Context: Sir Robert Beaumont (Tom Wilkinson) is behind schedule on a railroad in Africa. Enlisting noted engineer John Henry Patterson (Val Kilmer) to right the ship, Beaumont expects results. Everything seems great until the crew discovers the mutilated corpse of the project’s foreman (Henry Cele), seemingly killed by a lion. After several more attacks, Patterson calls in famed hunter Charles Remington (Michael Douglas), who has finally met his match in the bloodthirsty lions. (Google)
The Review: The film can be simplified into a few words – “dangerous” and “unnerving”. With a few “jump scares” that it has (mostly when the lions appropriately named “The Ghost” and “The Darkness” show up), it gives a clear message to the audience: “Don’t build a railway near lions.”
Another aspect of the film is its decision to film on location in Africa, which I have to be grateful for (no matter how many times Disney attempts to make their “animal kingdom” look like the African savannah).
Within the late 1800s of British colonialism, the film tells within 12 minutes that the project is behind schedule Patterson’s wife is expecting their first child (when in reality that wouldn’t happen until 1907) and how the African workers hate the other African workers, how the Muslims and Indians hate each other, how the Indians hate other Indians, and how Indians respect the cows while the Muslims eat the cows.
Now turning to the lions, I do not know if those lions were real or not (mostly because I’m too lazy to look it up on the IMDB trivia page) but I’m guessing that they were with Patterson claiming within the second day of the attacks that they have already killed 40 people (something that the real Patterson contended in his book as well which is what the film is based on) with the locals saying that they are the devil while at the same time saying that the problems didn’t start until Patterson arrived.
Now you may be wondering, “Whatever happened to the lions after being done with?” After they were put down separately in September and December 1898 Patterson had them converted into carpet where they stayed until 1947 when Patterson sold them to the Chicago History Museum and taxidermies where they remain and are on public display, with their real skulls being at the base. When it comes to cinematography, the camera work consistently portrays the lions as hungry and rarely in a relaxed state.
Furthermore, Patterson’s constant forehead sweating further enhances the film’s emotion, with Beaumont appearing to be the most uncaring individual in the world. Naturally, as with any film, certain flaws render the film somewhat laughable.
7/10