The Ghost and the Darkness (1996)

Starring: Val Kilmer, Michael Douglas, John Kani, Tom Wilkinson, and Emily Mortimer 
Grade: B

Think Jaws in the jungle. 

Actually, that would’ve been a decent title too.

Summary

In London in 1898, we get a narration from Samuel (Kani) about the adventure that happened in Tsavo, Kenya. It centered around the very Irish, Col. John Henry Patterson (Kilmer), with Samuel being there for the ride.

Patterson meets with the wealthy and powerful Robert Beaumont (Wilkinson) who has sights set on Africa. Beaumont plans on building the most expensive and daring railroad in history for the purpose of “saving Africa from the Africans and of course, to end slavery”. Their competitors are the German and French. Currently, Beaumont and his group are ahead, and they plan on staying ahead with Patterson’s help. Patterson is a top-level engineer, and Beaumont wants to hire him to build a bridge across the Tsavo River and be finished in five months. Though Patterson’s reputation of always getting his jobs done on schedule precedes him, he’s never built anything in Africa. Comparing it to the challenges he’s had in India, he’s confident and excited for the opportunity because he’s always wanted to see the continent. Beaumont does make it known that he will make Patterson’s life a living hell if he accepts this job and doesn’t succeed. Even so, and despite his wife Helena (Mortimer) being three months pregnant, Patterson jumps at the chance to take this job. Quickly after, he says goodbye to Helena, who’s surprisingly cool with it, and heads out on a train. Upon arriving in Tsavo, Kenya, he meets with Angus Starling (Brian McCardie), a man who will work as Patterson’s assistant while he’s there.

The two take a train to the work site where Patterson is introduced to camp liaison and resident Kenyan, Samuel. He goes with Samuel to the bridge site while Angus goes to deliver medical supplies. As the two talk, Samuel notes some immediate issues. For starters, the workers don’t really like each other. Per Samuel, the Africans hate the Indians, but the Indians also hate other Indians. The Hindus believe the cows are sacred while the Muslims eat the cows.

It’s a very contentious situation.

Patterson, ever the optimist, suggests he can help because he’s worked with both types of people, but Samuel assures him it won’t work. He even says that Tsavo is the “worst place in the world”.

Well, this is not very reassuring.

Samuel then points out that at the site of the advance camp, the workers are messing up so badly that every day they work, they lay track two miles further away. Later, the two go to the hospital to see Angus, Dr. David Hawthorne (Bernard Hill), and all the people dying of malaria. Hawthorne doesn’t get along with Angus and is very much a pessimist. He’s not a fan of Beaumont either and notes how this whole project is happening to protect the ivory trade. He brings over a patient named Karim to show Patterson. Karim was attacked by a lion, so Hawthorne wonders what Patterson is going to do about it. That night, Patterson takes it upon himself to go hunting for this lion, with Angus tagging along. With one shot, he kills the beast. This shot takes away the fear that the rest of the crew has been living with. Everyone rejoices! Right after this, Patterson gives the job of overseeing the foundation plans to Angus and foreman Mahina (Henry Cele), giving them four weeks to figure it out. Mahina notes he’s killed a lion with his bare hands before and though Patterson’s confidence is through the roof at the moment, he shares a concerning look with Mahina, not knowing that Mahina saw the glimpse of another lion in the distance. Even so, the crew is off and running with the railroad, and they put in some serious work. Sometime after, Samuel gives Patterson a necklace of the claws of the lion he killed because it will remind him of courage. He also tells him it will protect him, and he insists Patterson wear it. Angus has even converted some people too.

All throughout, Patterson writes letters to his wife where the best line of the movie is said, when he opens with, “You know how God invented liquor so the Irish wouldn’t rule the world?”.

I love this.

Anyway, they’re ahead of schedule, so you know something has to go wrong.

Well, it does.

Later, Mahina is killed by another lion in the middle of the night. The next morning, his body is picked apart by vultures until Patterson shoots at them to leave. Patterson, Angus, and Samuel meet with Hawthorne to discuss what happened, with Hawthorne noting that it seemed strangely deliberate. Apparently, the lion licked Mahina’s skin off so he could drink his blood, then he ate him starting with his feet. This is very unusual for a lion and that’s why Hawthorne even finds it hard to believe. Fear starts to set in again within the camp because Mahina was well-respected as a tough guy. The night of Mahina’s funeral, Patterson goes out to hunt again but finds nothing. The next morning, the workers, captained by perpetual pain in the ass Abdullah (Om Puri), have refused to work because of another lion attack on some guy at the other side of camp. Patterson lets Samuel create some fires and build some fencing to keep the lions away at night, and he instills a curfew because the new guy who died was wandering during nighttime hours. Despite Abdullah’s annoyance with him, Patterson splits his crew in two. One half will help Samuel, the other will go to the bridge. He promises in front of everyone that he will kill the lion and build the bridge.

