The Ghost and the Darkness (1996)

Oh, you're right. The devil has come to Tsavo. Look at me, I am the devil. The Ghost and the Darkness is directed by Stephen Hopkins and written by William Goldman. It stars Val Kilmer, Michael Douglas, Tom Wilkinson, John Kani, Bernard Hill, Brian McCardie and Emily Mortimer. Music is by Jerry Goldsmith and cinematography by Vilmos Zsigmond. Tsavo, Kenya and a bridge engineer teams up with an experienced professional hunter to hunt for two lions that have been attacking local construction workers. As is often the case, one should seek out the real stories that are involved in this retelling of the real instances involving the Tsavo Lions The story itself is awash with mysticism, the lions (Ghost and Darkness) act as some sort of supernatural beings, who we are told are offing the native folk purely for pleasure. There's an odd juxtaposition with this, in that in the midst of colonialism and macho posturing, the hunters of felines are forgivable because they are defenders of mankind - even though we know that man hunts the great feline beasts for fun regardless of this particular situation. Various stereotypes fil out the screenplay, though not as to be insulting, but you feel that the pic as first envisaged would have had more to say on political frontage and period turmoil. It basically all ends up as a creature feature, two great white hunters facing town the monstrous enemy as their very lives become perilous by the hour. The attack sequences are nicely staged, wonderfully primal in fact, ensuring that what the pic lacks in intelligent narrative worth it makes up for with thrills and genuine nervy suspense. So with Zsigmond providing some lovely African postcard lensing, and Goldsmith adding music that powerfully bounces around the locales, the tech credits are ensuring our eyes and ears are suitably stoked. One key character's story arc is stupidly given short shrift, annoyingly so and coming off like someone ran out of time to either write or perform something else, and the uneven feel to it all tends to gnaw away at the enjoyment factor. Yet in spite of the flaws and unfulfilled promise there's a nice old fashioned feel to it, something that seems to have engaged the movie loving public more than it does the pro critics. Interesting that. 6.5/10