This week’s classic comes from none other than John Huston. No director ever personalized a genre the way John Huston could. While some critics have claimed his style was a ‘lack’ of style, t...

This week’s classic comes from none other than John Huston. No director ever personalized a genre the way John Huston could. While some critics have claimed his style was a ‘lack’ of style, the opposite is actually true; his sense of irony, love of the absurd, respect for personal codes of honor, and twist endings that always remind us that the true value of a journey is not arriving at a destination, but in the ‘getting there’ all set apart his best work from that of his contemporaries. His best films including include The Man Who Would Be King are unforgettable. The tragicomic tale of two ex-Sergeants turned confidence men with a grand scheme to fleece a near-legendary kingdom had been a ‘pet’ project of Huston’s since the forties, and he’d spent years tinkering with the script, planning to film it with Clark Gable and Humphrey Bogart in the leads. Huston eschewed the ‘traditional’ approach to adventure films, with cardboard heroes performing near-impossible deeds until the inevitable ‘happy ending’, and grounded his story in reality, which disappointed any viewers hoping it would simply be a variation of Gunga Din. But in not romanticizing the story, he gives it a sense of immensity and the exotic, a richness of character, and an understanding of human frailties that far surpasses a typical Hollywood product. While Dravot and Carnehan are certainly not role models, their love and respect for each other transcends their faults, even their lives, putting the film’s final scene, as a physically crushed Carnehan leaves his ‘bundle’ for Kipling, into perspective. It is a moment you won’t soon forget.

This week’s classic comes from none other than John Huston. No director ever personalized a genre the way John Huston could. While some critics have claimed his style was a ‘lack’ of style, t...

This week’s classic comes from none other than John Huston. No director ever personalized a genre the way John Huston could. While some critics have claimed his style was a ‘lack’ of style, the opposite is actually true; his sense of irony, love of the absurd, respect for personal codes of honor, and twist endings that always remind us that the true value of a journey is not arriving at a destination, but in the ‘getting there’ all set apart his best work from that of his contemporaries. His best films including include The Man Who Would Be King are unforgettable. The tragicomic tale of two ex-Sergeants turned confidence men with a grand scheme to fleece a near-legendary kingdom had been a ‘pet’ project of Huston’s since the forties, and he’d spent years tinkering with the script, planning to film it with Clark Gable and Humphrey Bogart in the leads. Huston eschewed the ‘traditional’ approach to adventure films, with cardboard heroes performing near-impossible deeds until the inevitable ‘happy ending’, and grounded his story in reality, which disappointed any viewers hoping it would simply be a variation of Gunga Din. But in not romanticizing the story, he gives it a sense of immensity and the exotic, a richness of character, and an understanding of human frailties that far surpasses a typical Hollywood product. While Dravot and Carnehan are certainly not role models, their love and respect for each other transcends their faults, even their lives, putting the film’s final scene, as a physically crushed Carnehan leaves his ‘bundle’ for Kipling, into perspective. It is a moment you won’t soon forget.