The innaugural event of the Sunset Cinema Society was held on Sunday, February 22nd. Members of the Society attended a screening of the critically acclaimed film by John Huston, The Man Who Would Be King, at the New Beverly Cinema.
This Man Who Would Be King is a 1975 film adapted from the Rudyard Kipling story of the same title. It was adapted and directed by John Huston and starred Sean Connery as Daniel Dravot, Michael Caine as Peachey Carnehan, Saeed Jaffrey as Billy Fish, and Christopher Plummer as Kipling (giving a name to the story’s anonymous narrator).
The Kipling story tells the tale of two time-served, NCO, rogue ex-soldiers of the British Raj who set off from 19th century British India in search of adventure, and end up as kings of Kafiristan. The story is believed to have been inspired by the travels of American adventurer Josiah Harlan during the period of the Great Game between Imperial Russia and the British Empire.
Shot on location in Morocco, Huston had planned to make the film since the 1950s: originally with Humphrey Bogart and Clark Gable, then Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas, and then Robert Redford and Paul Newman — Newman suggested British actors Connery and Caine. Like much of his writing, Kipling’s original story takes a nuanced, and in the end cold-edged view of imperialism; in Huston’s telling, both East and West have their faults and virtues. In a retrospective review, the New York Times remarked “Gloriously old-fashioned in its approach – right down to the characters’ politically incorrect attitudes toward anyone who isn’t one hundred per cent British – The Man Who Would Be King is pure entertainment in the grand tradition of Gunga Din.”
Michael Caine has maintained that if any film of his is remembered after his death, it would be The Man Who Would Be King because it is the sort of film that everyone says, even when the film came out, “No-one makes pictures like this any more.”
This film is truly a favorite of Masons, as it heavily delves into Masonic symbolism, and Freemasonry features very prominently in the story.
