History Buffs: The Ghost and the Darkness

hello and welcome history buffs my name is Nick Hodges and today's review will be the scary historical film the ghost and the darkness now I'm not going to lie this movie terrified me as a kid set in 1898 at the height of Europe Scramble for Africa this is the true story of how Great Britain's attempts to build a bridge across the river Tsavo was brought to a standstill by two man-eating lions for almost a year they stalked the campsites and were reportedly responsible for the deaths of 135 victims Colonel John Patterson a British army engineer tasked with building the bridge spent 10 months trying to hunt down these unstoppable monsters the terrified locals did not think they were actually lines at all but demons that they called the ghost and the darkness at the peak of European imperialism in Africa the British Empire had a grand plan to overtake the European rivals to become the most dominant power in the region we're in a race Colonel and the prize is nothing less than the continent of Africa we are building the most expensive and daring railroad in history for the glorious purpose of saving Africa from the Africans and of course to end slavery our competitors are the Germans and the French we are ahead and we will stay ahead provided you do what I've hired you to do build a bridge across the river Sava and be finished in five months by building this railway British influence would be felt throughout the entire continent all the way from Lake Victoria to the port of Mombasa thereby ensuring a trade link to India now as much as the Brits were completely full of themselves with the idea of saving Africa from the Africans there was truth to what they were saying about their attempts to end slavery Sabo was routinely crossed by Arab slaver caravans all the way to the slave markets in Mombasa in fact it may be because of these caravans why these man-eating lions ever became such a problem the appalling conditions of the long arduous journey to Mombasa would have resulted in a number of six slaves the Arab slavers would then just toss the dead and dying to the African bush making easy prey for the Lions these caravans went on uninterrupted for centuries and it's quite possible that the Tsavo Lions had gotten used to the taste of human flesh so when the British finally put an end to the African slave trade the Arab slavers may have left but the Lions certainly didn't and the very bridge Patterson was tasked to build was right in the foundations of the Tsavo Lions hunting grounds another reason why so many of the construction crew were killed by these Lions was due to their country of origin since many of the African natives refused to work on building this bridge the British resorted to importing thousands of Indians instead unlike the African locals who were used to the wildlife in Tsavo these poor men you little nothing about how to protect themselves they were probably more focused on just doing their jobs and not in their worst nightmares where they have considered that they were being watched there was also the issue of just how many of them there were up to several thousand men were scattered all along the railroad for up to 30 miles these small pockets of campsites were extremely isolated exposed and vulnerable out in the open so when the line attacks began they had absolutely no protection now although the lives of the construction crew was indeed Patterson's responsibility the fact of the matter was that he was just simply not an experienced hunter what often happened is that he was spend the night in a tree close to where a lion attacked originally taken place he would then wake up and find out the next morning that the Lions had attacked in a completely different part of the camp who are dead now in gunite a second far end of the camp a man wandering alone at night there's even less of him than that was of Mahina what made matters even worse was just the lack of firearms that were available out of thousands of workers sprawl that four miles building this bloody bridge and railway there were very few guns between them and the guys you have guns would be running around like crazy trying to get to wherever the next line attack was and by the time they got there it was usually too late so the next solution in trying to defend themselves was to build these really sharp thorn bush fences around their camps called bombers now bombers generally do tend to work in keeping lions out in other parts of Africa but these lines would almost magically appear and disappear that the bones weren't even there at all this is the moment when some of the locals stopped even seeing them as lions but as super natural predators the men call them the ghosts in the darkness they were two of them and that had never happened before because men eaters are always alone who they owned the night but they also attacked in daylight alone or together without fear or reason some thought they were not lions at all but the spirits of dead medicine men come back to spread medic for others they were the devil sent to stop the white man from owning the world I believed this that they were evil and what better ground were able to walk than some because this is what the word tava means a place of slaughter when it comes to historical inaccuracies the ghost in the darkness has more than its fair share for example the character of Remington is totally made up more often than not Patterson hunted these lines alone but this doesn't necessarily bother me as it's pretty clear that the filmmakers want to condense many of the real people Patterson interacts with into a single character however in my opinion I think that the biggest historical inaccuracy are with the lines themselves now you think that wouldn't be the case since the movie consistently points out that there is something very special about these lines something that sets them apart from all others there's a legend here two man-eaters are making all the trouble this is Africa Patterson I thought you were on top it's not that simple these lions are not like lions but apparently this is only just referring to their savagery and being extremely intelligent and whilst yes this is all absolutely true the filmmakers also decided to exclude one very important detail lines from Tsavo are actually main --less now you might be wondering why on earth am I being so picky over such a seemingly small detail well the truth of the matter is that might actually have a lot to do with exactly why these lines were so effective in killing people although scientists still don't know exactly why salvo male lines are made less there are a couple of theories that do help explain one being that Mane's tend to be impractical in this part of Africa and get in the way of their hunting through the local vegetation and that by being thorny bushes sarsen makes sense exactly how those lines were able to get passes impregnable bomas since more than likely they were able just to squeeze right through them another theory being that Tsavo male lines have higher levels of testosterone that reduces their chances in having mates that in turn would also explain why they are so formidable dangerous and aggressive salvar male lines are also known to be much larger than other males when Patterson finally shot the real lines they were measured to be nine feet in length now that I have established exactly why having these lines be maillist is such an important detail the next obvious question is why the filmmakers feel the need to ditch it well to be honest I don't know exactly why they did I mean like