The Ghost And The Darkness PAL Laserdisc

• Cat.no: PLFEB 36841
• Cert: 18
• Running time: 106 minutes
• Sides: 2 (CLV)
• Year: 1996
• Pressing: 1997
• Chapters: 16 (8/7+1)
• Sound: Dolby Surround
• Widescreen: 2.10:1 (Panavision)
• Price: £24.99
• Extras : Theatrical trailers for The Saint, Congo, Mission: Impossible

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Director:

Stephen Hopkins

(Predator 2, Blown Away)

Producers:

Screenplay:

William Goldman

Music:

Cast:

Remington: Michael Douglas (Disclosure, Basic Instinct, Fatal Attraction, The Game, The American President, Black Rain, Falling Down, Coma)
John Patterson: Val Kilmer (The Doors, Heat, Tombstone, Top Secret, True Romance, The Saint, Batman Forever, The Island Of Dr. Moreau)
Beaumont: Tom Wilkinson (The Full Monty, Priest, “Martin Chuzzlewit” (TV), “Prime Suspect” (TV))
Samuel: John Kani (Sarafina!)
Dr. Hawthorne: Bernard Hill (Titanic, The Bounty, Drowning By Numbers, “Boys From The Blackstuff” (TV))
Angus Starling: Brian McArdie (Speed 2: Cruise Control)
Abdullah: Om Puri (City Of Joy, Brothers In Trouble, In Custody)

The Ghost And The Darkness is a true story set in East Africa, 1896. Val Kilmer plays John Patterson, a construction engineer given five months to build a bridge – a task he feels will pose no problems as he always keeps his word and his wife will be giving birth to their first child in six months and he promised he would be back in time.

As time goes on, a lion comes out at night and kills one of the workers. The following night, the same thing happens. Patterson thinks it can’t be killing for food as it wouldn’t return within 24 hours. The next day, another lion attack occurs, and it transpires that there are two lions on a man-eating rampage.

They show no fear of man or fire, and are killing for sport rather than food and seem to have a sixth sense for knowing what traps await them. On hearing of the trouble caused as construction grinds to a halt, Beaumont arrives in Africa ready to kick Patterson off the job now that he’s three months behind schedule, until Patterson suggests they call in Remington, a big-game hunter and a legend.

The title, The Ghost And The Darkness, was the phrase given to the two lions as it wasn’t just the night-time when they attacked. Some thought these two weren’t lions at all, but the spirits of dead medicine men come back to spread madness. For others they were the devil, sent to stop the white man from owning the world.

For someone who is given top billing, Michael Douglas doesn’t appear until 45 minutes into the film, and shortly before the side-break, up until which point the film has been very slow-moving. When he does arrive he plays the same character he always plays, which is no bad thing as his entrance is a breath of fresh air at that point.

Val Kilmer is introduced as an Irishman, which didn’t ring true at all and seemed more like he was trying to pull off another disguise as he did several times in the big-screen version of The Saint, in which each new disguise made Val Kilmer look even more like Val Kilmer.

The rest of the cast includes Tom Wilkinson as Patterson’s employer, Bernard Hill as the owner of the hospital, John Kani as Patterson’s right-hand man, and Brian McArdie as another helper. Some of these will make it alive by the end of the film, and some will be coming out in a wooden box.

The quality of the picture cannot be disputed. It’s excellent. What can be disputed, however, is that the widescreen aspect ratio is wrong. Originally shot in Panavision at a ratio of 2.35:1, this film has been transferred to PAL laserdisc (as well as the NTSC release) at approx. 2.1:1, thus losing just over 10% of the original picture, and making a mockery of the statement on the back of the sleeve, “The film is presented in a widescreen format, preserving the aspect ratio of it’s original theatrical presentation.” This is a shame as the film has some impressive visuals which would fill the 2.35:1 frame as seen in the cinema, but are truncated here, hence this loses the disc a point.

The sound quality is superb in all counts not only for the ambience and Jerry Goldsmith‘s rousing score, but especially in the scenes involving lions where stereo separation is used to its fullest, one of my favourites being the hospital attack. Such work was accredited when the film received and Oscar for Best Sound Effects Editing.

Alas, the disc does not have nearly enough chapters. A mere fifteen are spread through the film’s 106 minutes, when at least twice as many would have sufficed. A sixteenth chapter provides trailers for The Saint, Congo, and Mission: Impossible.

Overall, this package is a mixed bag. On the positive side, director Stephen Hopkins has made a film which looks fantastic and sounds incredible. On the down side, the widescreen framing has been cocked-up, there’s not nearly enough chapters and the film makes for a passable piece of entertainment but generates little tension in a setting that is supposed to be fraught with danger.

Also, Michael Douglas doesn’t stay until the end of the film after arriving late, which makes me wonder why top credit wasn’t given to Kilmer with the other actors listed after him, and then the customary thing nowadays which is to list the big-name part-time star at the end of a film’s credits, so this one would have been “Val Kilmer, John Kani, Bernard Hill, Tom Wilkinson… and Michael Douglas”.

Film: 2/5
Picture: 4/5
Sound: 5/5

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1998.