If you’re lucky enough to have a career in the film industry, it’s a good idea to have a default answer to the question “What’s your favorite movie?” Because you’ll be asked this all the time, and if you’re like me, the answer depends on how you’re feeling that day or what masterpiece you’ve been watching lately. So save yourself the hem and the scratch and try both. And if the answer isn’t in a blockbuster or a movie released before, say, 9/11, be prepared to work hard.
I watch his movies, but I’ve always loved Kevin Smith’s violent throw to the carpet in 1966’s The Man for All Time. Director Fred Zinnemann is on the cusp of a brilliant career. Smith spoke at length about the film with Rick Lyman of The New York Times in 2001, and his insight was incredibly illuminating. He was right that Cinnaman’s visual prowess, as seen in From Here to Eternity and “Noon,” was shortened to serve as the precise and literate dialogue of Robert Bolt. But with Paul Scofield’s booming bass (if you’re ever asked about the greatest performance in movie history, maybe start here), you get a heady film about (spoiler alert) the martyrdom of Sir Thomas More. Cinnaman holds it back and serves both Bolt and his cast.
Smith’s fascination with “A Man for All Time” elevates him as a writer. It gives me a better understanding of his enduring work. So what can we say about The Hail Mary Project author Andy Weir, on a reddit AMAnaming the thematically similar “The Lion in Winter” as his favorite film? The 12th century drama starring Peter O’Toole as King Henry II and Katharine Hepburn as his queen Eleanor of Aquitaine is definitely a departure.
The Lion in Winter is Andy Weir’s favorite film
Andy Weir is a wonderful writer whose novels have been made into two wonderful films: The Martian by Ridley Scott and The Hail Mary Project by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. His science fiction is a cross between Carl Sagan and Steven Spielberg. I guess Robert Zemeckis’ Contact does. It is filled with hope and respect for serious science, which is vital at a time when a trillionaire is self-servingly committed to landing on Mars and the current United States Secretary of Health is an anti-vaccine maniac.
However, The Lion in Winter is too kind to Henry II’s treatment of Eleanor (he imprisoned her for over a decade), and while playwright James Goldman did write the book for Stephen Sondheim’s brilliant musical Folly, it was nowhere in Robert Bolt’s league. Historical liberties are taken, which is fine if you’re aiming for a greater truth, but The Lion in Winter feels like a fake. I don’t know how you could look at the historical record and see this as a romantic tragedy.
Weir said he is a politically neutral writerso he can safely excuse himself for the frankly disturbing fantasy that is The Lion in Winter. This is not a condemnation. He wants to believe in the best of humanity. I wish he had found inspiration in a less problematic story.
