The Man-Eaters of Tsavo: The Ghost and the Darkness

The Ghost and the Darkness is a criminally underrated historical thriller from 1996 starring Val Kilmer and Michael Douglas that is based on the fascinating true story of the Man-Eaters of Tsavo. It received a very mixed reception when it was released, the film’s director Stephen Hopkins expressed mixed feelings about it and Roger Ebert hated it so much that he said it was one of the worst films of 1996. With all due respect to the late Mr. Ebert, I don’t know what the hell he was talking about. He must have seen a different movie from the one I saw, because the one I saw was damn good.

But first, some background. In 1898, the British were attempting to build a railway bridge over the Tsavo River in Kenya. Over a period of nine months, from March to December of 1898, the building site was attacked by a pair of male lions who killed many of the workers. The lions were eventually killed by Lieutenant-Colonel John Henry Patterson, the man in charge of overseeing the project. The lions were ferocious and cunning adversaries and the second one only died after Patterson shot it nine times. Patterson later wrote a book about his experiences which was published in 1907 (he also had the skins of the lions made into rugs, and later the skins were sent to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, where they are still on display today).

Paramount Pictures

The historical accuracy of the book is debated, since Patterson may have exaggerated parts of the story. It’s hard to say for sure exactly how many people were killed by the lions. Reports from the time put the number at a staggering 135, but more modern studies suggest that the number was closer to around 30. Still, 30 people eaten by lions is a heck of a lot! Even then, that number might not be entirely accurate either since it only accounts for the number of people eaten by the lions, not necessarily the number of people killed but not eaten by the lions. We may never know the exact death toll.

Patterson’s book has been adapted to film several times, with The Ghost and the Darkness being the most recent cinematic telling of the story. The screenplay was written by William Goldman, who was an accomplished writer known for novels and screenplays, including Marathon Man and The Princess Bride. It was directed by Stephen Hopkins, who I know best as the director of Predator 2, which is a goofy but fun movie. Val Kilmer plays Patterson, and even though Patterson is unquestionably the film’s protagonist, he gets second billing to Michael Douglas, who plays an American big game hunter named Charles Remington.

Remington is a fictional character, though he was based to some extent on an actual person. Michael Douglas also produced the film and wasn’t originally going to act in it, but when they were having trouble casting Remington (Anthony Hopkins and Sean Connery turned it down), Douglas decided to play the character himself, which both Hopkins and Goldman have since expressed unhappiness with. When Douglas decided to play the character, the role was greatly expanded from what it was originally and the relationship between Douglas and Hopkins was tense. Hopkins has said that making the film was a nightmare and that he was never happy with the final product, although he was very complimentary of Val Kilmer.

This film had all the makings of a cinematic disaster: creative conflicts, difficult filming conditions, stars with massive egos, etc. In addition to animatronics designed by the great Stan Winston, the production also used real lions, so…yeah. I can imagine that would have been stressful, even if the lions they used for filming were for obvious reasons not as aggressive as the real-life man-eaters. But despite all these obstacles, The Ghost and the Darkness is an excellent film, so after all that preamble let’s talk about the film itself.

The film begins in London with Patterson being hired by an arrogant financier named Robert Beaumont to get the railway project in Kenya back on schedule. Beaumont gives Patterson five months, which Patterson finds agreeable since his wife is due to give birth to their first child in six months and he has promised her that he will be there for the child’s birth. It is a promise he will not be able to keep. Beaumont is played by the late Tom Wilkinson, who sadly passed away in December 2023. He was a very gifted actor, and he makes an impression in this film, despite only being in two scenes.

Upon arriving at the work site, Patterson meets Samuel, the foreman. Samuel is played superbly by John Kani, who played T’Challa’s father King T’Chaka in the Black Panther movies. Samuel is one of the most likable characters in the film, and he informs Patterson of a recent lion attack. That night Patterson kills an approaching lion and the next day the workers celebrate the danger having passed. Little do they know of the terror that lurks in the tall grass…

Some weeks later, a worker is dragged from his tent in the middle of the night and his remains are found the next day. Patterson and Samuel make the grim discovery that there are two man-eaters on the loose, which Samuel says has never happened before. The workers start to turn on Patterson, since the lion attacks started after he arrived at the camp. The workers also start calling the lions the Ghost and the Darkness, which are extremely badass nicknames, and the beasts take on an almost supernatural aura.

