052 - The Man Who Would Be King

Synopsis: Boy's Own adventure of 2 ex-soldiers in Kashiristan in the late 19th century

Director: John Huston

Actors: Sean Connery, Michael Caine, Christopher Plummer, Saeed Jaffrey

Date: 1975

How viewed: Lovefilm rental

Rating: 4/5

David Meyer says:

The story, the players, and the script possess a natural exuberance that the Indiana Jones pictures strive for but cannot attain.

I say:

Based on a Rudyard Kipling short story, this film follows the adventures of 2 ne'er-do-well English ex-soldiers, who run out of scams in India, and decide to head to Kashiristan (a country north of Afghanistan which no white man has seen since Alexander the Great), side with whichever tribe they first come across, and conquer and bring peace to the country village by village. Which indeed is what they do (salutary lessons for those forces currently in that part of the world!). However one of them is mistaken for a God, and it all goes pear-shaped when his true identity is revealed. The story can be seen as encapsulating and satirising the role of the colonising English, ultimately failing to appreciate or understand the local cultures, but it is tremendous fun, and there's real chemistry between Caine and Connery. Michael Caine plays himself of course, but who cares!