Katharine Hepburn is on Oscar-winning form while verbally sparring with Oscar-nominated Peter O'Toole in this celebrated adaptation of James Goldman's play about Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. Set mostly within austere castle ramparts over the Christmas festival, it's a story of a family squabble that has geopolitical import, a medieval dynastic war. While the script and the performances are simply dazzling, it is notable, too, for the screen debuts of Timothy Dalton and a combustible Anthony Hopkins who, like O'Toole, was a protégé of Hepburn's. John Barry's beautiful, melancholic score also won an Oscar.

Henry II and his estranged queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, battle over the choice of an heir.