Summary

• The influence of The Man Who Would Be King is evident in Raiders of the Lost Ark's exotic locations, thrilling action, and sense of wonder.
• Both films feature similar themes, with Raiders echoing ideas of obsession and pursuit of treasures.
• Spielberg's love for Sean Connery and Humphrey Bogart influenced the creation of iconic characters like Indiana Jones in the beloved film series.

When the blockbuster action-adventure film Raiders of the Lost Ark was released in 1981, there had never been another film like it, just as there has certainly never been another film like it since. Of the countless influences that George Lucas and Steven Spielberg brought to Raiders of the Lost Ark, the most direct influence, in terms of proximity, is the 1975 adventure film The Man Who Would Be King, which stars Sean Connery and Michael Caine as former British soldiers turned adventurers and con-men who travel to the faraway land of Kafiristan, where the would-be conquerors install themselves as kings.

Based on Rudyard Kipling’s 1888 novella of the same name and directed by the legendary John Huston, The Man Who Would Be King, like Raiders of the Lost Ark, features exotic locations, perilous obstacles, swashbuckling adventure, and thrilling action sequences. Like Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Man Who Would Be King has the rare ability to make viewers of all ages feel like childlike dreamers.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of John Huston

Besides The Man Who Would Be King, Raiders of the Lost Ark contains references to several other John Huston-directed films, including the 1951 adventure film The African Queen, the 1941 film noir The Maltese Falcon, and the 1948 Western The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, all of which star Humphrey Bogart. The tempestuous relationship between Indiana Jones and Karen Allen’s Marion Ravenwood in Raiders of the Lost Ark resembles the spirited chemistry that exists between Bogart and Katharine Hepburn in The African Queen, in which Bogart and Hepburn’s characters, Charlie and Rose, are pitted against an army of German soldiers amid Charlie and Rose’s quest to destroy a German gunboat.

In The Maltese Falcon, Bogart’s character, hard-boiled private detective Sam Spade, becomes immersed in a quest to gain custody of the film’s titular bejeweled MacGuffin prize, which drives its pursuers to madness and murder, much like what happens with the Ark of the Covenant in Raiders of the Lost Ark. This theme of obsession is magnified in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, in which Bogart’s character, Fred C. Dobbs, becomes obsessed with finding treasure at the film’s titular mountain location.

Like Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark, the adventurers in The Man Who Would Be King embark on a quest for immortality that exceeds their grasp and understanding. However, while Jones accepts the folly of playing god before it’s too late, Sean Connery’s Daniel Dravot and Michael Caine’s Peachy Carnehan are punished severely for their hubris. This is highlighted in a scene in which Dravot is forced to traverse a rope bridge over a deep gorge, a precursor to the climactic scene in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Man Who Would Be King Have Humphrey Bogart In Common

John Huston, who loved reading Rudyard Kipling’s The Man Who Would Be King novella as a child, first attempted to launch a feature film adaptation in 1951, when Humphrey Bogart was cast as Peachy Carnehan, Michael Caine’s role in the 1975 film, while Clark Gable was slated to play Daniel Dravot, Sean Connery’s eventual role. However, following Bogart’s death in 1957 and then Gable’s passing in 1960, the project floundered. Huston later approached Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas, followed by Richard Burton and Peter O’Toole, and then Robert Redford and Paul Newman to play Carnehan and Dravot before Connery and Caine were cast.

George Lucas and Steven Spielberg modeled the Indiana Jones character after Bogart, whose performance in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, in which Bogart wears a fedora and a weathered leather jacket, formed the basis of Lucas and Spielberg’s conceptualization of Indiana Jones.

Of course, Lucas and Spielberg found their Bogart in Raiders of the Lost Ark star Harrison Ford, whose roguish masculinity and rugged handsomeness, combined with Ford’s ability to portray characters who are alternately flawed and heroic, elicited comparisons between Bogart and Ford from many critics in the 1980s and 1990s. Ford later directly modeled himself after Bogart in the 1995 film Sabrina, a remake of the 1954 romantic comedy-drama film of the same name, in which Bogart stars as Linus Larrabee, the role Ford plays in the remake.

Steven Spielberg Grew Up Idolizing Sean Connery

Before George Lucas and Steven Spielberg collaborated on Raiders of the Lost Ark, Spielberg, who was a lifelong James Bond and Sean Connery fan, aspired to direct a James Bond film in the 1970s. While Spielberg was denied this opportunity by the overseers of the James Bond franchise, the James Bond influence is certainly present throughout the Indiana Jones film series and factored heavily in Spielberg’s decision to have Sean Connery play Indiana Jones’ father, Henry Jones Sr., in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the third installment in the film series.

However, Connery’s presence in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade also reflects the influence of The Man Who Would Be King, as the effortless chemistry that exists between Connery and Michael Caine in The Man Who Would Be King is certainly present in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade with Connery and Harrison Ford. Indeed, while Ford had solid support from actresses Karen Allen and Kate Capshaw in the previous films, Connery and Ford seem like partners in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, much like Connery and Caine in The Man Who Would Be King, in which Connery, who died in 2020 at the age of 90, and Caine have both listed as being their favorite of all the films they’ve appeared in. The Man Who Would Be King is streaming on Tubi. Raiders of the Lost Ark is streaming on Disney+.