THE GHOST AND THE DARKNESS: Blu-ray (Paramount, Constellation Films, 1996) Shout! Factory
Based on Lt. Col. John Henry
Patterson’s 1907 novel, The Man-Eaters of Tsavo, director, Stephen
Hopkins’ The Ghost and the Darkness (1996) was badly maligned, not only
by the critics, earning co-star, Val Kilmer a Razzie nomination for Worst
Supporting Actor, but also Hopkins who, in his own assessment of the picture
two years later, labeled the finished product “…a mess... I
haven't been able to watch it.” Irish-born, Christian Zionist, J. H. Patterson, whose
distinguished military career was matched only by his propensity to novelize
his exploits, began serving in the British army at the tender age of 17 in 1885,
retiring from active duty in 1920. Between these bookends, and, while
commissioned by the Uganda Railway committee to oversee construction of a
bridge over the Tsavo River in Kenya, Patterson was to encounter his most
curious case of ritualized murder – the workers mercilessly attacked by a pair
of rogue male lions, who would wait until nightfall before dragging victims
from their tents to feed on them. The bizarre hostility of these calculated
attacks generated superstition and fear, and Patterson was faced with an exodus
of workers fleeing for their lives. Patterson would later attribute the lions’
venomous attack strategy to the slave trade route nearby, the frequently
unburied human remains and open graves acclimatizing these natural predators to
adapt from their usual food source to more easily accessible human flesh. Faced
with certain ruin to his career and reputation, Patterson – a master game
hunter – set about to eradicate this threat, narrowly escaping his own death when
one of the 9-ft. mane-less lion’s, already wounded by his rifle, nevertheless
lunged at him to finish the job.
Patterson’s heroism was awarded with
a silver bowl from his coworkers, and, an appointment as the superintendent of
game reserves in the East Africa Protectorate – his time spent there, becoming
the basis for his second book, In The Grip of Nyika, later published in
1909. Rather shamelessly, Patterson would make two rugs from the lions’ skin
for his trophy room before selling off the rest, including their skulls, to be
stuffed in 1924 as a showcase at Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History for
the, then, princely sum of $5,000. As for The Man-eaters of Tsavo; this
would be transformed into a movie twice before Hopkins’ adaptation: first, as
1953’s Bwana Devil, then, not even 7-years later, as 1959’s Killers
of Kilimanjaro. Bwana Devil capitalized on the new fad of 3D and was
successful at the box office. Its subsequent remake, shot without the gimmick,
did little to no business at all. Personally, I have always felt Blyth’s second
book, along with the incident to taint his time in East Africa, and only
briefly referenced in 1947’s The Macomber Affair, would have made for a
much more engaging motion picture. While on safari with 1st Baron Audley
Blyth and his wife, Ethel, Audley ‘committed suicide’ in his tent with
his wife present. Instead of reporting the incident, Patterson elected to bury
Blyth in the wilderness and carry on with the expedition. Alas, upon returning
to England, rumors began to circulate, Patterson and Ethel had been involved in
an illicit affair. And although no formal ‘murder’ charges were ever laid,
Patterson would never live down the pall cast upon his reputation in the court
of popular opinion.
Screenwriter, William Goldman first
caught wind of Patterson’s exploits while on his travels in Africa in 1984.
Five years later, Goldman would pitch his option to the executive brain trust
at Paramount as a cross between Lawrence of Arabia and Jaws.
Intrigued, Paramount commissioned Goldman to write a draft; Goldman imbuing his
screenplay with a vein of pure evil running through the lions’ motivations.