Patterson requests reinforcements but Beaumont denies his request. After all, Beaumont says, what will people think of the great British Empire if we can’t handle two measly lions? Tom Wilkinson is so great at making you hate Beaumont, he is a selfish prick who openly states he doesn’t care at all about the dead workers, he only cares about his bottom line. Sadly, you don’t get to see him get eaten. Ah, well.

A big game hunter named Charles Remington soon arrives at the camp. Remington’s brash personality initially clashes with Patterson’s more laidback demeanor, but the two develop a respect for each other and Kilmer, Kani, and Douglas are great together. After a series of tense and bloody confrontations in which many more workers are killed, the remainder decide to get the hell out of there while the getting’s good. You can’t blame them.

Paramount Pictures

Eventually Patterson, Remington, and Samuel are finally able to slay one of the beasts, but after a night of drinking and celebrating Patterson awakes from a nightmare to discover that the remaining lion has killed Remington. The scene in which Patterson and Samuel discover Remington’s corpse is extremely well-acted by Val Kilmer and John Kani. The two men don’t say a word. They silently burn him in a funeral pyre and light the tall grass on fire in order to drive the lion towards a trap they have set up on the partially completed bridge. The final confrontation occurs at night against the backdrop of the burning grass. Patterson and Samuel are at long last able to defeat the beast, and the film ends with the bridge being completed and Patterson reuniting with his wife and meeting his child.

Val Kilmer is great in this movie. He gives Patterson a slight Irish lilt which is enough to remind the viewer of Patterson’s Irish heritage but is never distracting. Kilmer had a reputation as being difficult to work with and when he made The Ghost and the Darkness he was coming off the release of The Island of Dr. Moreau, the production of which was an infamous disaster. But despite the negative press from that film, Stephen Hopkins said that Kilmer threw himself into the role of Patterson and had a passion for the film. I think it shows.

And while I’m not usually the biggest fan of Michael Douglas, I think he’s quite good in this film. Behind-the-scenes tomfoolery aside, Douglas is believable as a grizzled hunter and his banter with Patterson and Samuel provides much of the film’s emotional backbone. His death is genuinely sad, and Patterson and Samuel’s reactions to the discovery of his death is one of the film’s most emotionally moving moments.

I think this movie is terrific. The cinematography is great, the music by Jerry Goldsmith is rousing and chilling, the acting is great, the characters are likable, it’s scary and suspenseful, and it tells a fascinating true story. I don’t know what more you could ask for, honestly. This film’s negative reception upon its initial release makes no sense to me, and Ebert’s hatred of it in particular is utterly baffling. It’s a minor miracle that The Ghost and the Darkness even got made in the first place, since it had all the makings of an epic cinematic disaster: a troubled production, creative differences, a mixed reception, and disappointing box office. The fact that it turned out as good as it did despite all that is icing on the cake, and it makes me happy that the film has since found an audience and has a cult following.

Paramount Pictures

So there you have it, the last (for now!) of my series about killer animal movies. I hope you’ll agree that I saved the best film for last. I will probably revisit this topic in the future, since there is no shortage of killer animal movies to choose from and I have had a lot of fun watching and writing about these films. Next post is going to be about something different, but until then, as is tradition, here are my rankings of all the movies I’ve discussed over the last few posts.

FINAL RANKINGS:

1. The Ghost and the Darkness
2. Crawl
3. Alligator
4. Backcountry
5. Beast
6. Anaconda
7. Deep Blue Sea 3
8. Meg 2: The Trench
9. Alligator II: The Mutation
10. Staring at a blank wall for 82 minutes
11. Lake Placid (I hate this movie)