YMMV / The Man Who Would be King

• Award Snub:
  • While the film received a number of nominations, including at the Academy Awards, it did not win any of them.
  • The movie failed to receive Oscar nominations for Best Director for John Huston, nor acting nominations for Sean Connery or Michael Caine.
• Crazy Is Cool: Peachy and Danny are on a mission to become KINGS! They also laugh so hard in the face of Death that causes an avalanche that saves them, take out armed tribesmen by spitting one bullet into a fire (while in their underwear) and following the foiling of their plan to blackmail a Rajah they go back and try again (successfully this time).
• Funny Moments: After an early victory against a rival Afghan tribe, the village leader Ootah offers to let Peachy and Danny sleep with one of his daughters as a reward. They turn him down because they had taken a vow of chastity back in India. Misunderstanding this for something else, Ootah then offers up one of his sons.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Taking into account the milieu in which it was written, Daniel and Peachy were written and presented as sympathetic Villain Protagonists who, despite their massive character flaws, are driven by the pursuit of glory. Later audiences are likely to find this imagery less sympathetic, with postcolonial theory, growing reassessments of The British Raj and its contentious legacy, as well as its continued role in driving contemporary British racism.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • Peachy carrying back Danny's decapitated head so that the tribes wouldn't use it for sport. It's also noteworthy that Danny still wears his golden crown, the one treasure either man was able to make it back to India with. And Peachy could sell it for something, any amount of money, even the price of a ticket if it could get him back to England. But he won't, because it belongs to his friend.
  • When their entire ruse comes apart and the duo is facing certain death, Danny simply turns to Peachy and asks him for forgiveness over letting the God Guise go to his head.
  Danny: Peachy, I'm heartily ashamed for getting you killed instead of going home rich like you deserved, on account of me being so bleeding high and bloody mighty. Can you forgive me?
  Peachy: That I can and that I do, Danny. Free and full and without let or hindrance.
  Danny: Everything's all right then.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Peachy is annoyed when Danny starts eyeing up Roxanne, both because it's going against the vow they swore and because it could blow their cover. However, it becomes even more hilarious when you remember that Peachy's actor, Michael Caine, is married to Roxanne's actress, Shakira Caine.
  • Rudyard Kipling's membership in the Freemasons is a central plot point of the story. In Murder by Decree, Christopher Plummer played Sherlock Holmes, who uncovers a conspiracy by the Freemasons.
• Squick: Despite being a heartwarming moment in context, the fact that Peachy had been carrying a decaying severed head can induce this reaction to sensitive viewers.

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