True Story, Yet Hard to Believe | The Ghost and the Darkness [VHS]

Greatest movie ! Love it! | The Ghost and the Darkness [VHS] | Michael Douglas, Val Kilmer

vhs video:


	• The Ghost and the Darkness [VHS] Michael Douglas, Val Kilmer Paramount, 1997 average customer review:based on 157 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

A great adventure undone by miscasting

..... That said i like this movie in spite of the flaws. I found it a nice throw back to the adventure movies of the 50's. Before i get to the good let's get the bad out of the way, Michael Douglas(who produced the movie) and Val Kilmer are both good actors but just don't "click" in their roles and throw the film out of whack. Douglas less so than Kilmer because his is really just a cameo at best which leaves Kilmer to carry the movie and he is so uptight in the film you just don't feel for him as you should. Ok now the good,this leaves us with just a action movie that is well,if not greatly done. With nothing to hang your emotions on the action is what's left. A good adventure, but with the talent involved this should have been much better.

for more information click here

True Story, Yet Hard to Believe

Lt. Col. John Patterson is an engineer assigned in 1899 to oversee the construction of a railway bridge at Tsavo, East Africa, about 175 miles NW of Zanzibar. On his arrival, a worker describes Tsavo as "the worst place in the world."

He also discovers workers are being attacked by lions. In this remote area, this is hardly surprising. The frequency and number of attacks, though, are off the chart. Not only are the workers and Patterson terrorized, many of the workers leave the job site, preventing further construction. Patterson must find a way to rid the place of the lions. He's an engineer and amateur hunter, not a game expert.

Patterson and others try numerous things to trap and kill the lions, or prevent them from entering camp to no avail before a number of victims are taken. The first time I watched this, I got chills every time a lion attacked. Imagine trying to survive in such a place. Patterson eventually bags the lions, and work resumes.

A character named Remington is brought in near the end of the picture. He is a fictional character, but the interaction between Patterson, the natives and him reflects the development of the relationship between Americans, Europeans, Africans, and Indians during the Victorian era.

Prior to reviewing this DVD, I read Lt. Col. Patterson's book, "The Man-Eaters of Tsavo." This is a sensational story, and I needed a reality check. There is artistic license, as usual, in the movie. But in this case, I find that license a reflection of the real life of Lt. Col. Patterson, who spent many years working in various parts of Africa, living in primitive conditions, and when he found time, hunting various game.

The numbers killed by lions are staggering when compared to those of other instances of man-eaters. Lt. Col. Patterson worked and hunted passionately. This is well worth watching, but not by small children.

for more information click here

Greatest movie ! Love it!

The movie quickly became my favorite!

I didn't find anything negative in it! Just oposite - actors play greatly, the film is well shot, the plot is panintresting etc!

for more information click here

BEFORE DAKTARI

William Goldman, the screenwriter of THE GHOST AND THE DARKNESS is a novelist who also writes for Hollywood for more than 40 years now. His most known original screenplays are those of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (Special Edition), Marathon Man and Maverick. When you see the name of William Goldman on the list of credits of a film, you know for sure that there will be more in the movie than meets the eye.

Now, when I read here reviews that destroy the GHOST AND THE DARKNESS by pointing out that the lions in the film don't act like real lions, I feel sad and sorry for these reviewers. It's like hating a Picasso painting because the faces of its characters are misshappen. The characters or events pictured in a fiction movie have a life of their own that should convey the artistic vision of the director or the screenwriter. If the lions don't act like in a documentary film, it's simply because the authors of the film wanted them to be larger than life.

THE GHOST AND THE DARKNESS is one of the best adventure movies I've seen in a long time. Lavishly photographed by the multi-awarded Vilmos Zsigmond, with an effective musical score by Jerry Goldsmith, the film shows the duel that opposes two highly symbolic couples. This duel quickly overshadows the subplots such as the difficulties to build a bridge in the African savanna or to maintain order in a multiethnic team. Two solitary lions, without any links with a herd, fight two men, away from their family or, for Charles Remington, without any family at all. And now you can try to figure out what the movie is really about : is it a film about the couple civilization/nature or a film dealing with some of our most ancestral fears ? or is it even about something else ? If a film can raise such questions, it surely deserves a little consideration.

A DVD for your library.

for more information click here

The Ghost and the Darkness

This is the best movie - after watching be sure to go to the Fields Museum in Chicago and see the Lion's (they are on display)

reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, page 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19

hot