Director Stephen Hopkins' safari saga "The Ghost and the Darkness" is based on a true incident. Two bloodthirsty lions feasted on 130 native railroad laborers in Africa in the late 1890s. But it's an adventure tale with more growl than grandeur. Val Kilmer bares a pearly smile in his starring role as idealistic bridge builder Lieutenant Colonel John Patterson. As Patterson, he is assigned by his racist British tycoon boss, Robert Beaumont (Tom Wilkinson) to bridge Africa's Tsavo River within five months. As we learn, the Swahili word for Tsavo translates as "a place of slaughter." When Patterson arrives in Africa, his loyal African guide, Samuel (John Kani), warns him that nothing works in Tsavo. No sooner has work started than the lions strike. Patterson guns down one man-eater, but two more lions replace it. The natives call these savage cats "The Ghost and the Darkness." Michael Douglas co-stars as savvy lion killer Charles Remington. He arrives on the scene to help save the day, but he doesn't make his appearance until nearly halfway into the action. William Goldman's script errs in not bringing Douglas into the fray much earlier. Although confined to a role that is little more than an over-long cameo, Douglas dominates "The Ghost and the Darkness." Douglas' charismatic Remington easily upstages Kilmer's ponderous spit and polish Patterson. Compared to the elegant Patterson, Douglas resembles a shaggy villain from a 1970s era Italian western. Nevertheless, what distinguishes "The Ghost and the Darkness" are its cagey lions. These lions constantly elude and outwit our pair of heroes. If you saw the Robin Williams movie "Jumanji," the special effects here are just as incredible. Director Stephen Hopkins deploys these fantastic digital effects to stage a truly realistic lion attack on a crowd. Many close-up shots of gaping jaws and dark, hypnotic eyes bolster the suspense.
An exciting confrontation that sends Kilmer scrambling up a tree with a lion nipping at his heels should get the adrenalin singing in your veins. Altogether, "The Ghost and the Darkness" succeeds more as a horror movie. The action never strays far from the bridge site so the movie seems rather claustrophobic. When "Ghost" isn't frightening, it creeps along with one too many campfire scenes. "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" scenarist William Goldman literate script sticks closely to the events of this true-life tragedy. Nevertheless, you wonder how they made the mistakes that they made. Patterson, for example, swaps rifles the night before the big hunt. When he confronts a lion, his gun misfires. The death of one character occurs off-screen, forcing you to fill in the gap and deprive both the audience and the characters with a memorable death scene.
You can almost guess which character will be chomped because the filmmakers cast a halo around the person's head. Meanwhile, Hopkins and Goldman devise one genuinely shocking scene but cannot sustain this kind of momentum when the lions are on-screen. Hopkins deserves credit for making these lion attacks fully vicious without emphasizing the blood and gore.
An exciting confrontation that sends Kilmer scrambling up a tree with a lion nipping at his heels should get the adrenalin singing in your veins. Altogether, "The Ghost and the Darkness" succeeds more as a horror movie. The action never strays far from the bridge site so the movie seems rather claustrophobic. When "Ghost" isn't frightening, it creeps along with one too many campfire scenes. "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" scenarist William Goldman literate script sticks closely to the events of this true-life tragedy. Nevertheless, you wonder how they made the mistakes that they made. Patterson, for example, swaps rifles the night before the big hunt. When he confronts a lion, his gun misfires. The death of one character occurs off-screen, forcing you to fill in the gap and deprive both the audience and the characters with a memorable death scene.
You can almost guess which character will be chomped because the filmmakers cast a halo around the person's head. Meanwhile, Hopkins and Goldman devise one genuinely shocking scene but cannot sustain this kind of momentum when the lions are on-screen. Hopkins deserves credit for making these lion attacks fully vicious without emphasizing the blood and gore.