The Ghost and the Darkness

[timepiececlock]

I've been watching my brother's DVD of The Ghost and the Darkness. I watched this film once, the year it came out, and I remember being very impressed by it. Watching it a second time a few years later, I'm still impressed. It's gorey, and has one woman in the entire cast, but none of that is a suprise givne the subject matter, and is in fact necessary. It's a creepy and unsettling film, with excellent cinematography and fine acting, most notably from Michael Douglas in his smaller role, but also Val Kilmer, who turns in one of the more better performances of all the movies I've seen him in.

It's based on a true story about a pair of man-eating lions (named The Ghost and The Darkness by the locals) who spend some months terrorizing and slaughtering a camp of laborers trying to build a bridge in a place called Tsalvo, in Africa. The year is 1898. The British military engineer who is building the bridge (Kilmer), a local leader among the tribesmen who are providing the labor, and a grungy famous hunter (Douglas) do their best to kill the lions and keep the bridge project going. It's a well-written story, and makes me definitely glad I don't have potentially man-eating lions in my backyard.

What's interesting about this true story is that the two lions were an anomoly-- man eaters always hunt alone, not in a pair, and they never kill the amount of men these two accounted for before they were taken down (at least 50, possiblly twice that). When the lions' lair was found they saw the hoarded bones of humans (in piles, picked clean). something lions never, ever have done before.

The two lions are now preserved in a museum somewhere, on display. They still don't know why the lions behaved this way, killing dozens upon dozens for pleasure, not food.

The whole story reminded me of this special I watched on tv once, about tigers and rivers in India. There's these tigers, you see, who will swim out into the water, leap onto a river boat (and I do mean leap), and drag a man over the side and into the water. They have video tapes of it that the special showed. Scary, scary fucking shit.

EDIT: The lions are currently on display in the Field Museum in Chicago. The film was written by William Goldman, who I like. He also wrote Maverik (funniest western ever), Chaplin, Heat, All the President's Men, The Stepford Wives, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and of course, The Princess Bride.

Comments

[mrthursday.livejournal.com]

I have never seen the film but I have a good book on the case. FDoes ht efilm portray the lions avoiding the hospital trap the hunters set? They where Damn smart cats those two lions, like scary evil smart.

I don't know if you have ever heard of the legendary creature the Manticora? Well, most people belive it came from accounts of tigers attacking men during the persian empire. Apparently they would attack GROUPS of men without fear and would eat all of there kill, even the bones.

Nature is indeed, red in tooth and claw.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

Does ht efilm portray the lions avoiding the hospital trap the hunters set? They where Damn smart cats those two lions, like scary evil smart.

Yep. I had actually wondered if the hospital trap had happened, or had been written in for the film to make it more dramatic. Scary that it did.

In the movie they moved all the people to a new hospital, and guarded it with bonfires and a thorn fense. They spread blood and meat over and around and inside the old hospital, and a few fires outside, and Patterson (the engineer) and Remington (the hunter) waited inside. The one of the lions prowled around outside and roared and even knocked down a wall, but they didn't enter. Then they were gone, and by the time they realized the lions had ignored the trap the new hospital was already being attacked by them. The doctor (white) also died defending the hospital. Neat thing-- I just figured out that the actor who played the doctor also played King Theodin in The Two Towers.

I don't know if you have ever heard of the legendary creature the Manticora? Well, most people belive it came from accounts of tigers attacking men during the persian empire.

I didn't know that.

[mrthursday.livejournal.com]

Yeah that was ht ehospital trap. They didn't make it up at all! Damn smart lions, they really objected to that bridge...I wonder why?

[momentsintime.livejournal.com]

me and my 10 year old just studied this story about 3 weeks ago(we homeschool) and they have a really cool thing about it at National Geographic!

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

Which issue of National Geographic? My dad has the entire thing on a set of CDs: every article, picture, and advertisement of the last 100 years.

[momentsintime.livejournal.com]

it's the internet one sweetie!

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

If I were to look t up, what should I look for? A key phrase, or a name or something.

[momentsintime.livejournal.com]

I tried to refind it and now I can't so sorry! grr!

[jaina.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's really interesting. Scary, but interesting. I wonder if there's a book about it.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

If you look in the comments above, spikespiegel mentioned that he'd read a book, but never seen the movie.

[jaina.livejournal.com]

D'oh. I am SO WITH IT.

*scampers off blushing to look up book*

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

Tell me if you find one.

[mackiemesser.livejournal.com]

There's also a documentary film that came out around the same time as The Ghost and the Darkness. It's called The Lions of Tsavo, and if you were planning on an Internet search for general information on the incidents, you'd probably have the best luck with that title or a varriation of it.

That said, I love this movie. The director did an incredible job of creating tension in the film, Kilmer and Douglas both give good performances, and I love all the casting for the minor characters. The work gang boss, for instance: he's very compelling.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

The work gang boss, for instance: he's very compelling.

The African, or the Indian? I liked them both, but the African was endearing.