Very loosely based on the Pedicaris Incident of 1904, this is an only intermittently entertaining action-adventure film. The writer- director John Milius has said that the film was inspired by "Boy's Own". This is certainly seen in the film but, unfortunately, more in the sense of the relentless, over the top imperialism and jingoism (albeit American as opposed to British) than in the sense of hugely entertaining derring-do. If the latter was the equal of the former in the film or surpassed it, the former would have been more tolerable. There are a few flashes of brilliance in the script but most of it is pretty banal and unconvincing with often perfunctory dialogue. The direction is mostly mediocre, particularly during the rather awkward and rather frequent battle scenes. The Spanish locations look great but a nice looking film which is generally badly written and directed is not worth much in my book.The film stars Sean Connery in a very good performance as Mulai Ahmed er Raisuli, a Berber brigand and the so-called last of the Barbary pirates who kidnaps a young widow named Eden Pedicaris and her two children William and Jennifer in Morocco on October 15, 1904. The real Pedicaris was a 64-year-old man named Ion and his fellow kidnap victim was his adult stepson Cromwell Varley but Milius chose to make the story more cinematic which was one of his more sensible moves. Candice Bergen is an excellent actress but her performance as Eden falls far short of her usual standard. I think that she was miscast, frankly. The audience is supposed to believe that she is a strong woman and there are a few signs of that in the script but the role is a generally underwritten one. Her relationship with Raisuli failed to convince me, particularly the more romantic side of it in the latter half of the film. However, the scene in which they play chess is excellent as it gives us a great deal of insight into Raisuli's character. He is shown to have a warped sense of morality and believes that he is an instrument of the will of Allah. People who attempt to justify their crimes on the basis that it is what their god wanted them to do are very dangerous and I wish that the film had treated this in more than a very superficial way.Brian Keith gives the best performance in the film as Teddy Roosevelt, who is accurately depicted as being a larger than life figure and an extremely intelligent man. Running for election to a term of his own after the assassination of his predecessor William McKinley in 1901, he sees the Pedicaris Incident as a chance to show the American people (and the international community) the strength of his resolve. As such, he orders the Marines to invade Morocco in order to rescue Mrs. Pedicaris in spite of the fact that the country is a hotbed of imperialist activity with France, Germany and Britain all attempting to gain control of it. My favourite scene in the entire film is the one in which Roosevelt gives an interview concerning a grizzly bear which he had killed in Yellowstone. He compares the grizzly bear to the American spirit: audacious but occasionally blind and reckless and destined to be alone, respected but not liked. If the rest of the film had taken a similarly intelligent and self-reflective tact to its expression of nationalism, I would have enjoyed the film quite a bit more. With a few exceptions such as John Huston as John Hay, Nadim Sawalha as the Sheriff of Wazan and Vladek Sheybal as the Bashaw of Tangier, the film has an unimpressive supporting cast of actors of middling ability. The worst performances come from Geoffrey Lewis as Samuel R. Gummere and Darrell Fetty as Richard Dreighton. Fetty seems incapable of delivering a line in a natural manner, meaning that his limited screen time felt about five times as long as actually was. Future "Dallas" star Steve Kanaly isn't great either as Captain Jerome but at least he seemed to be enjoying himself.Overall, this is a disappointing film which could have been a lot more fun than it ended up being.

the grace is the basic virtue of film. for the manner to translate political problems, for the love story, for humor, for the science to be more than tool for a form of these about bad and good parts, for romanticism and for performances. a film who presents image of a period in wise manner, without the desire to have the truth or impress but with subtle art of detail. Brian Keith does a splendid job as Theo Roosevelt and John Huston is the perfect choice for his role. the script transforms an adventure film in a sentimental travel heart of a side of real facts, more convincing for the spices used. a film about interests and victories, dream and the heart beating of history. seductive. and charming. for the precise doses of subjects.

I'm not entirely sure what this movie was aiming to be, I enjoyed it when I was younger, but watching it now it is very uneven and has no real flow to it. Plot In A Paragraph: Morocco 1904. Raisuli, Sheriff of the Berbers (Sean Connery, who appears to be having a great deal of fun) kidnapped an American Widow, named Mrs Pedecaris (A gorgeous looking Candice Bergen) and her two children. He offers to ransom then in exchange for rifles, money and sovereignty. American President Theodore Roosevelt (A Brilliant Brian Kieth) looks to improve his election chances, issued an ultimatum "Mrs Pedecaris alive or Raisili dead" and sent in the marines. Three good performances from Connery, Bergmen and Keith are not enough to paper over the cracks in this muddled movie. The movie is violent at times and camp at others, neither sit well with it. This movie blends historic facts into a fictional adventure story (The real Perdicaris incident involved the kidnapping of a middle-aged man and his stepson.) Im guessing the sex was changed to have a romance develop between Connery and Bergman.Connery looks fantastic (giving a great performance in a clichèd role) but sounded awful. Watching Conery talk about Allah spouting things like "I am but a servant of his will" in his usual Scottish accent is awful, and something I never wish to see again.Connery is as watchable as ever, but these are not two of his better hours. Thankfully he followed this with the brilliant "The Man Who Would Be King"The Wind & The Lion opened the same weekend as blockbuster Jaws, but still managed to gross $9 million at the domestic box office, on a budget of $4 million.

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.