Alas, Goldman was to considerably alienate purists by creating the character of
American game hunter, Charles Remington (Michael Douglas) as a stand-in; a fictional
creation he based on Anglo-Indian game hunter, Charles H. Ryall, superintendent
of the Railway Police. While Kevin Costner expressed interest to play the lead,
Paramount hoped to entice their golden boy, Tom Cruise. Michael Douglas only
came to the forefront after his Constellation Films, partnered with Steven
Reuther, moved onto the Paramount lot. Fascinated by the tale, Douglas elected
to produce it, hiring Stephen Hopkins to direct. Conversely, Val Kilmer, who
enjoyed African safaris, also expressed his enthusiasm to partake. For Kilmer,
the picture could not have come at a better time – preoccupying him from the
monumental backlash of a bitter divorce and negative reviews from his latest movie,
The Island of Dr. Moreau. Unable to allow Kilmer even a few days respite
before embarking on the shoot, Hopkins worked his star relentlessly, later
praising Kilmer for his unwavering commitment to the movie. As for the fictional
Remington, he proved a tough nut to cast. First offered to Sean Connery, then
Anthony Hopkins, producers even contemplated Gérard Depardieu. At this
juncture, Douglas decided to play the role himself, a decision disdained by
Goldman, who believes with Douglas in the part, the character of Remington
degenerated from an enigmatic, proud figure into a weak loser, and also,
frowned upon by the film’s director who was now at Douglas’ bidding as
producer/star.
Shooting in inhospitable conditions
at the Songimvelo Game Reserve in South Africa, with real Maasai to portray the
South African actors, and two male ‘brother’ lions – Caesar and Bongo as the ‘ghost’
and the ‘darkness’ – both permanent residents of the Bowmanville Zoo in
Ontario, Canada, with ‘stand-in’ lions culled from France and the US, cast and
crew were chronically felled by snake and scorpion bites and tick bite fever. Extras
were struck by lightning. Floods, torrential storms, and hippo attacks resulted
in several deaths, including two drownings. The Ghost and the Darkness
opens in 1898 with railroad financier, Robert Beaumont (Tom Wilkinson) seeking
the expertise of British military engineer, John Henry Patterson (Val Kilmer), to
oversee the construction of a bridge over the Tsavo river. Patterson promises
his wife, Helena (Emily Mortimer) to be back in time for the birth of their
first child. Upon his arrival, Patterson is introduced to British supervisor,
Angus Starling (Brian McCardie), Kenyan foreman, Samuel (John Cani), and Doctor
David Hawthorne (Bernard Hill) whom advices Patterson of the recent lion
attacks.
Not long thereafter, Patterson
kills a lion with a single gunshot, initially to quell the fears of the workers.
But when the foreman, Mahina (Henry Cele) is mercilessly dragged from his tent,
his mutilated body later recovered, Patterson assesses the lion problem is not
about to go away. While pursuing the first lion, Patterson is informed by Starling
of a second brutal attack, with remains strewn in the opposite direction of the
base camp. Heeding Samuel’s counsel, Patterson gets the workers to build a
barbed thorn fence. Yet, even with this deterrent, the lions attack. As
Patterson, Starling, and Samuel corner the lion feasting on another worker’s
body, the second lion assails the camp from a nearby rooftop, slicing Starling
across the throat and wounding Patterson in the arm. Patterson recovers but is
unable to prevent the lions’ escape. Led by Abdullah, the workers turn on
Patterson. Construction is halted, and Patterson requests backup from England.
His query is denied. Instead, Beaumont brings in famed hunter, Charles
Remington with his own company of Maasai warriors. Remington’s attempt to trap a
lion is a catastrophe. His Maasai retreat. But Remington remains, constructing a
hospital tent for the sick and injured. At the same time, he lures the man-eaters
to an abandoned building nearby littered in animal entrails. The trap works.
However, as Remington and Patterson take dead aim at the lions, they strike the
hospital, slaughtering patients and Hawthorne during their raid.
Abdullah and the workers scatter. Patterson
and Remington trail the lions to their den, strewn in the bones of dozens of
victims. At base camp, Patterson mounts
a hunting stand, luring the lions into his position using a baboon as bait. Regrettably,
Patterson topples from his perch. Mercifully, Remington slays the lion before
it can leap on its latest victim. Remington, Patterson, and Samuel rejoice in
their victory. The revelry is short-lived. For at dawn’s early light, Patterson
discovers the lion has devoured Remington while he and Samuel slept. Patterson
and Samuel burn Remington’s remains and lure the surviving lion into their trap.
