History Film / TheManWhoWouldBeKing

* BattleInterruptingShout: Priests walk across the battle field and the war stops, with all combatants dropping on their faces.

* AlasPoorYorick: The end.

* AudienceSurrogate: Kipling.
* AwesomeMomentOfCrowning: Danny gets a very humble one.

* BattleInterruptingShout: Priests walk across the battle field and the War stops.

* CrazyHomelessPeople: Peachy appears to be one at the start of the film.
* ConMan: Both of the protagonists.

* DefiantToTheEnd.

* LoveableRogue: The protagonists.

* ThwartedEscape: The end of the film.

* BookEnds

* {{Mentors}}: Kipling.

* AlexanderTheGreat: Known as "Sikander" to the Kafirs, and held in legend as a god since he passed through and helped advance the region millenia earlier. He said he would return one day, and the high priests have been waiting ever since.

** [[spoiler:Billy Fish is all smiles as he charges to his pointless death]].

* TheRaj

* DuelingStarsMovie: Sean Connery and Michael Caine.

* WhiteMansBurden: One of the main themes. Danny gets high on it after being crowned.

* SoleSurvivor: Billy Fish of a mapping expedition years before Danny and Peachy set out. [[spoiler: Peachy becomes this when all their troops are wiped down and Danny is killed]].

* WhiteMansBurden: One of the main themes. Danny gets high on in after being crowned.

* BecomingTheMask: Danny is only interested in imitating a god to facilitate robbing the villagers blind. Quickly, however, he takes a vested interest in governing "his" people and ultimately decides to stay and rule rather than return to Britain.

* CelibateHero: Inverted and ultimately subveted - Daniel and Peachy are doubtlessly as sly with women as they are with men's money and trust, but both make a pact not to dabble in matters of the opposite sex until their quest to become kings is achieved. Despite their unscrupulous nature, they stick to this surprisingly well. [[spoiler:Until Danny lets godhood get to his head and he demands a wife...]]

* PocketProtector: Used to stop an arrow with a bandolier.

* UnreliableNarrator: {{Averted|Trope}} at the end, when Peachy proves the tale was true [[spoiler:by taking Danny's head out of a bag with the crown still on it]].

* KukrisAreCool: Billy Fish, an actual Gurkha soldier, has one and uses it in his final stand.

* FunWithForeignLanguages: Kafiristan means "Land of Infidels".
** It is an actual historical region in Afghanistan. It was called such by its Muslim neighbors because, like in the story, its inhabitants were not Muslims and it was largely inaccessible because of geography. It remained mysterious to outsiders for centuries until Afghans finally conquered the region and forcibly converted its people to Islam only in 1896, 8 years after the original story was published. The region is now called Nuristan.

* SeveredHeadSports: People in Kaffiristan are shown playing polo with the head in a bag of a chieftain who was deposed. [[spoiler: Part of the reason the narrator takes his friend's severed head with him, is so that he avoids his dishonor.]]
** This is based on real life polo-like game called Buzkashi popular in Afghanistan. The modern version of the game is played with the carcass of a goat or a calf, but earlier versions were reputed to involve corpses of vanquished enemies.

* SinisterMinister: The HighPriest of Kafiristan.

* [[spoiler: GoOutWithASmile]]: Danny.

* KarmaHoudini: The High Priest of Kafiristan.

* VillainProtagonist: Danny and Peachy qualify as this in many ways - though grudgingly likeable characters you can't help but root for during most of the film, they're also bigoted, remorseless con men seeking to plunder a small nation by taking advantage of it's primitive culture and deeply held religious beliefs. Not to mention casual racism, many imperialistic undertones and open contempt to anything not English.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: During the 1950s, John Huston tried unsuccessfully to make a version of the film starring Humphrey Bogart and Clark Gable but he was never able to do so. Both of them were long dead by 1975.

* ChekhovsArmoury: There is enough [[ChekhovsGun guns]] to fill an armoury.
** The Freemasons' Eye medalion

** Quite literall armoury is carried for most of the film by Peachy and Danny, as they are smuggling enough rifles to field few platoons.

* OnlyTheKnowledgableMayPass: When Peachy meets Kipling, they identify each other as Freemasons by a exchange of ritual phrases.

* AncientConspiracy: Peachy and Danny are members of the Freemasons. When this is found out, it marks them as the descendants of Alexander the Great to the Holy Men.

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Peachy and Daniel dub their Gurkha sidekick "Billy Fish" because he reminds him of an Army friend of the same name.

** This is based on real life polo-like game called Buzkashi popular in Afghanistan. The modern version of the game is played with the carcass of a goat or a calf, but earlier versions were reputed to involve corpses of vanquished enwmies.