Milius liked to pick more off-the-beaten-track period of history for his scripts: Apocalypse Now was about Vietnam at a time when hardly any films were set in that war; Jeremiah Johnson was set very early for a Western, Judge Roy Bean was quite late. This one is set during the Theodore Roosevelt era, when American began flexing its muscles internationally – I’m surprised more pieces haven’t been set during that time. It’s based on the real-life Perdicaris Incident, where an American citizen was kidnapped by a Berber brigand. Milius converts the abductee into a beautiful widow (throwing in her two kids) – but cleverly has President Roosevelt misinformed that it’s a man who has been taken (as he surely wouldn’t have been so gung-ho with a female life at stake).
This is a combination of The Sheik, High Wind in Jamaica (the two kids kind of enjoy being kidnapped), Lawrence of Arabia and Gunga Din. The script has lots of big print, well written as always, this time in a more romantic style as befits the genre. There was perhaps too much big print – it’s all in one big lumpy paragraph which makes it hard to read. It’s slightly novelistic, has thought bubbles for characters which is normally a no-no, but I guess doesn’t matter so much here.
But it’s a lot of fun. For some reason it’s never quite offensive - I didn’t find it offensive, anyway. It’s all these colourful characters acting outrageously – the brigand kidnaps this woman and her kids and kills a bunch of guys, but remains sympathetic; the Americans just storm a palace and start shooting people to encourage the Moroccans to negotiate, then at the end they join in an attempt to save the life of the brigand for adventure’s sake – and they’re the heroes, but it doesn’t seem to matter. Maybe this is because Milius sets up the spirit of the thing well – he’s also realistic, people do things for glory, politics and cash as much as honour.
Like other early Milius scripts it’s not strong on story – you’d think that wouldn’t be the case considering the set up, but it’s true. Basically the girl is kidnapped and she hangs around playing chess. Most of the running time consists of a collection of incidents after the girl is kidnapped: Teddy Roosevelt running around, the soldiers planning to attack, diplomats chatting. (For instance, the whole bit where the girl escapes and is recaptured could have been cut). But when you think about it, a lot of his other early scripts was like that too – colourful people in colourful situations. And it’s always entertaining.
There’s a slightly silly finale where the woman teams up with some American soldiers and Berbers to rescue the brigand, whose been captured by some Moroccan enemies and German soldiers – the German soldier element feels under-developed for people who are villains. This bit didn’t totally work for me.
The role of the brigand is terrific- funny, honourable, ruthless, sexy, brave, religious, etc, etc. He’s got many wonderful lines and scenes. So, too, does Theodore Roosevelt – story-wise you didn’t need them all, I guess, but they’re all gold. There are some choice support male parts too such as the bloodthirsty American officer.
The part of Eden, the woman, is less good – she’s just spunky and beautiful (she goes for an obligatory nude swim midnight at the oasis). There’s an appearance by Charles Foster Kane, newspaper baron – (Milius was even going to get Welles to play it) but the studio apparently nixed it. A grand romp, and fun to read once you get used to those large paragraphs.
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