Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great sunday movie, 28 April 2005
By A Customer
when you feel like switching off and watching a good action movie - watch this, a movie set in a time when the USA did not care whether the world loved it or not and it did what it felt was right and carried a big stick !
Sean Connery is great and would probably have done the movie for no money and the arab characters have some substance which is rare, the music score really works well and will bring a lump to the throat in some scenes.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Between the Wind and the Lion is the woman. For her, half the world may go to war.", 8 Nov 2007
For me, The Wind and the Lion is one of the great adventure films of all time (rather than an action movie per se) and certainly has the best script of the 70s, managing to combine adventure, myth, romance, wit and political cynicism while creating memorable characters and driving the story forward. Its influences are clearly noticeable, and all acknowledged by writer-director John Milius: the children's behavior is straight out of A High Wind in Jamaica, the superb beach sequence inspired by another horseback swordfight in The Hidden Fortress (Kurosawa is a big Milius influence elsewhere in the film as well) while the finale throws in a tip of the hat, both musically and visually, to The Wild Bunch. But unlike a Tarantino grab-bag of favorite movie moments, Milius manages to make something unique of his own out of them all in this highly romanticised tale of an American woman (Candice Bergen) and her children kidnapped by an Arab leader (Sean Connery) in Morocco in 1904 that became an international incident that briefly threatened to turn into a war as Teddy Roosevelt (Brian Keith) used it as a rallying cry during his election campaign. But as the Americans and European powers that control the region rattle sabres, hostage and captive form a real friendship they'll risk anything for.
As for Connery's casting... Well, it makes a change to cast a Scot as a north of the border Berber - up until then Hollywood usually cast Welsh actors like Hugh Griffiths as Arabs. Yes, you do laugh when you first hear him speak, but after his line "I am the Raisuli - you will not laugh at me again!", you won't. Accent or not, this is one of his most likeable and charismatic performances, proving himself one of the few actors with enough presence for the epic genre. He's well-matched by Brian Keith's blustering but self-aware Roosevelt, the film building up a growing relationship of mutual respect between the two leaders from different sides of the world who never meet that threatens to make more of an impact than Connery's sparring with Bergen. Connery's The Man Who Would Be King director John Huston offers a good supporting turn as Roosevelt's Secretary of State John Hay, while Jerry Goldsmith's exciting and richly romantic scores is indeed one of the all-time greats. Splendid entertainment in every way.
Warners' Region 1 NTSC DVD is the best presentation of the film to date, offering a fine 2.35:1 widescreen transfer, a vintage making of featurette, theatrical trailer and typically engaging commentary from John Milius.
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