An affluent American family of three (a woman, played by Bergen, and her two kids) living in Morocco is kidnapped by the chief of the Berbers (Connery), who will ask the Americans for an important ransom. Connery and the kidnapped become closer and closer, especially when he singlehandedly rescues them from a dangerous situation. Meanwhile the Americans plan to overcome the Berbers with their military, pushed by president Teddy Roosevelt who is campaigning for reelection back in the States. The military succeed, although they have to slaughter dozens of men, and at the last minute free the Berber chief, that had been treacherously captured by the Germans.
There are not many memorable things in The Wind and the Lion. Being it a Milius flick, what I mostly expected was epos. And on this level, the movie works just fine. We get all the battles and the monumental scenery. The Moroccan setting, recreated in Southern Spain, is good and credible. (Although after a while I got the trick, when I recognized Seville in one of the scenes). Another interesting aspect is the scenes involving Theodore Roosevelt, played by an excellent Brian Keith, back in the States. These overseas intermissions in the Moroccan tragedy are well crafted and show the game of politics behind the drama of the kidnapping set on the far Rift mountains of Morocco. Roosevelt is depicted as an all too fatuous character, in love with manly sports and self-assertion but ultimately weak in keeping promises. And so the American coup in Morocco, somehow backed by Roosevelt and carried out by the military and the diplomats (among the latter a good performance by Geoffrey Lewis), is openly made to look despicable for its surreptitious and illegitimate motives. There is an image at a certain moment of a waving American flag that occupies the full screen. This reminded me of one of the last scenes in Altman's Nashville, when another Stars and Stripes banner waves in the wind to signify the ambiguity of politics in the face of the people.
However, after having set a good pace, the movie fails to keep its promises. In an unlikely inversion of roles, the American turn out to be the good guys, as if all of a sudden the courage to hold the position kept in the first two thirds of the movie had left. So the American soldiers, held at gun point by Bergen (a quite doubtful event to say the least), admit that they must rescue the Berber, now held hostage by the real bad guys. Who, of course, are the Germans!! In this, the American are joined by the Berber warriors.
I am also disappointed by Connery, not quite credible as a Berber. He does a lot of tricks and the usual Connery grins that are full of charisma, but that just does not make it less British, or at least, Anglo-Saxon than he is. In another scene, Connery's character, who is otherwise full of "honor" and "respect", decapitates some of his people in cold blood for having stolen his fruit. Meanwhile Bergen's children look at him bewildered and admired. What absurdity. It is not clear whether we need to look at him in the same, admired awe. I hope not.
Bergen is beautiful and does a reasonable job, but her character is also flawed, as nobody would expect all that bravery in a rich blonde American widow violently subdued and kidnapped by what is depicted as an aggressive band of desert warriors. So she is driven to do illogical and impossible things like disarming an entire American brigade and convincing them to attack the Germans, that so far were like allies. Again, what a blotch in the script! Once the movie starts rolling downhill, there is nothing to stop it. To the point that the final battle looks boring and bogus (look for those fake looking gunshots in the ground). Bergen rescues the Berber in the most stupid way: he is hanging from a rope, which she severs so he can free fall head first on the ground! Connery's skull must be very strong because he gets up ready to fight the Germans.
All in all, this is a spectacular movie that is blessed by Milius' direction and some good locations, but flawed by a more than poor script that does not do justice to the good cast. Which, by the way, includes a useless but likable cameo by John Huston, playing an adviser to the President.
There are not many memorable things in The Wind and the Lion. Being it a Milius flick, what I mostly expected was epos. And on this level, the movie works just fine. We get all the battles and the monumental scenery. The Moroccan setting, recreated in Southern Spain, is good and credible. (Although after a while I got the trick, when I recognized Seville in one of the scenes). Another interesting aspect is the scenes involving Theodore Roosevelt, played by an excellent Brian Keith, back in the States. These overseas intermissions in the Moroccan tragedy are well crafted and show the game of politics behind the drama of the kidnapping set on the far Rift mountains of Morocco. Roosevelt is depicted as an all too fatuous character, in love with manly sports and self-assertion but ultimately weak in keeping promises. And so the American coup in Morocco, somehow backed by Roosevelt and carried out by the military and the diplomats (among the latter a good performance by Geoffrey Lewis), is openly made to look despicable for its surreptitious and illegitimate motives. There is an image at a certain moment of a waving American flag that occupies the full screen. This reminded me of one of the last scenes in Altman's Nashville, when another Stars and Stripes banner waves in the wind to signify the ambiguity of politics in the face of the people.
However, after having set a good pace, the movie fails to keep its promises. In an unlikely inversion of roles, the American turn out to be the good guys, as if all of a sudden the courage to hold the position kept in the first two thirds of the movie had left. So the American soldiers, held at gun point by Bergen (a quite doubtful event to say the least), admit that they must rescue the Berber, now held hostage by the real bad guys. Who, of course, are the Germans!! In this, the American are joined by the Berber warriors.
I am also disappointed by Connery, not quite credible as a Berber. He does a lot of tricks and the usual Connery grins that are full of charisma, but that just does not make it less British, or at least, Anglo-Saxon than he is. In another scene, Connery's character, who is otherwise full of "honor" and "respect", decapitates some of his people in cold blood for having stolen his fruit. Meanwhile Bergen's children look at him bewildered and admired. What absurdity. It is not clear whether we need to look at him in the same, admired awe. I hope not.
Bergen is beautiful and does a reasonable job, but her character is also flawed, as nobody would expect all that bravery in a rich blonde American widow violently subdued and kidnapped by what is depicted as an aggressive band of desert warriors. So she is driven to do illogical and impossible things like disarming an entire American brigade and convincing them to attack the Germans, that so far were like allies. Again, what a blotch in the script! Once the movie starts rolling downhill, there is nothing to stop it. To the point that the final battle looks boring and bogus (look for those fake looking gunshots in the ground). Bergen rescues the Berber in the most stupid way: he is hanging from a rope, which she severs so he can free fall head first on the ground! Connery's skull must be very strong because he gets up ready to fight the Germans.
All in all, this is a spectacular movie that is blessed by Milius' direction and some good locations, but flawed by a more than poor script that does not do justice to the good cast. Which, by the way, includes a useless but likable cameo by John Huston, playing an adviser to the President.