Instead, the lion ambushes them on the partially constructed bridge, dispatched
by Patterson with a double-rifle Samuel threw to him from a nearby tree.
Abdullah and the workers return. The bridge is completed, and, Patterson is
reunited with Helena, who introduces him to his newborn son.
The Ghost and
the Darkness took home a single Academy Award for Best Sound Editing. Among its
fans, the movie would go on to be considered a suspenseful action/adventure
yarn. Among its detractors, however, it was savaged by cruel criticism, suggesting
its propensity for establishing a supernatural slant for the lions made even
the implausibility of Tarzan appear genuine and robust by comparison. On its
$55 million outlay, The Ghost and the Darkness barely grossed $10.3
million on its opening weekend. It’s $75 million worldwide gross notwithstanding,
the picture was considered a terrific artistic bomb. In truth, William Goldman’s
screenplay is a bit of a wash, toggling between a sprawling and darkly purposed
supernatural thriller and just the sort of light-hearted tome on the ‘great
white hunter’ unseen in cinemas since the mid-1950’s. The sequences depicting some
truly grotesque carnage get flooded with a soundtrack of gnawing, lip-smacking
lions’ jaws, choking down their human flesh and slurping up the warm blood with
a sort of envious thirst and hunger one hasn’t seen on display since Red Lobster
stopped having their seafood festival.
Owing to the fact none of this is
actually real, director, Hopkins and cinematographer, Vilmos Zsigmond rely on
some fairly unsteady camera movement, chop-shop editing and quick pans to
create the various video-game-like assaults on the base camp workforce.
Although Michael Douglas is top-billed, his character does not come into focus
for nearly a full half-hour, forcing the audience to invest in Val Kilmer’s
rather awkward and cocky Patterson. Kilmer plays the part with the same
disdainful look he has had in every movie he has ever appeared, as though his
cock-of-the-walk is just too cha-cha for words. Michael Douglas plays Remington,
looking like eight miles of bad over-the-hill road show knock-off of Jack T.
Colton – the character he played more convincingly in his younger years from 1984’s
Romancing the Stone. There’s some buddy-buddy male bonding going on
here. Just not enough to get the juices flowing. And somewhere along the way,
the supernatural element gets junked for just another shoot ‘em up ‘man against
beast’ scenario to leave most any animal activist cringing in the corner. There
are some moments worth recommending. But on the whole, The Ghost and the
Darkness fails to gel as it might have, had Goldman and Hopkins just adhered
a little closer to Patterson’s prose and left the fictional fluff stuff on the
cutting room floor.
Shout! Factory debuts its Blu-ray,
culled from a new 4K scan, in 1080p, from an original camera negative supplied
to them by Paramount Pictures. Alas, this isn’t a perfect effort. Paramount has
applied some undue DNR. In spots, this creates those smooth and waxy images we
haven’t seen in hi-def since 2oth Century-Fox’s late DIVX/early DVD period. Grain
is gone – entirely. Colors, however, are vastly improved. Even in the theater,
I recall the lion attacks appearing as though untoward digital compositing had
been liberally applied. On Blu-ray, these effects are fairly transparent. Overall,
a middling effort that should have been much better – given the investment in
time and money on a ‘new’ scan. Two audio tracks to consider: 5.1 or 2.0 DTS. Both
sound good, with the 5.1 offering subtler immersion during the lion attacks,
which are anything but subtle. This isn’t a Shout! Select title. Actually, I
think Shout! has pretty much done away with that short-lived premium line of
catalog releases. So, no extras here – just a trailer. Bottom line: The Ghost and the Darkness
won’t win any awards for its storytelling. Those looking to upgrade from their
non-anamorphic DVD are in for a treat. Those expecting an exceptional and
flawless Blu-ray transfer will be moderately disappointed. Judge and buy
accordingly.
FILM RATING (out
of 5 – 5 being the best)
3
VIDEO/AUDIO
3.5
EXTRAS
0
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