The Wind and the Lion (1975)

THE WIND AND THE LION  (1975)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
    D: John Milius
    Sean Connery, Candice Bergen, Brian Keith,
    John Huston, Steve Kanaly, Geoffrey Lewis
Early in the 20th century, a Berber chieftain with a distinct Scottish brogue kidnaps an American heiress, creating an international stir that plays into Theodore Roosevelt's campaign for the White House. In the wake of the Spanish American War, the age of American imperialism was just getting started, and John Milius would be the right guy to make a movie about that, but this one goes on a little too long, and it's not entirely clear why American troops led by Captain Steve Kanaly are being ordered to storm the bashaw's palace, or how we're supposed to feel about that. The desert scenery is beautiful, though, and Connery and Bergen make an attractive, bickering couple playing out a not-quite-romance. Best of all is Brian Keith's larger-than-life performance as Roosevelt. (When Teddy's sharing the screen with a giant stuffed bear, it's not hard to see the similarity.) Only in a movie like this one would a heroine as fair-haired and pale-skinned as Candice Bergen look so elegantly perfect after riding a horse all day with a band of Berber warriors through the dust and heat of the Sahara without a hat.