Just plain magnificent.

Rating: 10/10 (4 March 2002)

This movie is just a joy, a total joy.
John Huston had his terrific ups and his catastrophic downs, but at his best he produced a handful of movies ("The Maltese Falcon," "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre," "Wise Blood," "The Dead" and a few others) that rank among the very best narrative film-making ever made. (It is worth noting that all the above were based on novels or short stories; few if any succeeded in translating literature to film with the skill Huston had.)
The two greatest parables of the downfall of colonialism are "Heart of Darkness," by Joseph Conrad, and "The Man Who Would Be King," by Rudyard Kipling. Kipling, of course, championed the British Empire right and left; I wonder, then, if he quite knew how deep he had plumbed with the cautionary fable he created. Huston catches the subtext instinctively, and produces a true gem. Without sacrificing Kipling's facility with language or his sense of high adventure, Huston nails the bloody arrogance of the colonial mind, and nails it DOWN. If we begin by laughing with Dravot and Carnehan at the simplicity of the "savages" they seek to rule, we end in shuddering awe of the depth of what we have stumbled onto; the truth of a life and belief that can blow our greedy, venal ambitions away like dust.
Connery and Caine go over like fish and chips-- they've never been better as individuals and they score mightily as a team. (And they have the perfect voices for Kipling's cadences-- you could listen to them all day.) Great kudos to the wonderful Saeed Jaffrey, Christopher Plummer, and Doghmi Larbi, whose funny, sad Ootah just about steals the movie. The music brings tears to my eyes whenever I hear it. The movie is just improbable enough to be great adventure and just poetic enough to be more. With this movie it's unbearably tempting to give a little spoiler, so (SKIP THE REST) --
***************SLIGHT SPOILER AHEAD******************
I can't help it. Because the final shot is so wonderful; it is the reason, in fact, that I have watched this film so many times and been in awe of it each time:
The fable ends as fables must, with a moral, and this simple, eloquent final shot perfectly echoes Shakespeare:
"...for within the hollow crown that rounds the mortal temples of the king keeps Death his court, and there the antic sits, scoffing at his state, grinning at his pomp, allowing him a breath, a little scene, to monarchize, be feared, and kill with looks; infusing him with self and vain conceit, as if this flesh which walls about our life were brass impregnable; and, humoured thus, comes at the last, and with a little pin, bores through the castle wall, and farewell King."
Let us paint an inch thick, to this end we will come.