The Wind and the Lion

The Wind and the Lion
by John Milius

List Price: $14.96
Our Price: $4.99
You Save: $9.97 (67%)
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy Used: from $3.80 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases

DVD Cover Information

Movie Reviews of The Wind and the Lion

Movie Review: Rousing historical adventure with a dash of romance
Summary: 5 Stars

Times change and times stay the same ... when I saw this on its initial release, Arabs/Muslims were definitely the Bad Guys (it was the mid-Seventies, the Israelis and their neighbors were coming off another war, there were lines for gasoline, and rampant inflation caused by skyrocketing oil prices was wrecking the world's economy) but the post-Vietnam mood in the US was very much against all manifestations of foreign military intervention. This film was discordantly out of place in the prevailing attitudes. Then things cooled off, the Middle East didn't seem to be as threatening after awhile, and America began to start sending soldiers abroad again (carefully, against enemies who couldn't really fight back). Now, in the last decade, we've come full circle in many ways. Once more the Islamic world is a bogeyman and "robust", even pre-emptive, military intervention is an official doctrine of the Bush II crowd. This film ought to be wildly popular now -- for all the wrong reasons.

Milius is an unapologetic but conflicted imperialist, as he ruefully but honestly notes in his commentary track. On the one hand, he glories in naked American power (personified in this movie in the figure of the bearish Teddy Roosevelt, played masterfully by Brian Keith), but on the other, he recognizes that it is el Raisuli (Sean Connery) and his Moroccan bandits/jihadists whjo are the true heroes of the story, fighting patriotically to rid their country of foreign invaders. While Milius never resolves this conflict within himself, it does enable him to portray both sides honestly and respectfully, and even see the humor in the opposing attitudes: it is sometimes not clear if the hawkish American diplomats and soldiers, soberly toasting "World War", are meant to be buffoons or are in deadly earnest, the humor is so dry and the acting so sincere. A little of both, in all likelihood, just like Roosevelt, who is whimsically shown in constant physical activity while pursuing a shrewd, if belligerent, approach to foreign affairs.

Connery's Raisuli (based on a real figure) makes a marvelous freedom fighter. He's proud, passionate, fearless, and incorruptible, which is why he's probably doomed in the end, as the film's coda implies. His feelings toward his captive (Candice Bergen's Eden Pedecaris) grow into an abiding but chaste love (which is reciprocated), a subplot that hearkens to the grand old romantic adventure movies of old but that is never allowed by Milus to distract from the central storyline of action and intrigue. Some people seem to think that "Big Tam's" alleged Scottish accent is intrusive -- I do not hear this myself; to my ears Connery makes a very convincing Muslim, and besides, I have read on good authority that Arabic-speakers are the world's best imitators of the Scottish accent, so the casting makes a curious sort of sense.

TW&TL is full of movement and sweeping panoramas, with the Spanish locations subbing for Morocco used to good effect. The cinematography is superb, and truly shines in this widescreen release, and it is accompanied by one of Jerry Goldsmith's most stirring and evocative soundtracks. Milius' dialogue is economical and never too anachronistic (always a problem in most period movies); he creates believable larger-than-life characters and leavens the swashbuckling with deft humorous touches. Viewers will come away with many favorite lines that will enter their everyday conversation (e.g., "Real men prefer to fight with swords, so they can see each other's eyes," "You like-y speech-y?", "Why spoil the beauty of the thing with legality", "It goes double for Berbers", "The ease of others is not the concern of the Sultan", and "You've made this fine specimen of a grizzly look like a hairy cow").

It's all a tremendous spectacle, full of dash and glory, from the last few "innocent" years before the vaunting anthems of the European powers were muted by the mud of trench warfare and imperialism lost its attraction to a war-weary Old World. (Whether America will follow in its footsteps remains an open question.) Milius, a devotee of Kurosawa and a keen student of the military arts, directs some of the finest combat sequences ever to grace the screen. Bergen is surprisingly effective (it's hard to imagine Faye Dunaway in this role, as the commentary suggests nearly happened), the support players render sterling service, and there's even an unexpected touch of poetry at the end. Stand-out cinema entertainment that leaves you thinking, laughing, and applauding at the same time.

Summary of The Wind and the Lion