In 1880s India, two former British soldiers decide to set themselves up as Kings in Kafiristan, a land where no white man has set foot since Alexander the Great.
This adaptation of the famous short story by Rudyard Kipling tells the story of Daniel Dravot and Peachy Carnahan, two ex-soldiers in India when it was under British rule. They decide that the country is too small for them, so they head off to Kafiristan in order to become Kings in their own right. Kipling is seen as a character that was there at the beginning, and at the end of this glorious tale.—Greg Bole <[email protected]>
This movie is about two ambitious ex-soldiers stationed in India who set out to become the rulers of an entire country. After finishing their tour of duty in India, Daniel Dravot and Peachy Carnehan have decided that India is "too small for the likes of them", so they decide to bribe a local ruler and extort money from him, in order to buy twenty Martini rifles, which they will use to take over villages in Kafristan. They face many challenges and perils along the way, including difficult terrain, hostile natives, freezing temperatures, and an avalanche high in the mountains. They eventually come to a small village, Urheb, where they meet Ootah and Billy Fish, an Indian who speaks English. He then becomes their translator. They then train the natives of this village to use the rifles, and soon conquer village after village. During a battle, Daniel is struck by an arrow that seemingly sticks out of his chest. The ignorant natives believe that he must be a God for not having died, and fall down and begin worshipping him. Daniel and Peachy decide that it would be easier for a "God " to take over the country, so they pretend that Daniel is a god, the son of Alexander the Great who has returned after two thousand two hundred years to again rule Kafristan. The entire country celebrated the return of their new ruler, the Son of Segunda (Alexander). As a token of their admiration, the holiest of holy men gives Daniel all of the gold and riches left by Alexander in 328 B.C. It is enough to make them the richest men in the world. All goes well until Daniel's ego and greed gets the best of him. He asks Peachy to bow when he walks in front of him. He later tells Peachy that he has decided to stay, and now believes that he is the son of Alexander ("in spirit, anyways"), and that to fulfill his destiny, he will marry Roxanne, like his "father" Alexander did before him. The Kafiri's believe that a mortal cannot marry a God, but Daniel goes ahead anyway. Peachy was set to leave with his share of the treasure, but Daniel convinced him to stay "for old time's sake" for the wedding. At the ceremony, Roxanne, believing that she would soon die, bites Daniel, drawing blood. The entire crowd realizes that since Danny is bleeding, that he is a man, not a God, and that he has been deceiving them the entire time. Peachy grabs Daniel and they run off with their twenty soldiers, shooting at the crowd of monks who set out to kill them. They are eventually captured, and Daniel is forced to walk out on a rope bridge. The monks cut the ropes, and Daniel bravely falls to his death. Peachy is later crucified. When they come to see him the next day, he is still alive, and they say that it is a miracle that he lived, and they cut him down. He eventually climbs down into the valley and retrieves Danny's head, still wearing the crown. He brings it back to Rudyard Kipling, a writer for the Northern Star, as proof that Daniel accomplished his goal, and became the King of Kafristan. Themes developed in the story: 1. ambition 2. friendship 3. taking risks 4. perseverance (not giving up) 5. power 6. honor and dignity.—Thom Anderson
Newspaper correspondent Rudyard Kipling is startled to get a visit from a man in miserable state, who reveals to be Peachy Carnehan, the swindler who, with his army vet buddy in crime and adventure, Daniel "Danny" Dravot, set out to make their fortune in Kafiristan, a backward Himalayan tribal warfare zone outside the British viceroy's colonial sway. Peachy explains how they nearly died in the mountains, found an expedition's Gurkha sole survivor, took charge of a tribe and started conquering. Then a freakish arrow incident lead the natives to believe Danny invulnerable, hence Sikander, the long-expected divine son of Alexander the Great, and therefore made him theocratic King of all Kafiristan. But even if ruling went surprisingly well, living up to a god's expectation pattern didn't.—KGF Vissers
While working as a correspondent at the offices of the Northern Star newspaper, journalist Ruyard Kipling (Christopher Plummer) is approached by a ragged, seemingly crazed derelict, who reveals himself to be his old acquaintance Peachy Carnehan (Michael Caine). Peachy says that he is an ex-sergeant of the British Army and tells Kipling the story of how he and his comrade-in-arms Danny Dravot (Sean Connery) traveled to remote Kafiristan (in modern-day Afghanistan), became gods, and ultimately lost everything.
