Der Mann, der König sein wollte (1975)

Der Mann, der König sein wollte: Directed by John Huston. With Sean Connery, Michael Caine, Christopher Plummer, Saeed Jaffrey. Two British former soldiers decide to set themselves up as Kings in Kafiristan, a land where no white man has set foot since Alexander the Great.

“No director ever personalized a genre the way John Huston could. While some critics have claimed his style was a u0026#39;lacku0026#39; of style, the opposite is actually true; his sense of irony, love of the absurd, respect for personal codes of honor, and twist endings that always remind us that the true value of a journey is not arriving at a destination, but in the u0026#39;getting thereu0026#39; all set apart his best work from that of his contemporaries. Even his lesser work has value, and his best films, which certainly includes THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING, are unforgettable.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe tragicomic tale of two ex-Sergeants turned confidence men with a grand scheme to fleece a near-legendary kingdom had been a u0026#39;petu0026#39; project of Hustonu0026#39;s since the forties, and heu0026#39;d spent years tinkering with the script, planning to film it with Clark Gable and Humphrey Bogart in the leads. With Bogartu0026#39;s death in 1957, heu0026#39;d considered various other match-ups (including Richard Burton and Peter Ou0026#39;Toole), until he found the ideal pair, in Sean Connery and Michael Caine. Connery had just finished the spectacular THE WIND AND THE LION (in which Huston played a small, but memorable role), and the Scot had often been compared to Gable with his dark good looks, machismo, and lack of pretense. Michael Caine, a long-time friend of Connery, was one of the industryu0026#39;s busiest actors, and had already proved himself adept at playing both soldiers and con men. Together, Connery and Caine had a camaraderie and chemistry that even Gable and Bogart couldnu0026#39;t have equaled, and Huston was u0026quot;quite pleasedu0026quot;.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eChristopher Plummer was another inspired piece of casting, as the legendary author Rudyard Kipling. Bookish, with a keen intellect and rich sense of humor, Plummeru0026#39;s Kipling, sharing Masonic ties with the future u0026#39;Kingsu0026#39;, is the perfect foil for the duo, offering sound advice which they totally disregard, with a wink and a smile. As Dravot (Connery) tells him, u0026quot;We are not little menu0026quot;, and India, bound up in British bureaucracy (as well as becoming too u0026#39;hotu0026#39; for them) could never provide the immensity of riches they dreamed of.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eHuston eschewed the u0026#39;traditionalu0026#39; approach to adventure films, with cardboard heroes performing near-impossible deeds until the inevitable u0026#39;happy endingu0026#39;, and grounded his story in reality, which disappointed any viewers hoping KING would simply be a variation of GUNGA DIN. But in not romanticizing the story, he gives it a sense of immensity and the exotic, a richness of character, and an understanding of human frailties that far surpasses a typical Hollywood product. While Dravot orchestrates the pairu0026#39;s ultimate ruin by taking his u0026#39;godhoodu0026#39; too seriously (as he turns u0026#39;nobleu0026#39;, trying to bring order to his u0026#39;kingdomu0026#39;, and decides to start a dynasty by taking a wife), you can understand why Carnehan (Caine), seeing their u0026#39;get richu0026#39; scheme disintegrate, would be anxious to leave, but also why he would forgive his friend, when they face torture and certain death. Loyalty, to Huston, is not lip service, but a true measure of a man. While Dravot and Carnehan are certainly not role models, their love and respect for each other transcends their faults, even their lives, putting the filmu0026#39;s final scene, as a physically crushed Carnehan leaves his u0026#39;bundleu0026#39; for Kipling, into perspective. It is a moment you wonu0026#39;t soon forget.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003enTHE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING proves, yet again, why John Huston, as he once described his friend, Humphrey Bogart, is u0026quot;irreplaceableu0026quot;.”