WWII in Borneo. Learoyd (Nick Nolte) is an American who deserted and set himself up as King of the jungle. Capt. Fairbourne (Niogel Havers) is a British soldier that comes in to enlist the natives in fighting the Japanese.That's just about it, except for Fairbourne's boss played by James Fox. He is the quintessential British soldier. The ethnocentric SOB that does all for King and Country. Nobody can play that character like Fox.The rest of the movie features Japanese soldiers and natives battling it out. After a slaughter of Learoyd's people, including his wife, they slaughter Japanese.Besides Fox, the best thing about the movie is seeing Nolte run through the jungle looking like some cartoon character. It was really funny.

I just bought this thing for a dollar at a video store that was going belly up (as a lot of them are doing now.) This was made in 1989 over 17 years ago now and I had never seen it. It is a good film and I am glad I bought it. It filled in a lazy summer afternoon.This is a good old fashioned romantic south seas adventure film in the tradition of things like " His Majesty O'Keefe", "South Sea Women", the boring "Lord Jim" and even "Mutiny on the Bounty" in a way. It also resembles "Dances with Wolves" too. This film is a bit violent but any war movie would be.The days of signing on a tramp steamer and seeing the south seas are as long gone as the Phonograph and 78 rpm record. The jet age, travel agencies, and space age communication have destroyed whatever romance traveling there might have had.Films with plots like this now happen in outer space, not the south seas. It is a little too violent so I give it a 9. This is a genre that I think can no longer sustain an audience.Farewell to the King!

Farewell to the King, was not Oscar quality, however it was a lot better than most of the bilge that Hollywood barfs out. I have learned that if you don't expect much from todays movies you won't be disappointed. I liked the theme of the movie, the "backwater" of WWII away from the "show". The cast was wonderful, I'm not going to pick-em-apart. The plot was believable, read-up about the coast watchers, or downed pilots evading the enemy in the Pacific. Don't be critical, let your imagination go free, imagine yourself in Nolte's place, be part of the movie, after all that is what it is all about, jump starting your mind.

"Farewell to the King" is a very well made, acted and photographed film version of Schoendoeffer's novel. The theatrical version seems too short for the epic scope of the story. Don't know if it was heavily edited or whether the production's grasp exceeded their financial means but there is something missing here. This is a film that could have been Milius's great masterpiece (although Big Wednesday is a pretty great film). It has something important and striking to say about war and about the nature of the bond between Western adventurers and "savage" tribal people applicable to the American misadventure in Vietnam and to earlier periods such as Lawrence of Arabia during World War One. It doesn't quite succeed. Still this 1989 war film, unfairly dismissed at the time as a blond version of Rambo, has some of Milius' best work as a filmmaker. This is a film ripe for re-evaluation in a deluxe edition DVD.