Kim - the Movie and the 'Great Game'
Errol Flynn and Dean Stockwell
This poster completely ignores the novel's central character.
And this Indian magazine also ignores Kim, and concentrates on other aspects.
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Kipling and KimThe British director Philip Saville's 1950 film of Kim was the first time Kipling's most famous -and possibly his best - novel had been brought to screen since it was published in 1900-1.While the movie is rarely seen today, the novel remains popular, despite its heavy use of long-forgotten British army slang and native Indian terms and custom. Its political and strategic context, involving a Russian plot designed to stir up rebellion against British rule in India, also appears strange in a world where India has been independent for over a half century.
Yet the exotic settings of the novel also provide much of its appeal to the modern reader. Furthermore it is a fast-paced spy story -according to some critics, the first spy novel ever written - with interesting and believable characters. These include an aging lama, intent on finding a sacred river and unscrupulous and cunning Muslim horse-trader, who is also a British spy.The latter, acted by Error Flynn, is given a major role -and a love interest - in the movie. Kim is also a coming-of-age novel, with the youthful central character, who becomes a courier in the British spy network, gradually acquiring wisdom and knowledge of the world around him. The young hero ,well played by Dean Sockwell, is brave, resourceful and shrewd as well, precocious, wise beyond his years and not averse to deceit. Today the film version of Kim remains interesting for its acting and wide range of settings. Unfortunately, the pace was regarded as rather too languid even in 1950. Modern audiences, used to constant action and propulsive editing, usually find the movie slow and only occasionally interesting. This is why it is now virtually forgotten. Errol Flynn 1938's 'Robin Hood': Flynn at his best
Flynn's role as the read-bearded Muslim trader in KIm probably marked his last great performance as a major Hollywood star.His career went downhill during the years between KIm and his death aged 50 in 1959. Famously described by Marlene Deitrich as 'Stan's Angel', Flynn was a major box-office star during the late 1930s and 1940s . Born in Tasmania, Flynn's off-screen career was even more flamboyant than the swashbuckling roles for which he was famous, such as Robin Hood. He smoke, drank and partied to excess and was notorious for his sexual exploits, and general dissipation. He was best portraying debonair, clever and courageous heroes, whose swagger concealed a kind heart. Above all, his action movies displayed a vigorous athleticism and an ability to communicate a sense of enjoyment and modest heroism.
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Scenes from the 1950 Movie Kim
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The 'Great Game' and its key settings
Both the book and the movie Kim refer to the 'Great Game'. The term applies to the nineteenth century rivalry between the Russian and British empires for control of access to the great trade and military routes that bisected Afghanistan and the North-West Frontier. They were of crucial strategic importance for control of the 'the jewel in the crown': British India. One meaning of the term was popular with British journalists and authors of the nineteenth century - it was shorthand for the alleged rivalry between the Russian and British intelligence services seeking to manipulate Afghani and tribal rulers. The wider strategic meaning of the 'Great Game' referred to British determination to exploit the political instability of Islamist Asia and expand southwards into central Asia and beyond.
The crucial pivot of this expansion was regarded as Afghanistan and the mountain passes.
The term probably derives from Arthur Conolly, a British intelligence officer serving in India. In 1842 Conolly, who in 1842 was captured by the Uzbeks, thrown into a well filled with snakes and whose body was then beheaded weeks later. Rudyard Kipling popularised the phrase in his1901 novel Kim,about an Anglo-Indian bpy trying to stop a Russian spy ring.
More than a century later, these same nineteenth century strategic concerns about Russian control of the area can be seen in American efforts to counter Soviet Russian domination of Afghanistan. A fatal consequence of this revival of the Great Game can be seen in the U.S. decision to assist the Taliban in their attempts to defeat the Soviet invaders of Afghanistan. The origins of this American policy are examined with acerbic wit in the movie Charlie Wilson's War.
The crucial pivot of this expansion was regarded as Afghanistan and the mountain passes.
The term probably derives from Arthur Conolly, a British intelligence officer serving in India. In 1842 Conolly, who in 1842 was captured by the Uzbeks, thrown into a well filled with snakes and whose body was then beheaded weeks later. Rudyard Kipling popularised the phrase in his1901 novel Kim,about an Anglo-Indian bpy trying to stop a Russian spy ring.
More than a century later, these same nineteenth century strategic concerns about Russian control of the area can be seen in American efforts to counter Soviet Russian domination of Afghanistan. A fatal consequence of this revival of the Great Game can be seen in the U.S. decision to assist the Taliban in their attempts to defeat the Soviet invaders of Afghanistan. The origins of this American policy are examined with acerbic wit in the movie Charlie Wilson's War.
 This 19th Century cartoon shows the crucial role of Afghanistan in the rivalry between the Russian and British empires. Not only is it a chain connecting the two powers; it is also a line of demarcation.
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Another British cartoon, with a surprisingly sympathetic portrayal of Afghanistan wedged the two dangerous empires.
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Khyber Pass
The Khyber Pass
The Khyber Pass itself is only about 33-35 miles long, a times just a narrow defile, providing opportunities for ambush and concealment, restricting the scope for modern mechanised warfare. It connects Afghanistan's capital, Kabul with Pakistan's capital, Peshawar. For over two millennia the Pass has been a crucial passage enabling both trade and invasion from central Asia.The armies of Alexander the Great, Timur, Akbar and Barbar have all left their mark on the pass itself or the Frontier region as a whole.During the 19th Century the Pass was a key element in the Afghan wars involving the British, who were anxious to control an invasion route that threatened their control of India.
The Grand Trunk Road
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The Grand Trunk Road is a major feature in some of Rudyard Kipling's poems about British India and his famous novel Kim, published 1901, about the the adventures of a young British orphan boy who leads the life of a native and becomes involved in a spying intrigue with the so-called 'Great Game' rivalry between Britain and Russia as a background. One of Kim's first adventures takes place as he travels the Road with an aged Tibetan Lama.Kipling's novel was filmed in 1950, directed by Victor Saville, starring the young Dean Stockwell as Kim. Some scenes were shot in India.
In Kim Kipling described the Road as ' such a river of life as nowhere else exists in the world'. Several important settings are placed along the Road Some of his most evocative verse describes ordinary soldiers' lives and experiences as they march or camp down the Road. Here is Kipling's vigorous poem about a regimental relief march along the Road: 'We're marchin' on relief over Injia's sunny plains, A little front o'Christmas-time an' just be'ind the Rains; Ho! get away you bullock-man, you've 'eard the bugle blowed, There's a regiment a-comin down the Grand Trunk Road (Route Marchin') 'And there fled on the wings of the gathering dusk A savour of camels and carpets and musk A murmur of voices, a reek of smoke, To tell us the trade of the Khyber woke. (The Ballad of the King's Jest) |
Restored section of the Grand Trunk Road.
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The Road traverses the Indian sub-continent, ranging from Chittagong to Kabul, from Bangladesh to Afghanistan. It is about 2500 kilometers long.
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