Will reconcile anybody with mankind

Rating: 10/10 (4 March 2002)

***SPOILER***
I'm not one to go into ecstasies about historic adventure/action movies, although I appreciate them when they are well made. But TMWWBK is not simply "well made" and it's not just an adventure/action movie. It's an amazing, gut-wrenching journey into human soul, which contains everything one needs to know about human strengths and weaknesses.
One of the reasons why this movie works so well is that it doesn't try to elude the "dark" side of the heroes. They are greedy, rough, sometimes selfish. But the film suggests that this "dark" side has no importance because they have an incredible capacity of redemption. At the end of the film, when Caine and Connery are about to be slaughtered by the monks, Connery says he's been a fool for having played with their lives and he asks Caine if he forgives him. Caine says he forgives "totally and with no restriction". A few seconds later, Connery falls into the precipice. Caine, whose eyes have been put out by the monks, goes down the ravine, retrieves his skull and leaves with it.
Wow.
In my opinion, you can't make stronger than that. This is a guy who's just been beaten to death and whose eyes have been enucleated because his friend played God and who searches his corpse to bring it back home - just because he's his friend. Man, you would have to be a rock not to be a little concerned about that.
I hope all the people who took a part in the making of these 2 hours of pure magic and who are still alive are proud of their work, because they can.If you've never seen TMWWBK, do it. It will give you the best you can expect from a movie.
An unrestricted 10/10.