she says, “I adored you. I still do.” He says that’s the most terrible lie of all. She says she knows, “That’s why I saved it up until now.”

They momentarily relish the dynamic between them, hug, reminisce, and kiss. However, they can’t help themselves; they must keep battling. She says there will be no annulment because she will not let Henry go. He says there is no connection between them, no meetings, gifts, or communications. What she really wants still is Richard to become king, and she just has to wait as he grows old and feeble for it to happen. If a son is born to him, she’ll push Richard through “the nursery door,” to kill his “grotesque” offspring. She does not consider that scenario cruel after all that he has put her through. She says, “I could peel you like a pear and God himself would call it justice!”

As Henry is ready to storm off to Rome for an annulment from the Pope, Eleanor says that his sons will join with her and Philip to defeat him when the boys know his plan to marry and have more sons. He counters by saying he will lock them all up. She torments him by describing having had sex with his father. After he runs out, she says, in contrast to the previous exalted dialogue, “Well, what family doesn’t have its ups and downs.” It’s an ironic statement considering how we have been dealing with kings, princes, and a queen. Hardly a pedestrian bunch.

Henry imprisons the boys and convenes an entourage to take him and Alais to Rome for an annulment and a wedding. She wisely notes that he must keep the sons imprisoned or else they will revolt. And if Henry dies and they get out they will kill the new offspring. Eleanor bribes a knight so she can give the captives knives to escape. Geoffrey thinks the best move is to kill Henry, which horrifies Eleanor. She tells Richard it’s “unnatural” to be an assassin. He counters with the nihilistic view that exists in the story by saying, “If poisoned mushrooms grow and babies come with crooked backs, if goiters thrive and dogs go mad and wives kill husbands, what’s unnatural?” She says she is not responsible for what he has become, but he points out she was his role model.

Henry shows up in the wine cellar and when Richard grabs one of the knives, Henry tosses the other knives to John and Geoffrey. Henry now echoes what were the first lines of the film, “Come for me!” It is not just practice now, but it can be a test. Geoffrey doesn’t have the stomach for it. Richard has difficulty initiating the attack against the reigning king. John lunges for Henry, who sidesteps him and puts a knife to his throat. Eleanor surprises by calling Henry’s bluff. She says they are assassins and traitors so he should execute them. Henry slams the flat part of his sword onto Richard’s shoulder and finds that he cannot kill his own children.

He says he’s lost everything and blames Eleanor. She is unsympathetic to his complaints. She tells him to take responsibility. “If you break it’s because you are brittle,” she says. She has truly lost, she says, because she can’t have him back. She says she wants to die, and he comforts her. She says there is no hope in life, but he counters by saying they are alive and that is what hope is, a kind of reduction of the cliché, “Where there’s life, there’s hope.” She says that they are “Jungle creatures.” Despite their intelligence, they figuratively claw and bite to survive.

He accompanies her to her boat, and she asks if she can come back at Easter. He says, “Come the resurrection, you can strike me down again.” They look forward to their political and personal jousts. He says as she sails away that he hopes they never die, and she feels the same. He says, “Do you think there’s any chance of it?” The two historical battlers laugh as they part, contemplating immortality again. And right they are, since they live on in texts and stories.