Now, this might look suspiciously similar to something we covered earlier this year: being a story about a man who hides his face in order to fight crime.
. . .unfortunately, Peyton Westlake (Liam Neeson) is no Lamont Cranston and Darkman is a very, very different animal from The Shadow in many ways, some of which will become obvious as we go on. However, Darkman does owe its existence to The Shadow, as the original intention of writer and director Sam Raimi was to make a film based around The Shadow or Batman. Without the ability to do either, he decided to create his own superhero with the help of older brother Ivan, Chuck Pfarrer, and Daniel and Joshua Goldin in writing the script that would become Darkman.
How does Darkman begin? Well, in the most natural place for a superhero film - a bit of gangland violence.
. . .what? Don't tell me you didn't see it coming.
The scene pretty much exists to set up our villain of the piece, Robert G. Durant (Larry Drake), a very cold and sadistic mob boss who shows up after wrecking a rival mob boss' crew in a straight up curbstomp fight involving a machine gun leg (not in the Robert Rodriguez sense, but it's probably sending Christmas cards to him) and then proceeds to...
. . .well, I don't want to spoil it, but needless to say, the man makes his points very well.
However, he isn't the hero of the piece. Instead, we focus upon Peyton Westlake, a scientist who is attempting to create a synthetic skin to help burn victims. Unfortunately, the skin begins to dissolve after ninety-nine minutes and he can't figure out why. His girlfriend, Julie (Frances McDormand) is a lawyer who is gets her hands on an incriminating document showing that billionaire developer Louis Strack (Colin Friels) bribed members of the zoning commission in order to build his "City of the Future", that will provide countless jobs and so on.
Unfortunately for her, Durant is on Strack's payroll. When Strack gets Durant to raid Peyton's lab (which doubles as his and Julie's apartment), kills Peyton's assistant, and then electrocutes and burns him before leaving with the document in question, Peyton is left a little bit less of a man. He is presumed dead and later washes up in the river in a coma and burned beyond recognition. Here is where we get firmly into comic book insanity, however, as an experimental treatment leaves Peyton with every nerve in his body deadened...meaning that he can't feel pain.
Or anything else, in fact.
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| "I'm looking for the Scroll of Thoth!" |
The lack of input from his surroundings starts to drive Peyton insane in deliciously over the top sequences that some special effects specialist was clearly having a very, very fun time making. Before his accident, however, Peyton discovered why the cells of his synthetic skin were breaking down after 99 minutes - exposure to light. Thus, with this new power and with a surprisingly crystal clear memory of his attackers following being electrocuted, burned, and in a coma for some time, Peyton begins to use his synthetic skin to make disguises to take on Durant and his men.
Despite what the poster says, what Darkman is doing is not justice, but vengeance. It's something that Liam Neeson does very well if the fact that Taken has had multiple sequels is any indication. The entire film is a character study on a man who is so befallen by tragedy after tragedy and how he is forever changed by the experience. It's rather like Far Cry 3, though in a far more brief time. This also makes sense as the film has very strong overtones of the horror elements one would find in a Universal horror film (appropriate, given the film's distributor).
Peyton is a tragic soul, his life destroyed and his existence fraught with misfortune. How does someone come back from something like that to live the life they once did? Is that something they can ever really achieve? These are the questions that Darkman asks...and, in the case of Peyton Westlake, definitively answers by the end of the movie.
Also, yes by the way, Durant isn't exactly the villain of the piece as that is technically Strack. However, Larry Drake has a far, far more commanding and terrifying presence than Colin Friels does and it is Durant who is Darkman's nemesis through most of the film. He also shows up in one of the two direct-to-video sequels...the less of which said about them, the better.
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| He tries to control his anger. He doesn't always succeed. He has seven more points to make... |
. . .I might cover them later if I hate myself.
The make up and effects are really well done, too. Peyton's full appearance as Darkman is saved until very close to the end, and it is immensely creepy to boot. Again, very strong vibes of The Phantom of the Opera here, elevated somewhat by Danny Elfman's score.
Darkman has a lot of the cheesiness of a Sam Raimi film mixed with the 80's dying and becoming the 90's, but that is to be expected given the era. Liam Neeson doesn't undersell Peyton's slow descent into madness and rage that comes from his condition. Despite having called the role "the first time I played a bimbo", Frances McDormand is pretty good as Julie and you feel the utter desolation and pain she feels at having her life torn away and her agony when she finally realizes what has become of Peyton. It's honestly good, heartbreaking stuff that really fits very snugly into the gothic/urban horror feel being the entire movie.
It's honestly just really good stuff, and Darkman stands as one of the best films that Sam Raimi ever made. It makes sense why Sony later thought he would be the perfect man to cover Spider-Man.
. . .okay, no, it doesn't. We'll get into that another day, though.
TL;DR - Darkman. Find it. Watch it. Enjoy it. Or Liam Neeson will make you take the fucking elephant.
Darkman is brought to us by Renaissance Pictures and Universal Pictures.
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