[Quick Summary: In 1880s India, two Englishmen decide to become kings in Kafiristan, a place where no white man had been since Alexander the Great.]
Recently, I read Kipling's famous short story, The Man Who Would Be King (1888), and marveled at how it takes you so effortlessly on a grand adventure.
Would the script deliver the promise from the film's posters ("Adventure in all its glory!")? It did.
I was surprised at:
1) how faithful this script is to the short story
2) the fact that the script's ending is more hopeful than the short story.
3) the fact that what sells a great adventure film is how it brings the audience into an untraveled world. (After all, international travel was uncommon at the time.)
An example of the last point can be found in the scene below:
- Kipling, the author, put himself into the story as a young newspaper publisher.
- Carnehan (Michael Caine) is one of the English con men.
- I really liked how the writers took the time to set the scene with vivid details, both familiar (our protagonist buying a ticket) and unfamiliar (swarming travelers).
- I also really liked how they didn't rush the timing of the reveal. Carnehan doesn't look at his loot until he's certain Kipling isn't looking for it.
INT. LAHORE RAILWAY STATION - FULL SHOT - DAY
A swarm of travellers: Sedate Brahmins, shrill Vishnamites, Shivites with caste marks on their palms, Sikhs with daggers in their hair. Crouching Moslem women, in purdah, are like a cluster of little tents.
Two Laden Orderlies shout to clear a passage for a brace of young English Subalterns in the brilliant turbans, sashes and coats of a Horse Regiment. An English family, women and children, wait beside an enormous bastion of trunks and hatboxes. CAMERA PANS to the MOVING CUE before a ticket window, MOVES to:
CLOSE SHOT - KIPLING
KIPLING (to Clerk): Jodhpore...
As he unbuttons his coat and reaches into a trouser pocket, a HAND comes into SCENE and deftly removes a watch and chain from his waistcoat. Kipling pays for his ticket, picks up his telescope traveling case and turns away from the window. His place is taken by the thief, a sharp-faced man in soiled whites: Carenhan. He pushes a small coin forward onto the counter.
CARNEHAN: Platform ticket.
The roar of a train entering the station SOUNDS over scene as he, in turn, leaves the window. He watches Kipling climb the ramp to the station platform and continue out of sight - then takes the stolen watch out of his pocket and examines it. He frowns and starts slightly.
INSERT - WATCH-CHAIN AND EMBLEM
The Enblem resting int he palm of his hand: it is the insignia of a Grand Master Freemason - the rayed, all-seeing Eye of God above a pendant square, within the spread arms of a compass.
CARNEHAN'S VOICE (O.S.): Blast!
MEDIUM SHOT - CARNEHAN
Pocketing the watch, he begins to push his way through the crowd toward the ramp.
WHAT I'VE LEARNED: When building an unfamiliar world, it's helpful to include things that ARE familiar in order to give the audience some context.
The Man Who Would Be King (1975)(11/15/74 draft)
by John Huston and Gladys Hill
Adapted from a short story by Rudyard Kipling/
