Despite some anachronisms this movie is great because.. *SPOILERS*

I mostly agree with you. However, I believe peoples' lives in those ages were even worse than we saw on this film.
The BBC did a really good little series some years ago, much lower budgeted than this great film obviously, but it did show accurately, for me, life for the everyday peasant folks in the British Civil War years. (Children of the New Forest).

hahaha yeah, the spirit of the 60s was so strong that even when doing historical films they couldn't resist.

I also think of the flight attendants on the spaceship in 2001: A Space Odyssey, dressed in their bright pink uniforms straight out of the 60s. ;)

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the bleakness is overdone actually. real medieval castles would have had more decoration, like tapestries on the walls, painted furniture etc. For instance, Dover castle has recently been redecorated to make it look as it would have been in henry II's reign, and it is much brighter than the castle in lion in Winter - more colourful decorations, painfed furniture etc.
of coures they didn't have the comforts and conveniences of 21st century life, but that is true of every period up until the 20th century, most people didn't have indoor plumbing for instance until the 20th century, and a bath was a once a week occasion for most ordinary people. And houses were freezing compared to modern houses, hence the common practice of people sharing beds for warmth at night, even well off people, and wearing nightcaps, having beds with curtains etc.

I actually didn't notice the cold/dirty/unhygienic aspect very much, but there was one thing that bugged me a little: Like so many movies and TV shows where the characters are walking down dark corridors/tunnels/staircases with only a match or lighter or flame-torch as lighting, the filmmakers cheated in a way that's much too obvious. When Eleanor descends the stairs to the dungeon, you can see that her torch is not the only thing lighting her way-- the crew is adding extra illumination, seemingly more than is necessary, from some kind of floodlight(s). At one point she comes toward us through a doorway and this more neutral (white) "torch light" appears on the wall at our side of the opening a full second or two before the warm glow from her actual torch gets there. It looks very artificial.

I understand that from the filmmakers' viewpoint there could be technical reasons why the light from her torch might not be sufficient-- but are they right? I would think that, at the very least, it would make the shot look more raw and ominous. If the character's face was partly cast in shadow, or if long shadows were cast on the wall... well, wouldn't that be more dramatic, as well as more accurate? And if they must fill in with additional illumination, can't they be more subtle about it?