Rating of
3.5/4
"The Man Who Would Be King" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 12/28/11
Two likable rogues Michael Caine and Sean Connery hatch a scheme to conquer the untamed wilderness of Kafiristan using their military training to unite its warring tribes. Seeing Connery and Caine together is reason enough to recommend this film to anyone, but John Huston's adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's classic story lives up to all expectations. There is no superfluous action, love scenes or unnecessary bells and whistles; just pure storytelling at its finest. Unsurprisingly, the central double act play off each other brilliantly and together with an excellent Christopher Plummer as Kipling himself, they make for a fantastic parody of and homage to "Britishness" amid a perfect blending of humour and derring do. Huston effortlessly shifts tone, darkening the mood til the wonderful twist in the tale with a similar morality message to his own The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre. One of the last of the true boy's own classics and another of the "they don't make them like that anymore" category.
