Farewell to the King
| Farewell to the King | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | John Milius |
| Produced by | Andre Morgan Albert Ruddy |
| Screenplay by | John Milius |
| Based on | L'Adieu au Roi by Pierre Schoendoerffer |
| Starring | <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/> |
| Music by | Basil Poledouris |
| Cinematography | Dean Semler |
| Edited by | Anne V. Coates Carroll Timothy O'Meara |
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Production
company |
Ruddy Morgan Productions
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| Distributed by | Orion Pictures (1988, original) MGM (2006, DVD) |
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Release dates
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March 3, 1989 |
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Running time
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115 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $16 million[1] |
| Box office | $2,420,917 |
Farewell to the King is a 1989 film, written and directed by John Milius. It stars Nick Nolte, Nigel Havers, Frank McRae, and Gerry Lopez and is loosely based on the 1969 novel L'Adieu au Roi by Pierre Schoendoerffer. Longtime Milius collaborator Basil Poledouris composed the musical score.
Contents
Plot
During World War II, American deserter Learoyd escapes a Japanese firing squad. Hiding himself in the wilds of Borneo, Learoyd is adopted by a head-hunting tribe of Dayaks, who consider him "divine" because of his blue eyes. Before long, Learoyd is the reigning king of the Dayaks. When British soldiers approach him to rejoin the war against the Japanese, Learoyd resists. When his own tribe is threatened by the invaders, the "king" deigns to fight for their rights.
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Main cast
- Nick Nolte as Learoyd
- Nigel Havers as Captain Fairbourne
- James Fox as Colonel Ferguson
- Marilyn Tokuda as Yoo
- Frank McRae as Sergeant Tenga
- Aki Aleong as Colonel Mitamura
- Marius Weyers as Sergeant Conklin
- William Wise as Dynamite Dave
- Gerry Lopez as Gwai
- Elan Oberon as Vivienne
- Choy Chang Wing as Lian
- Richard Morgan as Stretch Lewis
- John Bennett Perry as General MacArthur
- Michael Nissman as General Sutherland
- Wayne Pygram as Bren Armstrong
Production
The film was shot on location in Borneo (Bau, Kuching, Sarawak).[1][2]
Editing
According to Milius, the film was his best movie but it was "completely cut to pieces" by executives at the studio.[3] Among his complaints was cuts that removed how Learoyd managed to unify the Dyak tribes by getting the women to hold a sex strike:
[The film] was thrown away. I, as usual, was attacked viciously but in time it's come to be regarded as one of my best. In a way - I don't know why - I guess this film is more heartfelt than anything I've done since Big Wednesday... The producers - Al Ruddy and Andre Morgan - who are friends of mine now - were lied to by Orion executives. They did a very careful divide-and-conquer and turned us against each other. They [Ruddy and Morgan] would love to recut it the way I wanted... We'd all love to recut that movie and rerelease it.[4]
Mike Medavoy, Milius' former agent who was head of Orion Pictures at the time, wrote in 2002 that:
Unfortunately, many things stopped Farewell to the King from being successful. There were endless arguments between Al and John, and between John and us over the cutting of the film. John ended up being mad at me for years, but we've become close friends again. In the end, the film just didn't play. Perhaps audiences weren't ready to see a white soldier become the king of an indigenous tribe in Borneo. It was one of a group of daring Orion movies that didn't make money but, in retrospect, is a movie we are all very proud to have been a part of.[5]
Reception
Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes retrospectively collected reviews from 11 critics and gave the film a score of 55%, with an average rating of 5.5 out of 10.[6]
Roger Ebert gave the film 3/4 stars. Ebert praised Nolte for his skill as actor, and his ability to inhabit a role rather than merely visit.[7]
Milius later said he felt he had made a "great film".[8] Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
DVD
Farewell to the King was released to DVD by MGM on June 6, 2006.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Los Angeles Times, November 8, 1987, K4: The Wild Man of Hollywood Meets the Wilds of Borneo Relinked 2014-07-01
- ↑ New York Times, February 26, 1989, H15: In the Wilds of Borneo, Legend Takes Root
- ↑ Ken Plume, "Interview with John Milius", IGN Film, 7 May 2003 accessed 5 January 2013
- ↑ Segaloff, Nat, "John Milius: The Good Fights", Backstory 4: Interviews with Screenwriters of the 1970s and 1980s, Ed. Patrick McGilligan, Uni of California 2006 p 305
- ↑ Medavoy, Mike with Josh Young, You're Only as Good as Your Next One, Astria, 2002 p 174-175
- ↑ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/farewell_to_the_king/ Rotten Tomatoes Flixster
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ http://www.craveonline.com.au/entertainment/film/interviews/625751-exclusive-interview-john-milius-on-milius
External links
- Lua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 28: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). Farewell to the King at IMDb
- Farewell to the King at AllMovieInvalid ID.
- Farewell to the King at Rotten Tomatoes
- Review of film at New York Times
- Review of film at Washington Post
- Review of film at Los Angeles Times
- Review of film at the Quietus
- English-language films
- Articles using small message boxes
- AllMovie titles with invalid value
- 1989 films
- 1980s action films
- 1980s adventure films
- 1980s drama films
- 1980s independent films
- 1980s war films
- American films
- American adventure drama films
- Films based on French novels
- American independent films
- Orion Pictures films
- World War II films
- Films set in the 1940s
- War adventure films
- War drama films
- Pacific War films
- Film scores by Basil Poledouris
- Films directed by John Milius
- Screenplays by John Milius
- Films set in Malaysia
- Films set in Indonesia
- Films about royalty
