The Ghost and the Darkness

"The Devil has come to Tsavo."

Directed by Stephen Hopkins

1996

Date Viewed: Sunday April 18, 2010 (third viewing)

This is one of the first R rated movies that I ever saw.... Ah memories of being young and deprived of R rated movies.... :) Anyways, I really liked this movie even after all these years. It's about Col. John Patterson (Val Kilmer) who is a bridge builder and is sent to Africa to build a bridge. While he is there two man eating lions start attacking the camps. The workers call them The Ghost and The Darkness (one has a black mane, so he is The Darkness). A hunter named Charles Remington (Michael Douglas) is called in to help kill these two lions. The figure out that the lions are not killing to eat, but they're doing it for the sport of it which is very unusual behavior. So then they were all scared and it was all ominous.... This movie is based on a true story and it still fascinates me. Animals are so strange and amazing. The lions are on display at the Field Museum in Chicago, and I went and saw them when I was a kid (I don't really remember it). I'd like to go back and see them again now that I know a little bit of the story. Now its time for some fun facts about the real Tsavo lions:

1. They were maneless male lions which could be a family trait.
2. The first lion killed was measured at 9 feet 8 inches from nose to tail and took 8 men to carry it.
3. The exact number of people killed by the lions is unknown, but according to Wiki it was probably 35, but according to the Field Museum it was 140.
4. There was a break out of Rinderpest Disease in the late 1890s that killed off a lot of the wildlife. The lions may have gained a taste for human flesh due to poor burials, they probably weren't "doing it for the sport" as the movie suggests.
5. John Patterson sold the lion skins and skulls to the Field Museum in 1924 for $5,000.00

B+