maybe because mains just look so awesome on the lion and having them doesn't really take too much away from the movie or quite possibly it was much more practical to find and train a common mainline I mean to be honest I think this is nerve-racking enough rather than finding the courage to work with the infamous Tsavo Lions so apart from a few details changed here and there this movie is actually quite accurate the scene where Paterson built is elaborate boxcar tries to kill when the lines is one such example the other side of these bars will be big human be I'll start things off but here will be a tripwire for this sliding door oh geez the peaceful end up tripping the wire the door slide down behind him trapping him you meanwhile safe behind your bars will have the beast at your mercy and will shoot him at your leisure in the movie Patterson highest Indian criminals to be human baits but in real life Patterson used Indian sea poise I have no idea why this was changed because this doesn't exactly add anything to the movie but then again neither does it take anything away because the end result is exactly the same one of the lines was indeed successfully lured into the boxcar and the trap worked now guys I know this seems unbelievable but this is pretty much exactly what happened the line immediately went into a rage and started aggressively smashing himself against the bars and against the walls the sea boys were less than 15 feet away from this line and they just couldn't hit it there was so close in fact that one of the men actually lost his hearing due to the lion's powerful raw eventually one of the bullets hit the lock in the trapdoor and the line was able to escape and this is something that happened consistently during Patterson's hunt this guy really had the worst luck in the world and trying to kill these things I mean like time and time again when he thought he had the upper hand something would go terribly wrong another obstacle Patterson had to overcome was just how cunning these lines were since the lines didn't usually like to attack the same place twice he had to think two steps ahead and trying to figure out exactly worldly their next target when he noticed fresh pork prints around the camp hospital he had all the patients moved to another makeshift hospital tent on the other side of the camp then of the old hospital Patterson and his men splashed the walls and the floors with blood leaving behind bits of animal carcass and then waited for the Lions to come yet once again the Lions out with Patterson and his men and instead headed to the new hospital you now because Patterson's story is so incredible there are many skeptics out there in the academic community who just find it all hard to believe and you know what I can't exactly blame them I mean there are so many things that Patterson reported seeing in his book the man-eaters of Tsavo that read like fantastic fiction one event that stands out from any other actually took place after Patterson had killed the Lions whilst Patterson was hunting in the African bush he came across a cave and was compelled to go in upon entering the cave he made a horrifying discovery Lions don't do this I never had they're doing it was a pleasure it sounds like it's totally made up and for the longest time that's exactly what people thought Patterson did that he embellished in the story a little bit of spiced things up the only proof he had was a picture taken of the cave entrance the way back to this cave became a total mystery until it was rediscovered in 1997 however scientists were unable to find the piles of human bones Patterson describes allowing some historians to even question how much of a story with lions was even true that the hundred thirty five victims Patterson claimed had been killed by the Lions might also have been exaggerated after all the ugandan railway company only acknowledged the deaths of 28 Indian workers but I think it's quite possible that the British weren't particularly greated record-keeping or for that matter cares how many Africans and Indians died building their railway I'm also sure they wouldn't consider the whole man eating a fair thing to be quite embarrassing do we wish the world to think that the builders of the British Empire are afraid to do their job because of a few minor difficulties with the local wildlife nevertheless scientists recently took hair samples from the stuffed man-eaters that are now on display at the Chicago Field Museum and then they analyzed their chemical composition to determine how many people they actually ate in the last three months of their lives the research concluded that one line ate 11 people in the other 824 thereby confirming some historians suspicions however this only proves how many people they ate and doesn't disprove Patterson's claims that these lions were mostly just killing for fun which i think is more than a possibility I mean like if you look at your common house cats you can see how much pleasure it gets and killing mice but they never eat all of these points are indeed quite plausible the last what people have a hard time in believing it's simply the alarming numbers that these lines killed because nothing like this has ever happened before or since we as human beings take great pride in our conquests over the natural world and we also find the idea truly disturbing when nature fights back I can honestly say that this is one of my favorite historical movies of all time and yet I can't understand for the life of me how in the hell this got a lower score than the bloody Patriots on Rotten Tomatoes because it not only captures more than enough elements of the original story to be considered faithful but also expands on these moments to invoke feelings of terrorist suspense excitements that sense of wonder and adventure in the African landscape the film's scorned cinematography perfectly complement each other to provide the audience a truly epic movie-going experience to this very day when I hear this piece of music it just gets me pumped up and longing to go to Africa and see this beautiful landscape you seriously cannot tell me that music doesn't sound awesome I mean you have to at least admit that it's way more memorable than whatever generic crap John Williams composed for the patriot now some critic states that their low scores due to the poor performances by Val Kilmer and Michael Douglas but you know what I've seen worse and I think you all have as well so I'm sure the majority of you haven't seen it yet we'll be quite forgiving all I can tell you is just how much enjoyment I got out of watching this movie and if the film is capable of telling a true story faithfully and firing up your imagination like I did with mine then I consider it to be a great historical film well that about wraps it up my name is Nakata's and thanks for watching history buffs and remember if you like the show help the channel grow don't forget to hit that like a subscribe button and let me know in the comments section what you thought about the ghost and the darkness and of course what historical movie should I review next in the meantime check out the history bus Twitter and Facebook pages for new updates until then I'll see you next time you

Channel: History Buffs

Views: 1,970,786

Rating: 4.9237332 out of 5

Keywords: The Ghost And The Darkness (Award-Winning Work), History (TV Genre), History Buffs, Man Eaters of Tsavo, Tsavo Man-Eaters (Literature Subject), Historical accuracy, Historical innacuracy

Id: 4o5QWPKL74E

Length: 19min 12sec (1152 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 09 2015