A week later, no one has died and things seem to be going good. Samuel even delivers a letter from Patterson’s wife. He goes off site to read it but as he does, the lion attacks the camp and kills in broad daylight. Patterson runs back to the camp once he hears the screams. Getting their guns ready, Patterson, Samuel, and Angus go on the hunt. Just as Patterson finds the lion feasting on someone and is about to shoot, a second lion jumps from the top of the building and knocks two of them over, wounding Patterson and killing Angus. There are now two lions terrorizing this camp, something that has never happened before. The natives nickname the two lions “The Ghost and The Darkness”. 

Ah, I get it now.

Just as Beaumont’s train arrives shortly thereafter, Patterson insists help is on the way and tells Abdullah to force the workers to stay because he knows they will listen to him. Abdullah refuses, so Patterson guilt trips him by essentially calling him a pussy.

This works and everyone goes back to work just as Beaumont gets off the train to be greeted by Patterson and Samuel. Patterson asks for his request for soldiers, but Beaumont turns him down. However, Beaumont realizes there is danger at the site when he is told about the lion killing Angus and many others. Regardless, Beaumont is angry at these minor “inconveniences”. Afterwards, Patterson shows him his “contraption”, a massive trap set up for the lions near the site. He did the same thing for a tiger in India, though he admits it didn’t work then, even though he’s convinced the theory is sound. Unimpressed by Patterson’s hunting efforts, he promises to locate and bring in famous U.S. hunter Charles Remington (Douglas) to help. Patterson however tells him that by the time he finds Remington, he will have killed the lions and gotten back on schedule, so Beaumont agrees to give him another chance because it would take too long to find a replacement. If he does have to return though, Patterson will be fired. Beaumont also promises to destroy his reputation as well. Now, all of Patterson’s energy is being directed to the lions. He even hires some local hunters for help. Patterson has this plan where he has the three wait in the contraption as bait to lure the lion inside, and it works. The lion gets stuck inside with the hunters. Sadly, they get too scared and miss the lion a hundred times at point blank range, and it escapes.

The next morning, an angry Patterson yells at the three for sucking and gets into an argument with Abdullah, who turns the workers against Patterson, blaming him for all the trouble that is happening in Tsavo. The crowd circles them as they argue because Abdullah is basically about to incite a riot. However, everything is stopped with the appearance of Charles Remington who points a gun to the head of Abdullah. This forces everything to stop. After the situation calms down, Remington greets his good friend in Samuel and has a group of Maasai warriors circle and enter the camp to help them with their battle against the lions. It will cost Patterson ten heads of cattle.

Patterson and Remington come to a quick understanding and mutual respect for each other, but the mission is clear: It’s time to go to war with these man-eaters.

My Thoughts:

I understand how the simplicity of a hunting movie may be a hard sell for some. However, there’s a level of intensity that propels this simple narrative of The Ghost and the Darkness.

It’s not your usual animal-killing-humans movie that focuses on over-the-top gore and such. It’s about an engineer trying to build a bridge in Africa, befriending locals and getting use to the landscape of a continent he’s never been to. As he does this and faces a timed schedule from a rich developer who will ruin him if he fails, he is faced with a lion problem. Now, he does hunt and he’s a pretty confident man. Without an issue, he takes out the first lion and his confidence reach an all-time high. What the story becomes however is a battle of wits and who wants it more. Once he kills the one lion, he starts a war with two others, and they aren’t ordinary mammals. Everyone in Tsavo takes these lions seriously because of how well they know the land, and I think this is what makes the difference. This is when The Ghost and The Darkness becomes more of a serious action drama rather than a campy natural horror film. This is why the material rises above its premise. This all-out war works because of the action hero ability of Val Kilmer, playing our strong but sympathetic protagonist who is working tirelessly to get to his family at home, and Michael Douglas as the badass U.S. hunter who travels the world to hunt for money. The star power works wonders here and is basically the only reason I tuned in.

I’m glad I did too.

Prime Val Kilmer teaming with Michael Douglas, and they hunt lions in Africa? What’s not to love?

