Books2Movies Club discussion

A novella for which J.M. Barrie said, "the most audacious thing in fiction" (at least wikipedia claims so), The Man Who Would Be King by Rudyard Kipling is a story about two British vagabonds and opportunists, and their (mis)adventures in Kafiristan, a part of an old British Empire, which were all carefully written down by Mr. Kipling himself.
Story is of course a piece of pure fiction, but was inspired by some true events and personalities. However, it's interesting to note that the same person that was of Kipling's interest, a James Brooke, the first White Rajah of Sarawak, was an inspiration to another interesting novel (and movie also, of course), Farewell to the King by Pierre Schoendoerffer.

There is only one adaptation of the novella (so far, who knows with Hollywood), The Man Who Would Be King (1975) which John Huston tried to bring to life from early fifties, when even Humphrey Bogart expressed his interest in one of the roles. Many actors were considered, even Robert Redford and Paul Newman, but the final choices were also superb – Michael Caine, Sean Connery and Christopher Plummer.
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Not being too picky, especially regarding the animation feature films, I would consider even The Road to El Dorado (2000) an adaptation of the story, despite the differences in the setting and time period.
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The Man Who Would Be King was first published in the short stories collection, The Phantom Rickshaw & Other Eerie Tales, but today is available also for free as a stand-alone e-book - you may read it also here on GoodReads.

So, go ahead, read the story, see that epic John Huston's classic, entertain yourself with the animated movie, and if possible, express your opinions about all that you've read and seen :)

Couple of days ago, I've read the story. The narration from one of the main characters was a bit confusing, I couldn't quite grasp all he said - mostly because of (intentionally) bad grammar and way too long sentences.
It was fine, but nothing really special. Well, I got the message it tried to deliver, but didn't feel really enlightened, because the characters were unlikable from the start, so how to care at all what happened to them because of their foolishness and arrogance?
In the next few days I'll try to see the movie. And the animated one too - for them never old enough ;)

I was thinking of The Road to El Dorado as well. I think I have seen one of the other versions years ago, but I couldn't tell you which one or who was in it. I remember it disturbed me greatly, though. It's a very compelling story with a deep warning: when you set yourself up above others, you are doomed to fall that much harder.

Alana wrote: "when you set yourself up above others, you are doomed to fall that much harder..."

Exactly spot-on :) Pity some still tend to forget that, as current political and economic disorders everywhere show.

I still hadn't found time to watch the movies :( Didn't watch The Princess Bride as well! Ugh, I will, I must...

Hm. Seen the movie last night. Strange how words that baffled me in the novella sound so very different when you hear them on screen, from so charismatic actors!

Oh the characters were still outrageous tricksters, yet now I could a bit feel (!) with them. Had I been there I would yell at them how they could be so stupid and arrogant. It angered me to see such a potential for something more, wasted on superficial and disgraceful scams. At least that was the impression left on me by Connery and Caine. Well, Christopher Plummer's witty performance helped too :)

I found curious director's "use" of freemasonry as an important element of the movie, non-existent in the novella. That revealed to me something I didn't know before, that Kipling was indeed a Freemason. Really interesting. Everyday you learn something new :)