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The Wind and the Lion

The Wind and the Lion

Action · Adventure · Drama · 1975

At the beginning of the 20th century an American woman is abducted in Morocco by Berbers, and the attempts to free her range from diplomatic pressure to military intervention.

Movie details

The Wind and the Lion

“Between the wind and the lion is the woman. For her, half the world may go to war.”

1975 Action · Adventure · Drama 1h 59m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

6.8 / 10

10.7K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

63 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

67 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

6.5 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

At the beginning of the 20th century an American woman is abducted in Morocco by Berbers, and the attempts to free her range from diplomatic pressure to military intervention.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over The Wind and the Lion?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Five Fingers

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Martijn, an idealistic Dutch pianist, travels to Morocco to help start a food program for malnourished children. Within moments of his arrival, however, Martijn is abducted by a group of terrorists, injected with a debilitating drug, and imprisoned. Under threat of death, the young man engages in a mental chess match with Ahmat, trying to learn his captor's true objective and avoid a horrible fate

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Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

John Milius

Written by

John Milius

Sean Connery

Sean Connery

Mulai Ahmed er Raisuli

Candice Bergen

Candice Bergen

Eden Pedecaris

Brian Keith

Brian Keith

Theodore Roosevelt

John Huston

John Huston

John Hay

Geoffrey Lewis

Geoffrey Lewis

Samuel Gummere

Steve Kanaly

Steve Kanaly

Capt. Jerome

Vladek Sheybal

Vladek Sheybal

The Bashaw

Court is in session

Put The Wind and the Lion on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Adrenaline Seeker

“Momentum is a formal choice.”

The velocity sharpens instinct and tension, making every beat land before self-importance can settle in.

The prosecution The Cool Ironist

“Speed as an alibi.”

The film races past its weak spots and hopes acceleration will keep the audience from inspecting the evidence.