The Ghost and the Darkness

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The Ghost and the Darkness
Image:Ghostandthedarkness.jpg
Directed by	Stephen Hopkins
Produced by	Grant Hill, Michael Douglas, Paul Radin
Written by	William Goldman
Starring	Val Kilmer Michael Douglas John Kani
Music by	Jerry Goldsmith
Cinematography	Vilmos Zsigmond
Editing by	Roger Bondelli, Robert Brown Jr.
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	October 11 1996
Running time	109 min
Language	English
Budget	$55,000,000
IMDb profile

The Ghost and the Darkness is a 1996 film about the Tsavo maneaters, lions who attacked the builders of the Uganda-Mombassa Railway in 1898, and the subsequent hunt to kill them. The attacks, which took place in Tsavo, Kenya, were recounted by Lieutenant Colonel John Henry Patterson in his book The Man-Eaters of Tsavo.

Tagline: Prey for the hunters

Summary

The film, although based loosely on Patterson's account, romanticises his story and fictionalises important elements of the plot, William Goldman's script introducing Michael Douglas's big game hunter Remington. In reality, he did not exist and Patterson shot both lions. Many Maasai characters in the film were actually portrayed by South African actors, although the Maasais depicted during the hunt are real Maasai warriors who helped for the movie.

The film shot mainly on location at Songimvelo Game Reserve in South Africa rather than Kenya due to tax-laws. The main lions featured were two male lions with manes (brothers) named "Caesar" and "Bongo"(deceased), who were residents of the Bowmanville Zoo in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada. The film also featured three other lions (two from France and one from USA).The real man-eaters were, like all lions from the region, a more aggressive, maneless variety: those used for filming actually being the least aggressive available, for both safety and aesthetic reasons. The man-eating lions shot by Patterson in Tsavo in 1898 are now on display at the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois, USA.

The film also won an Oscar in 1996 for Sound Editing.

Cast

Actor/Actress	Role
Val Kilmer	Col. John Henry Patterson
Michael Douglas	Charles Remington
John Kani	Samuel
Tom Wilkinson	Robert Beaumont
Om Puri	Abdullah
Bernard Hill	Dr. David Hawthorne
Brian McCardie	Angus Starling
Emily Mortimer	Helena Patterson

See also

• Tsavo maneaters
• Bwana Devilde:Der Geist und die Dunkelheit

fr:L'Ombre et la proie pt:The Ghost and the Darkness

Wikipedia information about The Ghost and the Darkness This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "The Ghost and the Darkness". It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer). Help contribute to Americola and edit this article.