The Ghost and the Darkness
“The Ghost and the Darkness” has some of the most impressive pedigree a B-movie adventure has ever had. Oscar-winner screenwriter, cinematographer and composer. Won an Oscar for sound effects editing. Oscar-winning actor and producer. Such talent, of course, doesn’t assure that a movie will be great, or even good, but it doesn’t hurt. In the case of this movie, it’s a blessing and a curse, because it means the expectations will be out-sized for what this film might deliver.
“When the legend becomes fact, print the legend” seems like the driving force in William Goldman’s screenplay. The film is based on a true story, of a pair of male man-eating lions who terrorized an encampment building a railroad track in Kenya in 1898, but the film traffics as much in myth than it does in reality. That could be part of a result that Col. John Henry Patterson, the bridge designer played by Val Kilmer in this film, wrote that the lions killed upwards to 130 people over the months, when history shows it likely wasn’t more than 30. This isn’t a movie for authenticity and reality, however; it’s in the tradition of “animals run amok” cinema and slasher movies, and that’s where it works best.
The director of this film is Stephen Hopkins, and he’s a solid B-movie filmmaker. Prior to this he did “Predator 2” and 1994’s “Blown Away,” and in both films he delivered strong suspense and action set pieces and got A-list talents like Danny Glover, Jeff Bridges and Tommy Lee Jones to make us go with the silliness in both films. He had a tough shoot with this film, and had one of his producers (Michael Douglas, whose company helped make the film) step into the key supporting role of Remington, a legendary big game hunter who comes in to help Patterson kill the lions, which Patterson himself did in real life. Remington is a creation for the film; the intention was to have a great hunter character who, when dispatched by the lions, would make Patterson look all the stronger of a character. Douglas changes the equation, and it throws off the balance of Patterson as a character. He and Kilmer do work well together, however.
This is an entertaining adventure movie. It’s structurally sound and builds from one moment to the next. The film is successful in giving us what we want with this story; we understand the stakes, even if we aren’t fully invested in them. When Remington enters the film, it’s a good shot in the arm, and helps round out a decent cast that includes Tom Wilkinson, Emily Mortimer and Bernard Hill. Vilmos Zsigmond’s cinematography is lush at capturing the landscape, and Jerry Goldsmith delivers an effective score that underlines the emotions in a way only he does. There are some ridiculous moments, but overall the film is fine escapism. If you haven’t seen it in a while, there’s fun to be had.
