An Adventure of a Lifetime!!!

Rating: 10/10 (9 February 2016)

"Maltese Falcon" director John Huston's storybook adventure saga "The Man Who Would Be King" casts Sean Connery and Michael Caine as two former British Army soldiers in 19th century India. These two scoundrels aspire to become kings in their own right in a distant land of Kafristan. Despite its downbeat ending, this ambitious saga has some amusing moments early on as the roguish pair visit the famous writer Rudyard Kipling before they march off to glory. This is an old-fashioned melodrama about a pair of mercenaries who get everything that they deserve in the long run. Nevertheless, Connery and Caine have a field day as the Queen's own until they encounter tragedy. Our protagonists masquerade as natives and enter a land where no white man has been seen since Alexander the Great in 230 B.C. They raise an army from a small ruler's kingdom and march into battle against one tyrant after another until Connery's Daniel Dravot leads a reckless charge against the enemy in their first battle against the orders of his comrade-in-arms Peachy Carnehan (Michael Caine) who reprimands him for his amateurish behavior. During the charge, an arrow plunges into Daniel's chest, but lodges harmlessly in his bandoleer and he survives. However, everybody who witnessed his exploit believe that Daniel survived because he is nothing less than divine, a god, and they fall down on their knees and worship him. Predictably, our heroes amass a fortune in gold, but Daniel begins to believe in his own divinity and makes the mistake of taking a wife. When the dame bites him during their wedding ceremony, they realize that they have cooked their collective geese. Everybody realizes that Daniel isn't a god and they sent him to his death and crucify poor Peachy. Lensed on location in sunny, sand-swept Morocco, "The Man Who Would Be King" was a life-long dream of writer & director John Huston who initially sought to make it during the Golden Age of Hollywood with Clark Gable and Humphrey Bogart.