Farewell to the King Movie Review

I thought I was being all clever when I thought I'd compare Farewell to the King to Apocalpyse Now and The Mosquito Coast. Little did I know that director John Milius wrote the script for Apocalypse. Oh well.

King is a story about an American soldier (Nick Nolte, looking a lot like he does now in real life), who deserts his WWII P.O.W. march on an island in Borneo and escapes into the jungle. Years later (the war is still raging), he's discovered by British soldiers: He's now a "king" of the local people -- headhunters -- and he no longer wears a shirt. The Brits convince him to join the fight agains the Japanese again, and he reluctantly agrees, training the soldiers for a giant battle ahead.

This is Nolte's movie, hands down, who rises above some iffy material. The film is engrossing for its first hour, then slips into some old tropes: Training half-naked headhunters how to shoot guns? How many movies have we seen this in before? The last half of the film is one big war scene, but lacking any historical perspective -- this is, after all, wholly fictional -- the film loses its grip on the audience. Even Nolte's flowing locks can't rescue some drippy "Noooooooooooooo!" moments late in the game.

It's a fun ride overall, fortunately, and even some over-the-top histrionics don't keep it from being worth a look. At least for the first half.