The Ghost and the Darkness (1996)

Director:

Stephen Hopkins

Writer (WGA):

William Goldman (written by)

Release Date:

11 October 1996 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Drama | Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

Control Your Fear

Plot:

Set in 1898, this movie is based on the true story of two lions in Africa that killed 130 people over a nine month period...

Plot Keywords:

Lion | Bridge | Railway | Africa | Train

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 2 nominations

Cast

Michael Douglas	...	Charles Remington
Val Kilmer	...	Col. John Henry Patterson
Tom Wilkinson	...	Robert Beaumont
John Kani	...	Samuel
Bernard Hill	...	Dr. David Hawthorne
Brian McCardie	...	Angus Starling
Emily Mortimer	...	Helena Patterson
Om Puri	...	Abdullah
Henry Cele	...	Mahina
Kurt Egelhof	...	Indian Victim
Satchu Annamalai	...	Worker #1
Teddy Reddy	...	Worker #2
Raheem Khan	...	Worker #3 (as Rakeem Khan)
Jack Devnarain	...	Nervous Sikh Orderly
Glen Gabela	...	Orderly #1

MPAA:

Rated R for some violence and gore involving animal attacks.

Runtime:

109 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Brazil:14 | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Iceland:16 | USA:R (certificate #33990) | South Korea:15 | UK:15 | Philippines:PG-13 | Argentina:16 | Australia:M | Chile:14 | Finland:K-16 | Germany:12 (w) | Norway:15 | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:NC-16 | Spain:13 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Songimvelo Game Reserve, Mpumalanga, South Africa

Company:

Constellation Entertainment

Trivia:

The rifle used by Val Kilmer is a "Lee Speed" sporter, most likely in .303 caliber. The movie rifle is historically correct and most likely came from a South African movie prop supply house. BSA made these rifles from 1892 until at least the 1930s in .303, 7mm, and 8mm. BSA offered several different versions and options on these rifles. The term "Lee Speed" was used for commercial rifles. These rifles were mostly manufactured by the BSA Company, who also made Gov't rifles (Lee-Enfield Mk1 NoIII being the most common) and had the machinery in place to make sporting versions.

Goofs:

Continuity: The visibility of Kareem's earlobe under his turban when Remington has a gun to his head.

Quotes:

Mahina: You know, I also have killed a lion.
Angus Starling: How many shots did you need?
Mahina: I used my hands.

Movie Connections:

Version of Kaal (2005)

Soundtrack:

Terere Obande

The most famous adventurous true story of Africa..

...Well according to Hollywood anyway, since "The Ghost and the Darkness" actually takes lots of liberties with its story, about the two man-eating lions of Tsavo. Quite odd since it presses in the beginning that everything you're about to see in this movie, no matter how unbelievable it seems, has truly occurred. Oh well, just a good and clever marketing trick, lets leave it to that. No way they can pull off a trick like this now days in the days of Internet, were with only a few clicks you can look up an historical event. Of course the biggest difference between the truth and fiction is the Remington (Michael Douglas) character, who never existed in real life and also the looks of the lions, who in real life were not maned. But oh well, are these movie changes bad or not believable? No, it strengthens the story and makes it all even more interesting to watch.

I've always loved watching "The Ghost and the Darkness". It's a great adventurous movie with action in it and some good characters, all set in a beautiful environment.

The story is perfectly adventurous and action filled. It's all the more amazing knowing that the story has actually occurred in real life, over an hundred years ago already. The movie and its story is kept simple and allows its images and characters to tell the story.

What I like about the movie is that it fully treats the 'Ghost' and the 'Darkness' (the nicknames of the two man-eating lions) as movie characters. It shows them as smart thinking creatures and not simply just as 'monsters', even though they kill for pleasure (at least in the movie they do).

The movie is definitely helped by its environment and atmosphere. The beautiful African land serves as a perfect backdrop for the movie and also works quite claustrophobic, since the movie is for most part set at just this one location (the railroad and bridge building-site). Also the great Jerry Goldsmith musical score suits the environment and perfectly adds to the atmosphere of the entire movie, as does the cinematography from Vilmos Zsigmond.

Michael Douglas plays a good role and actually shows with this movie how versatile he is as an actor, though his role is definitely smaller than he is credited for in the movie. As also the producer of this movie he obviously claimed to become the top-billing actor of the movie as well. In fact the main part of the movie is being played by Val Kilmer, who plays his character in a way like we're used of him; a humble way and he doesn't try too hard to impress in his role, which also leaves room for the other actors to shine and of course allows the story to be told best. Surprising to see that the movie also had actors in it, that would later turn into big well known names such as Bernard Hill and Tom Wilkinson, in some good roles. Also Om Puri gives a nice performance.

A perfectly fun and simple adventurous action movie. This is high quality entertainment.

8/10