The Ghost and the Darkness

Dir: Stephen Hopkins

1996

**

Loosely based on the true events that happened in 1898 during construction of the Uganda-Monbase railway, screenwriter William Goldman first pitched The Ghost and the Darkness to Paramount in 1989 as a cross between Lawrence of Arabia and Jaws. After seven years of development, I found the finished item to be more of a cross between Bridge Over the River Kwai and Jaws: The Revenge. The story goes that two Lions, acting most uncharacteristically, attacked, killed and ate 135 workers who were building a railway bridge in Tsavo, Kenya. The truth is that the number of people killed is more like 35 and the Lions are a completely different kind than the ones featured in the film. Val Kilmer's character John Henry Patterson was a real person, he oversaw the construction of the bridge and was hailed a hero by the workers when he killed both Lions, ending their reign of terror. However, Michael Douglas' character Charles Remington, is fictional. In fact, most of the film is fictional is even described in it's own synopsis as being 'A fictionalised account of a true story'. A pet hate of mine. If a story is worth telling, it is worth telling correctly. William Goldman is a great screenwriter but even he was disappointed with the film, claiming Douglas' portrayal of an aged hunter ruined the production. Personally I think Douglas' performance was the least of the film's problems, the main issue being that it is incredibly boring. There is absolutely no sense of terror or suspense. The story doesn't progress any further than the first twenty minutes. The editing is horrible and the performances are wooden. Only Bernard Hill and Om Puri give acceptable performances but both are short. The direction is fairly hollow too, the story goes round and round in circles without the viewer learning anything new about the situation, Stephen Hopkins gets nothing from his actors, and he barely even convinces us that Africa is hot. The sound was excellent though and the film deserved the Oscar, it's just a shame that the rest of the film wasn't handled with the same dynamic.