It’s not just the star power though. I do find the characters the two leads play very interesting, especially in how they react to the surrounding environment. Kilmer portrays the professional and very confident Col. John Patterson with gusto. He carries himself with a high standard much like the colonel he plays and is very believable in his role. Patterson is a leader and has succeeded at every level. Despite the incredibly unreasonable Beaumont telling him the expectations he has for the job and how tough it will be, Patterson never waivers in his belief in his own abilities. Kilmer looks and acts exactly in the manner needed to carry the story. He’s excited for the adventure that is Africa, young and ready to take on the world. He’s faced opposition in his previous jobs and that’s why he has no problem in tackling the lion problem at first. What makes things special is when his confidence starts to rip at the seams as the lions find new ways in attacking and killing members of his camp. He finds himself thinking in new and creative solutions trying to outsmart the animal. Usually, it would be easy to do so but as we find in this movie, these animals are built much different than anything either experienced hunter has seen before. This job in Africa completely changes Patterson. Take note of how cool and tough he is under the circumstances from his first lion kill, to where he’s at mentally on his first team-up with Remington. It’s a night and day difference, but it’s a great way to show us how Africa is like no other continent and can’t be taken lightly by any outsider.

Once Charles Remington enters the scene, the vibe changes.

The movie goes from an action/adventure-based hunting movie to a darker, grittier survival film. With his raspy voice, Michael Douglas’s Remington is exactly what Kilmer’s Patterson isn’t. He’s rough around the edges, shaggy-haired, and dresses like a man that looks like he lives in the jungle.

I like to imagine that this is what Jack T. Colton would have become in Romancing the Stone had Joan Wilder never came into his life.

There’s this aura of mysteriousness around Remington as soon as he enters the scene in the coolest way possible, pointing a gun into the face of Abdullah to show everyone he’s not here to play games. He’s such a badass, and Douglas is the perfect choice to play him. With the cold, I’ve-seen-some-shit look that Douglas always seems to have, the character naturally radiates the feeling of what a survival thriller is. He’s a world-famous hunter, and he’s seen it all. This is why things change when he enters the scene. You can see the savagery within him, thinking outside the box with his plan to bathe the old hospital in buckets of blood and cows to attract the lions and forcing the camp to build a new hospital to make up for it. Right away, we see Remington is cut from a different cloth. He’s a man that lost his entire family to civil war. He’s a savage. There’s no other way to put it. He’s exactly the man you’d hire to hunt the toughest beats known to man. His confidence and natural leadership reignite the shattered Patterson, and he grows back to form because of it.

This is what’s cool about their burgeoning friendship because they don’t realize they need each other. Neither one could’ve done this alone. They needed the other’s presence to show them a different way. When we see Remington take an “L” because of the failed hospital plan causing countless lives, it shows he’s not an unstoppable badass either. It’s a great way to prove to us that him and Patterson are equals on this team, despite their differences in philosophies as well as their general demeanors.

Weirdly enough, learning more about Remington took away from what makes him special. I understand we need some depth to get an understanding of how he operates and to cover more screentime, but I can’t help but see screenwriter William Goldman’s point about how the “mystery of the character was ruined” when Douglas took over. With a character like this, less would be a lot more. There seems to be a bit of a misstep when we suddenly learn he doesn’t like killing specifically, he just has an incredible talent for it. Though this showed why Patterson was more of an equal to him than initially thought, it definitely let a lot of steam out of the coolness of Remington. Once we learn this about Remington, it does foreshadow the outcomes of the characters (you have to want to kill to defeat these lions, not because you’re good at it), but I can’t help but think what becomes of Remington might have been a bigger deal had he looked like the mysterious badass he was made out to be. This way, it would’ve looked like the lions couldn’t stand a chance against him and the shock would be greater when we see what happens.

Though the effects may not be the greatest when compared to today’s standards, I think it was well done for the time period. I was very much invested in the suspense of these revenge-thirsty lions. The entire cast does a great job at selling the seriousness of the scene and how monstrous these animals are, making you believe in the genuine fear they’re facing. For example, take a look at the I-may-have-just-shit-my-pants reactions when Patterson and Remington find the lair of the lions and see a sea of human skeletons. This is when they realize, even more than before, that these lions are no ordinary jungle cats. Remington hits us with the chilling words, delivered by the grizzled veteran Douglas, “Lions don’t do this…They’re doing it for the pleasure”. How can you not have an “Oh shit!” reaction to that? It reminds me of my initial reaction when Patterson tells Beaumont that the kill count has reached thirty. By the time Remington gets there, it rises to forty! You don’t even realize it because of how time passes in the movie, but one thing is for sure, they do a great job in showing how scary these animals can be.

They definitely deserve their nicknames.

With our two well-matched leads carrying the action and intensity far past what could’ve been a run-of-the-mill horror movie, amongst a beautiful Kenyan backdrop, The Ghost and the Darkness is one hell of a survival thriller. It flew under the radar but as a huge action movie fan, I had a lot of fun with this one despite some missteps here and there.

Fun Fact: Kevin Costner and Tom Cruise were considered for Val Kilmer’s role, and Sean Connery and Anthony Hopkins were considered for Michael Douglas’s role. Honestly, I could see Costner in Kilmer’s role, but we know damn well he wasn’t doing the Irish accent.