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The Ghost and the Darkness
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Additional DVD options | Edition | Discs | Price | New from | Used from |
DVD
September 12, 2017 "Please retry" | Standard | 1 |
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| $4.99 | $2.74 |
DVD
December 1, 1998 "Please retry" | Standard Edition | 1 |
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| $9.97 | $2.99 |
DVD
September 29, 2017 "Please retry" | — | 1 |
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| $13.18 | $13.13 |
DVD
April 29, 2014 "Please retry" | — | 1 |
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| $14.40 | $8.98 |
DVD
December 1, 1998 "Please retry" | — | — |
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| — | $4.97 |
Watch Instantly with | Rent | Buy |
Purchase options and add-ons
Genre | Action & Adventure |
Format | Multiple Formats, Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC, AC-3, Letterboxed, Widescreen |
Contributor | Kurt Egelhof, Bernard Hill, John Kani, Om Puri, Tom Wilkinson, William Goldman, Michael Douglas, Henry Cele, Brian McCardie, Satchu Annamalai, Stephen Hopkins, Teddy Reddy, Val Kilmer, Emily Mortimer See more |
Language | English, French |
Runtime | 1 hour and 49 minutes |
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Product Description
Product Description
Only the most incredible parts of the story are true. Michael Douglas and Val Kilmer star in this tense, terrific and true adventure set in 1896 East Africa. There, two lions on man-eating rampage have shut down the construction of a railway. The beasts hunt together, showing no fear of man or fire. What's more, they're killing for sport rather than for food-and they have an almost supernatural knack for knowing what traps await them. Big-game hunter Remington (Douglas) and construction engineer Patterson (Kilmer) set out to stop these unstoppable monsters. But, in this astonishing tale of man against beast, the hunters become the hunted.
Amazon.com
Val Kilmer stars as Lt. Col. John Patterson, a 19th-century Irish engineer drafted by Britain's railroad bosses to build a trestle bridge over an African river, thus expanding the empire a tiny bit more. In Tsavo, Patterson is instantly hailed for killing a man-eating lion that had been making life hell for native workers. But morale sinks when a pair of unstoppable big cats devour more men and destroy the project. Along comes an Ahab-like, expatriate American hunter (Michael Douglas) to help Patterson face the almost preternatural powers of the two killers. The script by William Goldman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) is based on fact, though the film owes more to Spielberg (specifically to Jaws) than history. There are also suggestive echoes of Kipling and Conrad in the material and characters, and there are hints of emotional complexity and psychological nuance that make one wish this could have been a great film instead of a merely fun one. --Tom Keogh
Product details
- Aspect Ratio : 2.35:1
- Is Discontinued By Manufacturer : No
- MPAA rating : R (Restricted)
- Product Dimensions : 7.75 x 5.75 x 0.53 inches; 4 ounces
- Director : Stephen Hopkins
- Media Format : Multiple Formats, Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC, AC-3, Letterboxed, Widescreen
- Run time : 1 hour and 49 minutes
- Release date : December 1, 1998
- Actors : Michael Douglas, Val Kilmer, Tom Wilkinson, John Kani, Bernard Hill
- Subtitles: : Spanish
- Language : Unqualified, English (Dolby Digital 5.1), English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
- Studio : Paramount
- ASIN : 6305181926
- Writers : William Goldman
- Number of discs : 1
- Best Sellers Rank: #43,411 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
- #4,324 in Action & Adventure DVDs
- Customer Reviews:
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I love wildlife, so I could never watch a movie where wild animals are killed by hunters just out for something to take back home and stuff! This story isn't about that, its about human survival against two predators who were known to have killed 135 human rail-workers just for the pleasure (we know that Lions will kill baboons just because they hate baboons, so to me, this is believable) of it in 1898.
I think Val Kilmer is one of the most underrated actors of his generation. He does a great job portraying a real life Victorian era Irish engineer, John Henry Patterson, believable brogue and all, and creates a character you like and can relate to. Even Michael Douglas' self-indulgent creation of the fictional character "Charles Remington", whom Douglas created for himself (Douglas was also Executive Producer on the film) is a great addition to the story and is well portrayed by Douglas. The friendship that develops between Patterson (Kilmer) and Remington (Douglas) is believable and when Remington becomes the lions next victim, he is truly missed. The supporting cast is wonderful, even if many of them don't survive to the films climactic end.
One of the standout elements of The Ghost and the Darkness was the score composed for it by, the now late, Jerry Goldsmith. Jerry Goldsmith always had a penchant for scoring for African/Desert themed films and this score is no exception. It is powerful, moving, frightening and lends the exact right flavor to the film and compliments its visuals perfectly. I usually don't get too weepy when watching films, but when Goldsmith plays his sweet, sweeping "resolution" theme when Patterson sees his wife at the Tsavo train station and meets his newborn son for the first time at the conclusion of the film, I can't help but get choked up by the scene! The scene of Patterson's burning of the fields after Remington is killed is powerfully accentuated by Goldsmith's music!
As mentioned in the film, the two actual male Lions who were the man-eaters in the real event are on display at the Field Museum in Chicago. I have visited the museum and saw the two lions myself. Although the lions are maneless, which is a trait of Tsavo lions (they were portrayed in the film as HAVING manes), they are HUGE and one can see the power and ferocity that was there once.
The film itself is HIGHLY underrated and tends to get maligned, mostly by people who admit that they never actually sat down and watched the film from beginning to end. I think this low opinion of the film is completely unjustified, because, even IF you don't like the film's subject matter, this incident REALLY occurred, the acting is wonderful, the cinematography is beautiful, the locations are great, the music is magnificent and the story is gripping and moving.
Technically, the DVD is not the best quality transfer that it could have been and I hope they re-release it on DVD and Blu-Ray someday soon with a higher resolution transfer. The Ghost and the Darkness DESERVES to be seen in its best form!
I give "The Ghost and The Darkness" 5 stars without hesitation.
When writer William Goldman first pitched the story for this, he sold it as “Jaws” in Africa and the parallel works. While it deviates from the true story, the story does capture the spooky feeling that is hinted at around the legend of these lions.
Roger Ebert, a man I usually trust, disagrees with me about the film. He named it one of the worst films of 1996. He was often wrong and is in this case as well.
The Blu-ray from Shout features a new 4K scan of the negative and it looks fairly good although the colors aren’t quite as bold as they should be. WHY Paramount won’t license out their titles for 4K releases is beyond me. They seem to do this to torture fans; license 4K scans of movies for Blu-Ray, wait for fans to buy the title and release it in 4K almost to spite film fans. Oh and then they’ll stream this (n compressed 4K just to rub salt in the wound.
The audio is quite good with a solid 5.1 mix.
Unfortunately, Shout has elected not to provide any special features for the film. A commentary track would have been helpful especially given the rewriting that occurred when Michael Douglas came on board in a supporting role asking for his role to be significantly expanded. Douglas, reportedly, also recut the film against the director’s wishes (which also bulked up his role). If the director’s original cut exists, it would be worth digging it out of the vault and adding it as a special feature even if it is in lower resolution.
We do get the theatrical trailer and that’s it.
A fine film that took it on the chin by many critics, time has been pretty kind to “The Ghost and The Darkness” it’s just too bad Ebert isn’t around to change his opinion.