Now the cycle has come full circle. Just the other day I plopped down with a bag of buttery death and kicked back to watch a horribly disfigured scientist turn vigilante. And I must say…I was quite impressed. For those of you unfamiliar with this otherwise forgotten superhero flick, it was originally teased from a short story penned by B-movie icon Sam Raimi (yes, he directed it too). It began as something of a pet project but, as you can see, it developed into something much more. Now more than anything it's a cult flick. And the whole thing coalesced when Raimi himself couldn’t acquire the rights to either “Batman” or “The Shadow”.
So naturally when all else failed he just came up with his own hero. And now the world has "Darkman", an amorphous antihero who uses his knowledge of tissue regeneration to replicate the faces (that's right, the FACES) of his enemies, allowing him to filter in among their ranks, spreading confusion, mayhem and terror in the meantime.
Where else could you find Liam Neeson (who plays Westlake) dance around like a capuchin monkey while wearing the cap to a fire extinguisher on his head as he chants “Look at the freak!”? Seriously, I’ll bet you’d be hard-pressed to find crap like that. Even on the internet.
Once the ruthless gang of mobsters robs the innocent researcher of his former life (not to mention the one meaningful relationship he has in life), it’s really just a tale of love lost/vengeance gained. So if you’ve seen “Phantom of the Opera” then you won’t be all too surprised by what you find here.
But though that formula might strike you as typical tortured hero fare, anyone familiar with Raimi’s body of work knows that there is something otherworldly about his movies. Though he deals most often in the realm of throwbacks, they’re hardly as esoteric or in vogue as a Tarantino movie. Yet somehow it retains enough spicy gumption to spit it back in the face of commercialism. There’s a delicate albeit deliberate balance struck here that is hard to top in terms of pure, cinematic joy. It’s morbid, funny, exciting, violent and unique. But only just so. Here you’ll find old-fashioned wipes, dissolves and a dizzying array of juxtaposed images of madness designed to evoke a character's inner turmoil. Other innovative techniques include rivet guns and severed nerve endings (which prevent our hero from feeling physical pain) and a mobster who collects fingers. Did I forget to mention Neeson’s little dance number?
Any way you decide to look at it, Raimi doesn’t seem to have any illusions about what he’s creating. The audience, likewise, has no illusions about what it’s consuming either.
*******
Story & Direction by:
Sam Raimi
Screenplay by:
Chuck Pfarrer and
Sam Raimi & Ivan Raimi and
Daniel Goldin & Joshua Goldin
Produced by:
Robert Tapert Daryl Kass ... line producer
Cast:
Liam Neeson...........................................Peyton Westlake/Darkman
Frances McDormand...............................Julie Hastings
Colin Friels..............................................Louis Strack Jr.
Larry Drake.............................................Robert G. Durant
Nelson Mashita........................................Yakitito
Jessie Lawrence Ferguson........................Eddie Black
Rafael H. Robledo....................................Rudy Guzman
Danny Hicks.............................................Skip
Ted Raimi.................................................Rick
Dan Bell....................................................Smiley
Nicholas Worth.........................................Pauly
Aaron Lustig.............................................Martin Katz
Arsenio 'Sonny' Trinidad............................Hung Fat
GAYYYYYYYY!!!!!
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