The Ghost and the Darkness Reviews

A silly period production, built around the sorry spectacle of two smug American stars lording it over the natives. In 1896, John Patterson (Val Kilmer), an Irishman, is sent to Africa to build a bridge over the Tsavo River, facilitating the white man's conquest of the Dark Continent. The complication: a pair of rogue lions of preternatural cunning and ferocity, who prey on the workers. Enter Great White Hunter Remington (Michael Douglas), an expatriate from the American South; together he and Patterson must kill the beasts. Based on true events, the film is nevertheless absolutely preposterous, and informed by stereotypes that don't play well in the 1990s. Veteran screenwriter William Goldman claimed the two best pieces of factual material he ever came across were the story of BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID, and the tale of the man-eaters of Tsavo. Would that the movie lived up to the facts. Kilmer and Douglas swagger and posture, belting out their lines to the back row and never managing to get their accents in hand, while director Stephen Hopkins revels in David Lean-like long shots, as any sense of epic sweep eludes him. And oh, those clunky special-effects lion paws: They're worthy of Godzilla!