Among my top 5 choices for best film!

Rating: 10/10 (9 July 1999)

I beg to differ with one of the comments about this being a man's film! I would place this film among my top 5 favorite movies of all time, and I am definitely NOT a man!
This film is the epitome of everything that is good in a film. Great locations, great direction, great art direction, great story, great plotting and most especially, great acting.
Michael Caine and Sean Connery have done "bigger" works, but together, they have made the "biggest" work they could ever do. The spirit and life in their characters--the sheer optimism that they show, even in the final scenes of the film are heart wrenching and beautiful. They "make" Daniel Dravot, Esquire and Peachy Carnehan come to beautiful life, embodying all that is innocent in two men who have been to war, conquered their demons, and now desire to fulfill the rest of their dreams.
The underlying subplot of freemasonry is an interesting one as well. For it would not have been out of character for men such as Danny and Peachy to have been masons, nor for Kipling to be one as well. (Did anyone ever note that this was Christopher Plummer's first of two roles that dealt quite a lot with freemasonry? Murder by Decree, four years later, is the other)
I just love this movie for itself. I've been a fan of H. Rider Haggard, and it's the same kind of thrill you get in reading his work. I just HATED it when they started remaking the Haggard movies and putting women like Sharon Stone in them, when it's supposed to be a "male" adventure. You would certainly never find a woman like that in The Man Who Would Be King--it is the TRUE essence of a film about MEN in a MAN'S era.
Michael Caine and Sean Connery are, for lack of a better word, geniuses in the art of filmmaking. They have become true ACTORS, because they love their craft so much, and know the difference between acting and faking it. They are not out to prove themselves "stars" because they don't need that--they know how to ACT and that is far more important.
If any filmmaker now were to tackle a project such as The Man Who Would Be King, they would likely try to cast some big name "star" such as Tom Cruise, and ruin the story. Let's hope this film is NOT remade--it would certainly taint what is perhaps one of the few masterpieces of modern day story telling.