The Man Who Would Be King (1975)

 

The Man Who Would Be King is based upon a story by Rudyard Kipling, and the narrative needed to be expanded quite a bit from the original tale in order to make a film that clocks in at more than two hours long. However, the addition of stunning cinematography and large-scale production values to Kipling’s details contributes a great deal to the enjoyment of the resulting film. Sean Connery and Michael Caine play former British Army soldiers in India who decide to use their con artist skills to take over the country of Kafiristan (now a region in Afghanistan) and become “gods.” Christopher Plummer has a small, almost insignificant role as Kipling; all he really gets to do is listen to Caine’s Peachy Carnahan describe the adventures that he and Connery’s Daniel “Danny” Dravot experience. Once Danny and Peachy arrive in Kafiristan, they begin taking over one village after another through their training of the natives in British fighting techniques. An odd series of circumstances – Danny is unharmed when shot by an enemy’s arrow, a necklace with the Masonic symbol causes priests to believe Danny is the son of Alexander the Great even though it is more than two millennia after the first Alexander came to the region – leads to Dravot being recognized as king, a role which quickly goes to his head. (Just as an aside, the reveal of the Masonic symbol on a necklace around Dravot’s neck prompts all of the priests to bow down to him, initially giving the impression that they were about to worship Connery’s hairy chest. As they should.) Danny’s ego leads him to think that he can “civilize” the natives, making them more like British subjects, just under his rule rather than Queen Victoria’s, but his downfall comes, perhaps unsurprisingly, in the form of a beautiful woman, Roxanne, who was played by Shakira Caine—yes, Michael’s wife. The film never really questions the colonial impulse that drives Dravot and Carnahan’s desire to take over this so-called “uncharted” country. The term “uncharted” only seems to apply to countries that haven’t yet been taken over by some colonial power, doesn’t it?  The story is set during the Age of Empire for England and replicates the mentality of the colonial powers of the time. Perhaps because the story ends badly for both Peachy and Danny, it’s meant to be a subtle comment on the limits of colonial power, but really the film is little more than an entertaining, old-fashioned adventure tale that could probably not be made in this allegedly more enlightened era.

Oscar Nominations: Best Screenplay Adapted from Other Material, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Costume Design, and Best Film Editing