THE Adventure Film of them all

Rating: 10/10 (29 October 2000)

Considering that John Huston wanted to film this Rudyard-Kipling-yarn in the 50´s starring Humphrey Bogart and Clark Gable, one can only sigh in relief that this plan never materialized. Because when John Huston finally was able to make the movie the result was the most engaging, the most adventurous, the most suspensefull, the best looking, the most intriguing plotted and the best cast screen-adventure of all time (it´s only possible rival being David Lean´s "Lawrence of Arabia"). Everything starts and ends with the casting of Michael Caine and Sean Connery as the two treasure-hunters who happen to stumble over Alexander the Great´s long lost city of Gold, where Connery is thought of as a God, starts acting wise and respectful and becomes alienated from his pal Caine - until in the end they are united again. There is a lot of talk around about John Ford´s theme of glory in defeat. In the last sequences of "The Man Who Would Be King" you can actually see what this means at an highly emotional level. Caine and Connery are so good together that one tends to assume they´ve made a lot of films side by side. This is tragically wrong. "The Man Who Would Be King" is in fact the only one; not considering Richard Attenborough´s all-star-extravaganza "A Bridge Too Far" (1977)where they are not to be seen on the screen together. To praise the two stars doesn´t mean to underestimate the achievement of the then veteran director. Any sequence of the film shows that this was not an easy shoot and Huston being 68 at the time of shooting didn´t spare his stars, his team and least of all himself anything. The result being that "The Man Who Would Be King", for all its air of adventure, its sense of mythical wonders, its eyeblinking exaggerations, hits the viewer with a strong feeling of honesty. This is the finest hour for anyone involved!