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Post by Urban Bucket on Sept 21, 2007 2:56:53 GMT -6
In 1896 Lt. Col. John Paterson was sent to East Africa to build a railway bridge. He had a deadline to meet but was confident he and his large workforce of Africans and Indians can get the job done in time. John's was a man of his word and got things done - which he demonstrated on his first day by killing a lion that had been pestering the workforce. This earned John respect, but it didn't last very long because a few weeks later 2 new lions began visiting and they're man-eaters. The film is based on a true story and during the construction of the bridge, the lions would enter the workers camp to kill. Believing them not to be real lions, the locals name them 'The Ghost' and 'The Darkness'. After losing dozens of workers to the lions, the railroad company brought in Remington, an American 'great white hunter', to kill them, but even his reputation for being the best could not prevent yet more carnage. It is believed that over 130 people were killed by the two lions in just a few months.
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This movie is based on a true story and the real lions can still be seen at some museum. I'll have to look that part up....
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Post by Urban Bucket on Sept 21, 2007 2:58:35 GMT -6
The Ghost and the Darkness is a 1996 Oscar-winning film about the Tsavo maneaters, two 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.
The film, although based loosely on Patterson's account, romanticises his story and fictionalises important elements of the plot. William Goldman's script introduces Michael Douglas as the big game hunter Charles Remington - but in reality, Remington did not exist and Patterson killed both lions. Many Maasai characters in the film were actually portrayed by South African actors, although the Maasai depicted during the hunt are real Maasai warriors who helped for the movie.
The film was 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. They were 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 the USA. The real man-eaters were, like all lions from the region, a more aggressive, maneless variety. Those used for filming were actually 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.
The film won an Oscar in 1996 for Sound Editing.
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Post by Urban Bucket on Sept 21, 2007 2:59:15 GMT -6
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