The Wind and the Lion (DVD, 2004)

The script is weak and the acting is rather poor, but if you are a fan of Sean Connery and/or Candice Bergen, pop yourself some microwave popcorn and sit back and enjoy the nonsense.

Ms. Bergen does a pretty fair job of looking like a strong woman facing adversity when she and her two children are kidnaped. Connery does a weak job of looking like a Berber chieften, but my wife is in love with him anyway--in fact she fell in love with him in the theater when this film first came out.

Brian Keith as Teddy Roosevelt is laughable, but that's chiefly the fault of the poor script.

In the end, everything turns out all right--but it's not true to history or to normal human psychology: you'll see what I mean if you watch the whole thing. (I'm resisting the temptation to tell you exactly how stupidly it ends.)

The DVD has very little in the way of 'extra' features. The director was a bit of an beginner when he made this film and doesn't seem to have gained wisdom with age.

Though not a big budget movie, it is a small gem. Watching our Marines do their job in spite of inept
politicians, sure hits the mark. Brian Keith does a great job as Teddy. When he's in the wilderness and
talks of killing the bear, if you pay attention, it makes to much sense. When his daughter realizes his
respect for his enemies, that is the missing link of today's problems. People have gotten soft, elitist.
They feel that just their words of brilliance will stop the kind of man that would "rule the World".
Sean Connery never lets me down.

One of my favorite movies. Action, mystery, bent history, lots of tongue and cheek or campy scenes and lines, but fun. Good performances by all including the direction given the children. Very mild violence by today's standards and sweeping vistas. The music score alone is worth listening to and to see Sean Connery and Candice Bergman clash - excellent. Good family movie, with a little historical liberty dished out.

What I like about this adventure is the "roving panorama" given to the camera eye with regard to a historic North Africa and the personality development that makes the characters interesting from a historical perspective. The script is written with a flash back and forth between the United States President, Teddy Roosevelt, and the peoples who live in desert environments. It provides "nail-biting" interest and a unique "romance" that has no hope for reaching and end. The desert chieftain's sense of right and a kind of protecting knighthood is heroic. The "Gung-ho" marines who involve themselves in saving Mrs. Penntigast's new found friend, who is played by Sean Connery as the desert chieftain, never ceases to engulf me in the final exciting "clash of arms" at the movie's end.

This is the perfect romantic and action movie for the Christian woman or any woman that openly or "secretly" desires to experience a woman heroine that is an exellent mother, intelligent and quick witted, being kidnapped by a very masculine, handsome, and "sage" Sean Connery and his men during the time of Teddy Roosevelt's presidency without the obligatory sexual inuendoes breaking the continuity of the story. It isabout a man's dedication to his faith, their Bedouine rules, and a cause playing against a strong-minded, moral, and Democratic woman's dedication to her beliefs and the American view of right and wrong. They become very close and respectful friends and see value in each other's ideals. The children, a boy and girl, are beautifully portrayed against the action-filled background of Bedouine life as seen through their young eyes. Costuming is wonderful, actors are perfectly chosen right down to the more visible of the smaller characters. Your heart soars and races, you laugh, and are deeply touched by many of the conversations and actions between Sean Connery and Candace Bergan.