The Ghost and the Darkness

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

A man bringing modern transportation to the ancient jungles of Africa discovers one of man's oldest enemies lays in wait for him in this period adventure drama. John Beaumont (Tom Wilkinson) is the owner of a British railroad firm who is building a rail line through Uganda. A bridge is needed so that the tracks may cross a large river, and engineer John Henry Patterson (Val Kilmer) is summoned to the African nation to supervise construction. While Beaumont has placed Patterson under a strict deadline, the bridge designer is certain that with his guidance, the local laborers will be able to complete the job in time. However, when several workers are killed in an attack by a lion, Patterson is forced to deal with the animal; while he bags a lion who invades the work site one evening, it soon becomes obvious that there's more than one predator in the nearby jungle. The lion attacks continue, eventually claiming the lives of 130 men, and Patterson and Beaumont finally agree to call in Charles Remmington (Michael Douglas), an expert hunter who understands the nature of the man-eaters and knows how to lure them into his trap. The Ghost and the Darkness is based on a true story, which was previously brought to the screen in 1953, in Arch Oboler's pioneering 3-D adventure Bwana Devil. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 1
• Screen: Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
• Audio: PCM Stereo
• Subtitle: Spa/Eng
• Features:
  • Widescreen version
  • Dolby Digital: English 5.1 Surround; English Dolby Surround; French Dolby Surround
  • Spanish subtitles
  • English captions
  • Interactive menus
  • Scene selection
  • Theatrical trailer

AWARDS

• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

•     Won Best Sound Effects - 1996 (Bruce Stambler)

• American Society of Cinematographers

•     Nominated Best Cinematography - 1996 (Vilmos Zsigmond)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Michael Douglas - Charles Remington
       Val Kilmer - Col. John Henry Patterson
       Tom Wilkinson - John Beaumont
       Om Puri - Abdullah
       John Kani - Samuel
       Bernard Hill - Dr. Hawthorne
       Brian McCardie - Angus Starling
       Emily Mortimer - Helena Patterson
       Henry Cele - Mahina

• Director:

  Stephen Hopkins

• Producer:

  A. Kitman Ho, Gale Anne Hurd, Paul B. Radin

• Screenwriter:

  William Goldman

• Cinematographer:

  Vilmos Zsigmond

• Songwriter:

  Jerry Goldsmith

• Editor:

  Robert Brown, Steve Mirkovich

• Production Designer:

  Stuart Wurtzel

• Supervising Art Director:

  George Richardson, Steve Saklad

• Co-producer:

  Grant Hill

• Executive Producer:

  Michael Douglas, Steven E. Reuther

• Costume Designer:

  Ellen Mirojnick

• Sound/Sound Designer:

  Simon Kaye

• First Assistant Director:

  Jose Luis Escolar

• Casting:

  Mary Selway

• Production Manager:

  Michael Games

• Casting:

  Sarah Trevis

• Visual Effects Supervisor:

  Stuart Robertson

REVIEW:

• This action film from writer William Goldman and director Stephen Hopkins grafts a true story onto the structure and character types of Jaws (1976) to create a derivative but admittedly spellbinding and effectively spooky film. The central bogeymen are a pair of lions instead of a shark, the locals are railroad laborers instead of vacationers, and the setting is Africa instead of an island beach community, but savvy viewers will get the gist of what the filmmakers are up to pretty quickly. In the place of the naive sheriff we get a naive architect (Val Kilmer), and in place of a seasoned sport fisherman we get a seasoned hunter (a grizzled Michael Douglas having fun in a role his father would have been comfortable inhabiting a few decades earlier). Point for point, Hopkins and Goldman ape the earlier classic, and the stunning revelation is that it works remarkably well, resulting in a taut, suspenseful film with an outcome never in doubt but leaving the viewer chilled, thrilled, and satisfied. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi