Dear oh dear , Hollywood decides to make a movie where everything is moving along nicely . Stephen Hopkins direction is good though hardly in the same class as David Lean , William Goldman has written a fairly good script though noit his best even if it does contain the line " God invented alcohol so the Irish wouldn`t rule the world " , we see a couple of British character actors like Tom Wilkinson and Bernard Hill lending weight to the proceedings and the audience are even shocked by Val Kilmar doing a passable Irish accent
But then Hollywood decides this isn`t good enough for an international ( Read American ) audience and insert a completely made up character called Charles Remmington to save the natives from man eating lions . What`s worse Remmington is played by Michael Douglas who has more or less stepped out of the set from ROMANCING THE STONE where he played an American adventurer , and it`s impossible to believe Remmington is anything less than an OTT American adventurer inserted to appeal an American audience who couldn`t relate to non American characters . Oh by the way this is actually based on a true story which is what makes this tinkering of history so offensive . It`s like watching a remake of ZULU where the 7th calvary turn up to rescue the red coats
But then Hollywood decides this isn`t good enough for an international ( Read American ) audience and insert a completely made up character called Charles Remmington to save the natives from man eating lions . What`s worse Remmington is played by Michael Douglas who has more or less stepped out of the set from ROMANCING THE STONE where he played an American adventurer , and it`s impossible to believe Remmington is anything less than an OTT American adventurer inserted to appeal an American audience who couldn`t relate to non American characters . Oh by the way this is actually based on a true story which is what makes this tinkering of history so offensive . It`s like watching a remake of ZULU where the 7th calvary turn up to rescue the red coats