The Man Who Would Be King

Personally speaking, that classic line spoken by Peachy Carnehan (Michael Caine) is as memorable today as when I first saw his performance in  The Man Who Would Be King  in 1975. It was a favorite film then as I was finishing college, and is still a personal favorite today.This film was skillfully adapted from the Rudyard Kipling short story of the same title, a tale that I had read in my youth, and the film is one that I was compelled to share with my son as he was growing up. But in my youth, it was this line from the original short story that stood out, as it did to many:"Brother to a Prince and fellow to a beggar if he be found worthy."So begins Rudyard Kipling's  The Man Who Would Be King , with an echo of the last verse of the Masonic verse "Banquet Night," and there are quite a few references to Freemasonry in this tale, which is considered by many to be Kipling's finest short story.The author was born in Bombay (now Mumbai), in what was then British India, and he drew upon his experiences in Anglo-Indian society for much of his fiction. The winner of the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature, he was the first English language writer to receive the coveted prize, and to date he remains its youngest recipient. He is regarded as a master of the short story, and his books for children are considered as enduring classics of children's literature."The Man Who Would be King" is a unforgettable tale of adventure, and is told by a first-person narrator, a newspaperman in India who one can assume is Rudyard Kipling. While on a train, he meets a fascinating opportunist: "He was a wanderer and a vagabond like myself, but with an educated taste for whiskey. He told tales of things he had seen and done, of out-of-the-way corners of the Empire into which he had penetrated, and of adventures in which he risked his life for a few days' food."The narrator soon learns that Daniel Dravot and his fellow vagabond, Peachey Carnehan, are both passing themselves off as journalists for the newspaper for which the narrator is a real correspondent. He is fascinated by them, but does stop them from blackmailing a minor Indian rajah.Some months later, they appear at his office in Lahore, and tell him their plan. In the words of Daniel Dravot, they have been "Soldier, sailor, compositor, photographer, proof-reader, street-preacher, and correspondents of the 'Backwoodsman' when we thought the paper wanted one. Carnehan is sober, and so am I. Look at us first and see that's sure. It will save you cutting into my talk. We'll take one of your cigars apiece, and you shall see us light."The pair have have decided India isn't enough for them, and the next day they will go off to Kafiristan, to set themselves up as kings. They were going through the Khaiber with a regular caravan and with Dravot disguised as a native priest, stating, "Who'd touch a poor mad priest?" They have twenty Martini rifles, and with their camels, they plan to find a tribal leader, help him defeat his enemies, then take over for themselves.The pair sign a "Contrack" (contract) as "Gentlemen at Large," with the narrator as witness, in which they will together "be Kings of Kafiristan," not "look at any Liquor, nor any Woman," and that if one gets into trouble "the other will stay by him." They ask the narrator for the use of maps and books of the area, as a favor because they are fellow Freemasons, and because he spoiled their earlier blackmail scheme.Two years pass, and on a hot summer night, an almost unrecognizable Peachey Carnehan creeps into the narrator's office, a broken man, a crippled beggar clad in rags. He tells an astonishing tale of how Daniel Dravot and he had succeeded in becoming Kafiri kings, taking over villages, and building a unified nation in Kafiristan (in modern-day Afghanistan). Carnehan explains how the Kafiris (who were pagans, not Moslems) came to regard Dravot as a god, and the immortal son of Alexander the Great. The Kafiris practiced a form of Masonic ritual, and the pair secrets of Freemasons that only the oldest priest remembered.But Carnehan explains that their grand schemes were shattered when Dravot made a decision that brought their kingdom down around them. And to explain any further would spoil the final outcome of this amazing tale. The Masonic connections to the growth and demise of the British Empire have been covered by many. It's a true literary masterpiece, and it's quite apparent that Kipling was quite conscious of the fact that the British Empire of that time was not eternal.It's no wonder that the late John Huston chose Kipling's tale to create his epic 1975 film  The Man Who Would Be King , which starred Sean Connery (Daniel Dravot), Michael Caine (Peachey Carnehan) and Christopher Plummer (Rudyard Kipling). It had a superb supporting performance from Saeed Jaffrey, along with a rare but pivotal appearance by Michael Caine's wife, Shakira. This was a film that director John Huston had planned for years, and was nominated for four Academy Awards. The film is very true to Kipling's story, but goes into less Masonic detail.One of the more interesting aspects of this tale is that it was loosely based on historical fact, of which Kipling was aware. Josiah Harlan, a Pennsylvania Quaker, journeyed to Afghanistan in the 1820s, and through a series of wheeling and dealing, was crowned the Prince of Ghor (a province in central Afghanistan). Ben Macintyre's book  The Man Who Would Be King: The First American in Afghanistan  details his story, including Freemason Harlan trading secrets with an old Rosicrucian sorcerer in an Afghan cave, and how the the British overthrow of the sitting Afghan ruler soon forced his departure.But going back to Kipling's tale, the inevitable question arises: which is better, the movie or the book?That would be a difficult answer for this reviewer, as both have been real favorites for many years, and John Huston had gone out of his way to keep his film as true to Kipling's story as possible. Would have to say that I rate them equally, and can easily recommend both as 5-star choices. But I will admit that every once in awhile I do pick up the book  The Man Who Would Be King  and read it. One who has enjoyed both cannot help but remember the performances in John Huston's splendid film.10/8/2012

Great show.

