The Man Who Would Be King (Widescreen Edition)

But, the widescreen movie has to be flipped over half way through to see the last part of the movie. I just sold my laser disk player, and have NEVER had to flip a DVD.

The least enjoyable feature of this film is a grainy, almost pixelated appearance. The colors are not rich and looks like the movie was filmed on grainy film. I assume the transfer to a digital format was done with poor compression, or else the producers transferred from a very old copy of the film.

Unless you really want this DVD, wait and hope for a new version.


One of John Huston's best with Connery and Caine   January 5, 2005
T O'Brien (Chicago, Il United States)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful

The Man Who Would Be King is a throwback to the adventures films of the 1930's with great performances by Sean Connery and Michael Caine. After a blackmail plan goes awry, ex-British soldiers Daniel Dravot and Peachy Carnehan don't know what to do with themselves. The duo decides to march across Iraq and Afghanistan to the far-off and primitive nation of Kafiristan. Once there, they plan to rob the place blind as they teach the Kafirians how to defeat their enemies with modern rifles. However, in battle Dravot is wounded(an arrow is imbedded in his bandoleer) but not hurt making the Kafirians think that he is a god. This movie has it all. If you're a fan of good old-fashioned adventure movies, this is a safe bet. You won't be disappointed.

Sean Connery and Michael Caine are perfectly cast as Daniel Dravot and Peachy Carnehan, the two ex-British soldiers who hatch a plan to become the kings of the far-off country of Kafiristan. By the end of the movie, you come to like the duo more than you ever thought you could. Just like Paul Newman and Robert Redford in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Connery and Caine have a real chemistry on screen that holds the movie together. Christopher Plummer is also very good in a supporting role as Rudyard Kipling, the famous author who meets Danny and Peachy in his travels. Saeed Jaffrey plays Billy Fish, an ex-Gurhka who serves as Danny and Peachy's translator. The movie also stars Doghmi Larbi, Karroom Ben Bouih, and Michael Caine's wife Shakira as Roxanne, the Kafirian woman Danny takes as a wife. The DVD offers a beautiful widescreen presentation, "Call it Magic" a brief 12 minute documentary about the making of the movie, and eight trailers from different John Huston movies, including The Man Who Would Be King. The only bad part of the DVD is the dual-format(you have to turn the disc over halfway through the movie) but that is a minimal problem with a movie of this caliber.

This is really one of those movies where everything comes together perfectly. Great performances by Connery and Caine, brilliant directing by John Huston, beautifuly cinematography, and a great story full of action and humor. For a true adventure classic, check out The Man Who Would Be King!


The Man who would be king   March 21, 2006
Aloisio Watzl C. Lima (Brazil)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

Excellent movie. Sean Connery and Michael Caine are just superb.


Great Movie, dead average DVD   December 24, 2006
Stonyman (Wisconsin)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

I love this movie, but I was disappointed by the quality of the transfer of this particular DVD.
Unfortunately, it seems to be the only one available. Watching on an LCD HDTV, the picture was grainy and ridden with artifacts.
If you're going to watch this film on a standard definition TV set, you'll probably be pleased, as the definition of such a set probably won't reveal most of these mastering defects.
If you have an HD or Blu Ray DVD player, the upscaling may get you some improvement.


Epitaph for an Empire   April 3, 2003
5 out of 6 found this review helpful

These days Rudyard Kipling is often denigrated for having been an "imperialist". Well, he may have been that, up to a point, but he was also a genius, a prophet and a seer, as this tale, in a superb film adaptation, clearly demonstrates. All Kipling's works are multi-layered, and this is no exception. On the surface it's a rollicking tale of highly improbable adventure. It is also an allegory of the causes, rise and decline of Empire, as well as an allegory of religion. Caine and Connery personify the warm-hearted blackguards who grabbed the largest empire that the world had known. Their rise to the top of the Kafiristan heap mirrors the way the British took control of those parts of the globe that didn't have rifles. They then turned into lawgivers and judges. But they were always outnumbered, and therefore vulnerable when their subjects saw them for what they were, just human beings like the rest of us. They might have stayed as kings, provided they didn't fall out with one another, and provided they didn't get too divine. The religious allegory goes deeper. If you want to be a god, you can't act human, and succumb to carnal lusts, or behave like a mortal. If they see you bleed, they'll crucify you --- the hard route to divinity. I don't know anything about Freemasonry, so won't attempt to explain how that fits in, except to show that men ought to be brotherly towards each other. One reviewer complained that Kafiristan was shot in North Africa. So what? Does he know where Kafiristan is? Kafir is an African ethnic term, and -stan is applied to Middle Eastern countries. The masonic idol didn't look like anything from anywhere. The priests seemed to have strayed in from Nepal or Tibet. This was a neverland, symbolic of all the countries taken over by the British in the 19th century. The parts were played perfectly. I cannot imagine how American actors could possibly have reproduced so exactly the type of British humour, doggedness, durability, unsentimentality, steadiness, sheer guts, and underhandedness of these two extremely dubious but bold and venturesome characters. Plummer was also incredibly good as Kipling. Houston captured the spirit of the story with matchless sympathy and perception.

July 2006. The above was written in 2003. Three years down the line, and reading all the reviews, I have to ask myself: Dated? Old-fashioned? Politically incorrect? Today this morality tale is more relevant, more sobering, and offers more food for thought, than it did in 1975. It's about as dated as Homer's Odyssey. "The Son of God goes forth to war/A kingly crown to gain;/His blood-red banner streams afar,/Who follows in His train!" Who indeed.