The Man Who Would Be King (Widescreen Edition)

It's an excellent movie but it could have been so much better on DVD than they have given us.

The sound is not very good! It's really too bad as the score by Maurice Jarre is worth hearing!

"Dirty Harry" is no "The Man Who Would Be King", ( although I do like "Dirty Harry") however "Harry" features 5.1 sound and is so much the better for it.

Given my experience with "The Man Who Would Be King", when I am shopping I will be on the outlook for those discs that fully utilize the technology available. END


Danny and Peachy capture your heart   January 19, 2003
Deborah MacGillivray (US & UK)
12 out of 12 found this review helpful

Sean Connery, Michael Caine, Christopher Plummer, John Houston....four of the biggest talents of our lifetime that came together to give you very special film. One so emotionally moving and involving I have a very hard time watching it, but then I likely hold the Guinness records on repeat views for Braveheart...so I tell myself I won't watch it again, but end up doing it.

Based on a Rudyard Kipling story, it is full of exotic locates, adventure, and such warm humour, under the master John Houston's direction. Houston had this in mind originally for Clark Gable and Humphrey Bogart (not to knock them, but total miscasting), then later was going to do it with Butch and Sundance (Paul Newman and Robert Redford in typically Hollywood style of going for names rather than perfect actors for the roles). Fortunately, Newman had the insight to pass on it and suggested going with the pairing that was absolute perfect as Danny and Peachy.

Caine had showed as Bromhead in Zulu, that he had the proper mien for a man in a red coat and pith helmet, and we know Connery can do anything given the crack. Since both are personal friends off screen, their on screen charisma comes is amplified by the fact the two men who actually like each other, giving good foundation in which to bring Danny and Peachy alive.

Danny and Peachy decide they have had enough with soldering for the British Empire and think it a marvellous idea to go forth into the world and find a forgotten corner and create their own,
and the most forgotten place they can find on the map is Kafiristan. There they plan to become rich as kings. It is a super adventure getting there, but after the reach the small country, the lark turns into something more, with Danny taking being King Quite serious.

Look for a cameo of Mrs. Caine playing the woman to wed Connery.
It just does not get any better than this, with fine fine acting, writing and directing. Just have a hankie near for the ending.


Calling for a new DVD issue   March 10, 2007
Paul Bubny (Maplewood, NJ United States)
12 out of 12 found this review helpful

More years ago than I'd like to remember (okay, it was 1983), in my first job out of college, I compiled and edited (among many other things) the TV listings "picks" for a weekly regional music/arts newpspaper. I recall the publisher, an aging hippie, carping about my recommendation of a TV broadcast of a movie based on a short story by an alleged apologist for British imperialism, Rudyard Kipling. Kipling may be un-PC these days, but I wonder if my long-ago publisher actually read "The Man Who Would Be King" or saw the wonderful 1975 movie that director John Huston fashioned from it. If he did, he might have realized it was a clear-eyed cautionary tale, not a celebration of British incursion. "TMWWBK" is one of those "they don't make 'em like that anymore" near-classics, and watching it you're glad that Huston had to wait so long to make it, because with all due respect to the late great director, his earlier choices for the leading roles (Clark Gable, Humphrey Bogart, Burt Lancaster and Paul Newman among them) would not have worked nearly as well as the team of Sean Connery and Michael Caine. The two actors bring authority, humor, and not a little poignancy to their roles as ex-soldiers who decide to journey to a remote, hostile Asian land and set themselves up as its rulers.

Watching the DVD again recently, I was reminded of what a strong impact "TMWWBK" made on me as a teenager, and it has stood the test of time better than many highly-regarded movies of its day. However, my enthusiasm is muted by the fact that the DVD itself hasn't held up nearly as well. It was issued circa 1997, when so-called "flippers" (DVDs that made you play both sides to see the entire movie, like an LP with awkward side breaks) were not unheard-of, even with flicks that ran for only two hours like this one. Oswald Morris' handsome Panavision cinematography translated pretty cleanly to silver disc (thankfully, it's letterboxed rather than pan-and-scan), but after a decade's advancements in DVD technology, a remastering would produce a sharper picture (and would probably improve the lackluster transfer of the soundtrack, monaural though it is). Double-sided or no, the disc is very short on extras--and as has been noted elsewhere, a key moment near the end of the movie has been inexplicably deleted, or more accurately replaced with a character's narration delivered to the camera rather than as a voice-over of this sequence. The movie deserves far better, and it's a shame that this 10-year-old "flipper" hasn't been superceded. The high rating I'm giving this disc is for the movie itself, not for the indifferent DVD, which will have to suffice until, I hope, a better one comes along.


One of the best films but one of worst DVDs   March 2, 2002
11 out of 12 found this review helpful

Rates 5 stars for film.

Rates 1 star for DVD quality. Read technical information section. It says it all.

BTW this this is a filper that losses data when fliped.


Spot on!   October 23, 2003
Tony Hughes (Cincinnati, Ohio United States)
11 out of 13 found this review helpful

Just the sort of movie you'd like to see on a wet sunday afternoon when you have nothing better to do than watch television.

Strangely, early reviews of this movie criticise the casting, insisting that Connery should have played Carnahan and Caine Dravot. Why this is, who knows. I think the two actors play superb roles and, as has been said before, the chemistry between them is startlingly obvious.

Carnahan and Dravot are ex-British soldiers in 19th century India during the time of the Raj. Deciding that fame and fortune is to found in nearby Kafiristan, they set out to conquor the country. This they do by a quirk of fate when Danny is falsely claimed as a god and son of Alexander the Great.

Things are fine until Danny takes a wife (played by Caine's real-life wife, Shakira). She bites him, he bleeds blood- indicating he is an ordinary mortal. Then things really go belly-up. Danny is sent plunging to the bottom of a very deep gorge and Peachy is crucified.

Fine acting by Caine, Connery and Plummer. A special mention must go to Saaed Jaffrey who plays the part of Billy Fish, the loyal ex-Ghurka.

Huston took his time to make this but, in the end, it was surely worth it.