Great drama, swashbuckling adventure. Set in India and places north, in the days of the British Raj, when men were men.Kipling is great fun and if you've never kippled before, you'll want to, once you've seen this.Can also be used as an instruction manual on how to take over a primitive country and install yourself as King.

John Huston believed that, if a director cast the right actors, a large part of the filmmaking was done before the cameras ever rolled. In his 46 year career, Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor ("The Maltese Falcon",1941), Bogart and Walter Huston ("The Treasure of the Sierra Madre",1948), Bogart and Katharine Hepburn ("The African Queen",1951),on through Jack Nicholson, Kathleen Turner and Anjelica Huston ("Prizzi's Honor", 1985) and Anjelica Huston and Donal McCann (in the director's final film, "The Dead" (1987), proved the wisdom of the director's choices. When John Huston began his late career renaissance in the 1970's, he was able to work with a perfect duo, Sean Connery and Michael Caine, in the 19th century Kiplingesque bromance, "The Man Who Would Be King" (1975). And what a perfect pairing the Scot Connery (the best loved of all the James Bonds) and the Cockney Caine (everyone from "Alfie" to Alfred, the Dark Knight's butler/surrogate father) make. In my personal film pantheon of the past half century, only Paul Newman and Robert Redford in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (1969) and "The Sting" (1973) offer brusque masculinity and emotional gradation comparable to Connery and Caine's. They're in perfect step throughout the film, even lighting each other's cigar simultaneously. Then there was that Best Supporting Actor handoff from Caine to Connery at the 1988 Academy Award ceremony."The Man Who Would Be King" is, like its Kiplingesque predecessor, "Gunga Din" (1939), a celebration of imperialism, both material and racial. "Kafiristan", the film's thinly veiled stand-in for Afghanistan, exists only so that two greedy, if likeable, con artists and former members of Her Majesty's forces in India can, in the words of Daniel Dravot (Connery), "loot the country four ways from Sunday." The treasure that they stumble upon, and to which their Masonic insignia gives them access, was originally accumulated by Alexander the Great, the ur imperialist. Alexander, according to the film's cheeky script, was also the ur Mason. Who knew?The tribal divisions which are very much in evidence in today's Afghanistan and which have thwarted efforts at control by the ancient Greeks, the British Raj, the Russians, the Taliban and, to some extent, the Americans, play both humorous and brutal roles in the film's narrative. The various tribes urinate downstream while their enemies are bathing or doing laundry; the sport of choice involves playing polo with the decapitated head of one's enemy. The one Asian with a significant role is Billy Fish (Saeed Jaffrey),who speaks a fractured English learned during his time serving first in the British military and then as the translator for the Connery and Caine characters. An earlier figure of fun was an Indian businessman who, after spitting watermelon seeds on the floor of a railway carriage, is unceremoniously thrown off the train.One has to admire the courage and fortitude of the Connery and Caine characters, if not their moral flaws which include cultural condescension, greed and undue self regard. This last is especially true of Dravot who believes his own mythmaking and thinks that indeed he is the long lost descendant of Alexander. He can therefore marry his own Roxanne (the drop dead gorgeous Shakira Caine, Michael's wife) and father a long line of kings. The original Alexander may have died over 300 years before Christ was born but his after life includes Steven Spielberg's "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" (1989) and Oliver Stone's "Alexander' (2005).All the technical aspects of "The Man Who Would Be King" are first rate and earned Oscar nominations for art direction/set decoration, costumes(Edith Head) and film editing, as did the Huston/Gladys Hill script. The desolate grandeur of Morocco and the stunning glacial beauty of France's Mt. Chamonix, lovingly rendered by Oswald Morris' cameras, make impressive stand-ins for the Hindu Kush and the Himalayas. Maurice Jarre, master of widescreen epic romantic scores from "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962) to "Doctor Zhivago" (1965) to "A Passage to India" (1984), provides the appropriately colorful, expansive and pseudo-ethnic flavoring.As a rabid Blu-ray collector, I especially appreciate the care that Warner Brothers took with this 2011 re-issue. It's encased in a small hard bound book which features superlative film stills, shots of cast and crew, costume sketches and mini-biographies of the major players before and behind the cameras.Well done all hands.

A wild tale full of suspense and quite humorous as Michael Caine and Sean Connery serve up a delightful drama with twist and turns, leading to a jaw-dropping conclusion.

Great movie both Michael Cain and Sean Connery (RIP) offer great performances.

Great product and service.

Danke, Lieblingsfilm

Se ve perfectamente en blu ray y una buena remasterización, ahora eso si no tiene castellano, sólo subtitulos en español, pero me da igual casi me la se de memoria, y se puede reproducir en nuestra zona europea.

Two great actors jousting for the sense of humurous illegitimate supremacy. Sydney James and some of the Carry On crew could have fitted in seamlessly, but would struggle against the acting of Caine and Whatsisname.

Connery und Cain mit einer anständigen Ladung trockenen Britischen Humor! Ein sehr schöner Film zum immer-wieder-mal-anschauen! Sehr zu empfehlen für Zuschauer die ungern Kommerzielle USA filme schauen...

Tiene bastantes idiomas de audio y subtítulos. Ideal para quienes buscan la película con la posibilidad de verla en español (castellano) o en inglés subtitulada inglés.