The Wind and the Lion (1975) on Netflix
PG19751h 59mActionAdventureDrama
In 1904 Morocco, the Berber leader Raisuli abducts the American Eden Pedecaris and her two children. President Theodore Roosevelt sees the kidnapping as a chance to prove American strength.
- Netflix3.6/5
- IMDb6.8/1011,243 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes63%
Trailer
Plot summary
In 1904, Germany, France and the British Empire compete for influence in Morocco. Mulai Ahmed er Raisuli leads a Berber insurrection against Sultan Abdelaziz and against the Sultan's uncle, the Bashaw of Tangier, whom he considers corrupt and beholden to the Europeans. Raisuli raids the home of Eden Pedecaris, an American, and carries her and her children, William and Jennifer, into the Rif, with a ransom demand meant to provoke an international incident and embarrass the Sultan. President Theodore Roosevelt, who is seeking a full term, decides to use the kidnapping to demonstrate American military strength, over the objections of Secretary of State John Hay. The American consul in Tangier, Samuel Gummeré, cannot arrange a peaceful return of the hostages, so Roosevelt sends the South Atlantic Squadron, under Admiral French Ensor Chadwick, to Tangier.
Cast
- Jack Cooleyas Quentin Roosevelt
- Chris Alleras Kermit Roosevelt
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Wind and the Lion (1975)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- John Milius originally wanted Omar Sharif to play Raisuli and Faye Dunaway to play Eden Pedecaris, but Sharif refused the part and Dunaway fell ill from exhaustion, so Candice Bergen replaced her at short notice.
- Milius first wrote Eden Pedecaris as a stern, rich woman of 55 or 60, to be played by Katharine Hepburn, with the two children written as her grandchildren and the Berber leader a similar age.
- Milius wanted Orson Welles to play newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane, the character from Citizen Kane, but the studio blocked it for fear of being sued by RKO, so he used Kane's real-life model William Randolph Hearst instead.
- Milius found the subject in a Barbara W. Tuchman article on the Perdicaris affair in American Heritage magazine and made it cinematic by turning the real hostage, Ion Hanford Perdicaris, into a woman, Eden Pedecaris.
- Milius reused many sets built for David Lean's 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia, including the Aqaba set, which became the site of the final three-way battle between the Berbers, the Europeans and their Moroccan allies, and the Americans.
- Milius had to make the leading characters younger to get the film financed, conceding "a more romantic male, a beautiful woman" because, as he said, no one wanted to make a movie about Arabs and Teddy Roosevelt.
- The Marines and sailors marching through Tangier in the attack scene were Spanish special forces troops, joined by a handful of U.S. Marine Corps and Navy personnel from the naval base at Rota in Cádiz.
- Antoine Saint-John, the actor facing Sean Connery in the sword fight, revealed himself to be terrified of horses and would often hide somewhere on the set when the scene was to be filmed.