3 years earlier, the pair of rogues had met Kipling at his office. Peachy was a former Colour sergeant of the Queen's Own Royal Loyal Light Infantry.After stealing his pocket-watch, Peachy found a masonic tag on the chain and, realizing he had robbed a fellow Freemason, felt he had to return it. Peachy claims to be an expert in "whiskey, women, waistcoats, and bills of fare."Peachy and Dravot were working on a plot to blackmail a local rajah, which Kipling foiled by getting the British district commissioner (Jack May) to intervene. Peachy later blackmails the commissioner to avoid deportation.
Despite being accomplished gun smugglers, swindlers, fencers of stolen goods, con-men, and blackmailers, both of them are bitter that after fighting to make India part of the British Empire, they will have little to return home apart from dead-end jobs.Frustrated at the lack of opportunities for lucrative criminal mischief, in an India becoming more civilized and with few prospects in the United Kingdom, the two visit Kipling with a plan. Forsaking India, they will head with twenty Martini Henry rifles (stolen from a local armory) and ammunition to Kafiristan, a country virtually unknown to Europeans since its conquest by Alexander the Great. There they will offer their services to a ruler and help him conquer his neighbors but proceed to overthrow him and loot the country. Kipling, after first trying to dissuade them, gives Dravot his masonic tag as a token of brotherhood.
After signing a contract pledging mutual loyalty and forswearing drink and women until they achieved their grandiose aims, Peachy and Danny set off on an epic overland journey north beyond the Khyber Pass, "travelling by night and avoiding villages", fighting off bandits, blizzards and avalanches, into the unknown land of Kafiristan (literally "Land of the non-Muslims").
They chance upon a Gurkha soldier who goes by the name Billy Fish (Saeed Jaffrey), the sole survivor of a mapping expedition several years before. Billy speaks English as well as the local Dari tongue, and it is he, acting as translator and interpreter of the customs and manners, who smooths the path of Peachy and Danny as they begin their rise, first offering their services as military advisers, trainers, and war leaders to the chief of the much-raided village of Er-Heb.
Peachy and Danny muster a force to attack the villagers' most-hated enemy, the Bashkai. In their first battle, the natives decide that Danny must be a god when he is unharmed after being struck in the chest by an arrow. In fact, the arrow was stopped by a Bandolier hidden beneath his clothing. As victory follows victory, the defeated are recruited to join the swelling army.
Finally, there is no one left to stand in their way, and they are summoned to the holy city of Sikandergul. There, the chief high priest, Kafu Selim (Karroom Ben Bouih), sets up a re-enactment of the arrow incident, in order to determine whether Danny is a man or a god by seeing if he bleeds or not.
When Danny flinches, the monks grab him and rip open his shirt, only to be stopped however, by Danny's Masonic Jewel (given to him for luck by fellow Mason Kipling). By coincidence, the symbol on the Jewel matches a hidden symbol, known only to the highest holy man, of "Sikander" (Alexander the Great), who had passed through the country thousands of years before and promised to return. The holy men are convinced Danny is the son of Sikander. They hail him as king and lead the two men down to storerooms heaped with treasure that belonged to Sikander, which now belongs to Danny.
As the months pass, Peachy is anxious to leave with the treasure before winter closes the passes (and before the natives learn the truth). Danny is against it however and develops delusions of grandeur. First, he suggests that Peachy bow to him like the others. He adjudicates disputes among local people and villages, and issues proclamations overseeing their administration.Then he begins making plans to turn the land into a modern country, to the extent that he envisages eventually meeting Queen Victoria "as an equal". Disgusted, Peachy decides to take as much booty as he can carry on a small mule train, with his old friend's blessing.
Meanwhile, Danny decides to take a wife after seeing the beautiful Roxanne (Shakira Caine), despite Peachy's strong warnings. Danny was breaking his pact with Peachy to forsake women, saying he will marry her to leave the people an heir.Roxanne, having a superstitious fear that she will be struck dead if she consorts with a god, tries frantically to escape, biting Danny during the wedding ceremony. The bite draws blood, and when everyone sees it, they realize Danny is human after all.
The angry natives pursue him and Peachy. As their forces and ammunition dwindle, Dravot and Peachy offer Billy a horse to escape, but Billy refuses and courageously charges into the mob with a Kukri all by himself, before being killed by the mob.Danny is forced to walk to the middle of a rope bridge over a deep gorge; he apologizes to Peachy before the ropes are cut. Peachy is crucified between two pine trees but is cut down the next day when he survives the ordeal. Eventually, he makes his way back to India, though his mind has become unhinged by his sufferings. As Peachy finishes his story, he presents Kipling with Danny's head, still wearing its crown, thereby proving the tale is true.
