The skeletal remains of the man-eating lions which inspired the movie "The Ghost and the Darkness" can be seen today in the Smithsonian Institute.
"The Ghost and the Darkness" is a rousing adventure tale of man-versus-nature in the grand tradition, at times a bit formulaic, but overall an appealing and diverting movie.
The superb special effects and atmospheric set designs make it an entertaining film.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the movie, and incidentally a major selling point, is the fact that most of the events dramatized therein actually transpired.
In the late nineteenth century, a pair of unusually vicious lions attacked an English railway camp in Africa, killing more than a hundred men in a period of several months.
Val Kilmer plays John Patterson, the Irish engineer sent to northern Africa to build a railway bridge across a river.
However, Patterson's work is brought to a halt when the camp is plagued by several unusually pernicious man-eating lions.
Patterson is under considerable pressure from his employers in London to complete the bridge on time. He devises several ingenious traps for the killers, with little success.
So the engineer enlists the aid of Charles Remmington, (Michael Douglas) a great white hunter from the United States, to slay the lions, who take a devastating toll on the engineer's workforce.
Soon the workers desert the camp, and Patterson and Remmington are left on their own to exterminate the beasts.
The lions are uncharacteristically aggressive and seem to possess a malevolence towards mankind.
The local Muslim workforce regards them as having been sent by the devil to stop the white men in their efforts to control Africa.
The quest to slay the lions becomes a personal vendetta for the two men, who tirelessly stalk their quarry, wary lest they become the victims.
Both Kilmer and Douglas are effective in their roles. Kilmer's Irish accent is skillfully subdued, as are his mannerisms.
Douglas' long, greasy hair, unshaven face and travel-stained clothing have a dramatic effect. In his role as Remmington, he looks exactly the part of a tired, aging hunter.
Indeed, the real strength of the film lies not in the script, but in the wardrobe, set design and special effects.
Although William Goldman is a highly reputable script writer, the dialogue, particularly at the beginning of the film, at times descends into insipidness.
The writing does pick up towards the end, with well-timed segments of humor and suspense that keep the viewer's attention focused.
Clearly, Constellation Films and director Steven Hopkins did not take shortcuts on evoking the chaotic, baroque madness of Victorian England and the majesty and squalor of colonial Africa.
The camp, which sets the stage for the confrontation between Remmington, Patterson and the lions, is appropriately dingy, and is contrasted magnificently with the beautiful North African landscape.
Hopkins, it seems, could not resist several gratuitous segues of eco-porn.
The majesty of the African landscape is best evoked in the film in incidental scenes, such as when Remmington and Patterson strike out to kill the lions, and sequences in the film that devote themselves solely to exploiting the beauty of the veldt fall short in cinematic prowess.
He does, however, evoke the tension and drama of the lion attacks quite well. Special effects master Stan Winston downplays the gore considerably, leaving more to the viewer's imagination, thus making the attacks all the more frightening.
Winston deserves some if not most of the credit for the believable action scenes in "The Ghost and the Darkness."
The digitized scenes of the lion attacks are so well-incorporated into the film that one does not even stop to think how good the special effects are, perhaps the greatest honor a special effects man can receive.
A slightly irritating aspect to the film is its lack of geographic and chronological orientation. Not once is the specific location of the bridge mentioned, nor the date. This lack of information is slightly disorienting
Nonetheless, "The Ghost and the Darkness" is an entertaining film, and well worth the money for a ticket.
It is an unusually diverting suspense drama that for the most part breaks out of the mediocre humdrum that haunts most action films.
And of course, the star power of Kilmer and Douglas battling it out with the lions, and the powerful special effects, make this a film that deserves a place among the very good suspense thrillers of our time.
Critic's tickets provided courtesy of the Nugget Theater.
