The Wind and the Lion

Let's get back to the lunch.

Don't you think the most important part of a meal is the wine?

Everything must follow the wine.

And in this case, I could favor a red Bordeaux.

A red Bordeaux at lunch?

Your late husband would never have approved.

William!

William, stay away from the edge! The edge is no place to play!

Yes, ma'am.

What is it, William?

I don't know.

He's got a knife in his back.

William!

Run, William! William!

- Joseph, over there! - Get down, Eden!

Damn.

Joseph!

Leave us alone. You hear?

Get back! Leave us alone!

Come, girl.

Come on.

I am the Raisuli.

Do not laugh at me again.

Secretary of state to the president.

I regret to inform you that I have received the following dispatch...

from Samuel Gummere, United States general consul, Tangier, Morocco.

On October 15, Mrs. Eden Pedecaris and her children...

were kidnapped from their residence in Tangier...

after the brutal murder of her servants and a guest...

Sir Joshua Kenyon-Smith, a British subject.

The act of barbarous criminality appears perpetrated by Mulay El-Raisuli...

Sharif of the Rifian Berbers and the last of the Barbary pirates.

The British minister and myself concur there exists...

alarming prospects of danger for all foreigners in Morocco.

Request warships.

Gentlemen, the presidency was never won by a vice president...

filling out his fallen predecessor's term of office.

That may not be in this instance...

The only thing people will remember about McKinley...

is he got himself shot.

Teddy's the most popular president since Washington.

Why drag in Washington?

You know it and I know it, but that damn cowboy doesn't know it.

What he wants is some issue to hang his campaign on...

something to arouse the populace.

- A cavalry charge? - So to speak.

Morocco?

You know as well as I do we can't have Arab desperadoes...

running around kidnapping American citizens.

If I had my way, I'd go in with Winchesters...

a battalion of Marines...

- I can't do that. Can I? - No.

- Has this Raspuli? - Raisuli.

Raspuli, Raisuli, whatever.

- Has he made any terms? - No.

- Good, that gives us an excuse. - He will, though.

What makes you so sure?

He kidnapped a British consul once...

but they became friends, and he sent him back. Spat on the blood money.

Yes. There's been others, though, Spanish and French emissaries.

Send them back too?

- Parts of them. - Parts of them?

Obviously, he has no respect for human life.

Threatening the lives and property of American citizens...

it's an insult in the eyes of the world community.

Arabian thief holding me up like a common desperado.

Theodore, you're on to something. I don't quite know what.

- What is it that you want, Theodore? - What do I want? I want respect!

That's what. Respect for human life and American property.

And I'll send the Atlantic squadron to Morocco to get respect.

That's illegal.

Why spoil the beauty of a thing with legality?

The fleet sails tomorrow.

America wants Pedecaris alive or Raisuli dead!

Very good.

Pedecaris alive...

or Raisuli dead.

Bull's-eye!

Don't touch me with that thing again!

I'm quite capable of understanding your gibberish!

Jennifer.

- William? William! - Your hand, lady.

Oh, get away from me, for God's sake, you...

Get on those horses, Jennifer. Let go of this!

Now I don't know who you are or what you want with us...

but I will tell you that I am no coward.

And if you or any of these men should dare to lay a hand on me...

I will try with all the strength in me to kill you...

and with my last breath, I shall curse you to God!

God will listen!

- Do you play checkers? - No, I play chess.

Better.

This is the RIF.

I am Mulay Achmed Mohammed El-Raisuli the Magnificent...

Sheriff of the Rifian Berbers.

I am the true defender of the faithful...

the blood of the prophet runs in me...

and I am but a servant of his will.

You have nothing to say?

It has never been my intention to encourage braggarts.

Your shell is strong like a turtle's...

but it is brittle.

Your tongue is clever and fast. Be careful you do not trip over it.

You are a great deal of trouble.

Now see here, Abal, I don't intend to waste any more time watching you eat.

This is an effrontery.

Have you ever heard of the big stick, Bashaw?

Do not threaten me, Mr. Gummere.

I have been threatened by the French...

Germans and the English.

I've been threatened by experts, Mr. Gummere.

And yet Morocco is still the only sovereign Moslem throne...

west of Constantinople. - Yes, but it is shaky.

Yes, we have French infantry and German cavalry.

Our currency is Spanish, but my nephew is the sultan of Morocco.

And it is as it shall be.

Well, if you wish it to stay that way...

then I implore you to send your French infantry...

and your German cavalry into the RIF and bring our people back.

Better to serve the leopards than the fox.

I am only a servant of the sultan, the chosen one, the defender of the faithful.

I can make no such decision.

Very well then, we shall seek an audience with the sultan himself.

He will not see you...

unless it pleases him.

Now listen here, we represent a modern power!

We're talking about Marines, battleships, big guns.

- We are not fooling about. - Richard.

We are not here to make threats...

merely entreaties.

Now tell me, Bashaw, what would please the sultan? Gold?

More bicycles?

- Another carriage? - Lions.

Lions would please the sultan.

Lions are noble.

Very well.

Mr. Dreighton will leave this afternoon for Fez with a pair of lions.

Lions?

We shall drink from my well.

Thank you, William. That's rather refreshing.

Here, children, have some of these. They'll give you strength.

Mama, who do you think he really is?

- Is he a pirate? - He's a brigand and a lout.

Pay him no serious mention. We shall see the better side of this, God willing.

He has the way about him, doesn't he?

He sure has the way.

Woman, I want you to understand this.

I am not a barbarous man.

I am a scholar and a leader to my people.

I am not a barbarous man.

These four men have dishonored me.

They have eaten from my trees. They have drunk water from my wells.

They have done all of these things to me...

and they have not even evoked my name to God in thankfulness.

I am treated this way because I make war upon the Europeans.

You see the man at the well? How he draws the water?

When one bucket empties, the other fills.

It is so with the world.

At present, you are full of power.

But you are spilling it wastefully...

and Islam is lapping up the drops as they spill from your bucket.

Did you see that?

And you are not a barbarous man!

- They had broken God's will. - You mean your will!

I have no will, only that of God.

I had to kill the two, or I could not trust the other two.

A barbarous man would have killed them all.

Be not so quick to judge our ways.

Ignorance is a steep hill with rocks at the bottom.

Do you pray often?

- I pray to Mecca five times a day. - Is that so?

I wonder how you find time. You're so busy cutting off men's heads...

and kidnapping women and children. - If I miss the morning prayer...

I pray twice in the afternoon. Allah is very understanding.

You gonna build that canal in Panama, Teddy?

I'll dig it with my own hands if I have to!

Remember the Maine!

I remembered it, did you?

Teddy, you ain't gonna let them push us around in Morocco?

Madam, I have something to say about Morocco.

This is a good time as any to say it.

It is my policy...

It's my policy to protect American citizens and American interests...

whenever, wherever they are threatened!

And furthermore...

I am not a man to stand by and condone barbaric acts...

which are perpetrated against innocent women and children!

We shall mete out justice that is swift and retribution that is final!

American wants Pedecaris alive or Raisuli dead!

I was good. Wasn't I, John?

It was a marvelous speech. I'd even vote for you myself.

Have the train go slowly. I want to listen to them a while.

You will be more pleased here. Sleep better.

It is the wish of the Raisuli.

Be sure and thank him for me.

You will sleep here.

Yes, I was told.

Good.

You do not want to eat?

This is not a good move. I can take your knight.