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Review

Though he doesn't appear on screen until a half-hour into the film, Douglas' big-game hunter adds just the right kick to an otherwise familiar, occasionally exciting jungle adventure. Set in late-1890s East Africa, and amazingly based on a true story, The Ghost and the Darkness follows the attempts to build a railroad by a British firm whose crew has come under attack by two particularly ferocious lions (who in real life killed over a hundred men). Kilmer is the engineer sent to oversee construction and the elimination of the animals. Kilmer is a little too white-man-knows-it-all, but he gives an earnest interpretation; Douglas at least has some fun with a slant on the great-white-hunter adventurer. The scenery is spectacular, and the cinematography captures the beauty of the land and the terror of the beasts. Once again, nature rules.