Darkman (film)

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Movie
German title Darkman
Original title Darkman
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1990
length 91 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Sam Raimi
script Sam Raimi ,
Chuck Pfarrer ,
Ivan Raimi ,
Daniel Goldin ,
Joshua Goldin
production Robert G. Tapert
music Danny Elfman
camera Bill Pope
cut Bud S. Smith ,
David Stiven
occupation
chronology

Successor  →
Darkman II - Durant Returns

Darkman , also known under the reference title Darkman - The man with the face mask , is an American film directed by Sam Raimi from 1990. In 1994 and 1996, two sequels followed, in which Arnold Vosloo played the title role. The film opened in German cinemas on November 15, 1990.

action

Ambitious scientist Peyton Westlake is trying to make synthetic skin to enable burn victims to lead a normal life.

His research is already on the verge of a breakthrough - so far his artificial skin only lasts in the dark, but only 99 minutes under the influence of light before it liquefies again - when a gang of thugs under the leadership of gang boss Robert G. Durant invades his laboratory , devastated this and tortured the scientist with acid. When gang boss Durant assassinates his opponents, he cuts off the victims' fingers before or afterwards with a golden cigar cutter to collect them in a wooden box like trophies. Eventually, the criminals blow up the entire building. They are looking for a document, accidentally found by Peyton's fiancé, the ambitious attorney Julie Hastings, that would convict important people in the construction industry, including Louis Strack, who freely admits he paid bribes, of corruption.

Westlake survived the explosion and is being hospitalized. His face and hands are so burned that he cannot be identified in the hospital. To prevent the pain, a part of the nerve center in the brain is cut through a lobotomy so that he can no longer feel anything.

Peyton Westlake is officially declared dead - the birth of "Darkman". He escapes from the hospital, retires to an abandoned factory and temporarily rebuilds his laboratory there.

Now he starts his plans for revenge. He uses his synthetic skin to make face masks for his tormentors in order to play the gang members off against each other.

In addition, he also tries to permanently restore his former face so that he can return to his fiancée. During this time, Julie gets a little closer to the seedy entrepreneur Louis Strack, who consoles her for her loss, but who is actually behind the attack.

Westlake has now hunted down most of Durant's henchmen and is now going to take him down personally. The spectacular chase ends with Durant crashing his helicopter against the wall of a tunnel.

Strack has come to the conclusion that it is too risky to leave Julie alive, he meets at the construction site of a skyscraper with the battered Durant to throw her into the depths. The supposed Durant turns out to be Westlake in a mask. After one final showdown , Strack himself falls to his death from his own construction project.

Julie wants her and Peyton to go back to their old life even if he has to wear a mask. He, who wished for nothing more than that, declares that it is no longer possible, that too much has happened and that he has done too many terrible things that would have brought him to the same amoral level as those that were his Stole life.

She is left alone and Darkman disappears into the anonymity of another mask.

useful information

  • When Darkman puts on his last mask at the end of the film, in broad daylight in the middle of the busy street, the actor Bruce Campbell has a wordless guest appearance as the final anonymizing identity of Darkman. Bruce Campbell is best known from the classic horror film Dance of the Devils from 1981, which was also directed by Sam Raimi .
  • The film was released in Germany under the original title "Darkman" both in cinemas and on video. The title "Darkman - The man with the face mask" was only introduced towards the end of the 1990s when it was repeated on RTL.
  • The film grossed $ 49 million at box offices worldwide.
  • The film was indexed until April 2013, but was then removed from the index and approved for children aged 16 and over after a re-examination by the FSK.

Reviews

“Sam Raimi's successful horror shocker doesn't save with drastic images. With a lot of action and some borrowings from genre classics (blatantly: ' The Elephant Man ' and ' The Phantom of the Opera ') this is gripping comic entertainment. Liam Neeson found his role to be a challenge and mastered it in an exemplary manner. A must for fans of the genre. "

- prism-online

“A scientist tortured and disfigured by gangsters starts a cruel campaign of revenge against his tormentors wearing new masks. The film thrives on virtuously staged action scenes, which, however, accumulate in the second half to such an extent that they hide the film's borrowings from classic models of the genre. In addition, the accumulation of unsavory tastes, which is unnecessary for the story, is disturbing. "

- Lexicon of international film

It hurts to witness Mr. Neeson's and Mrs. McDormand's good acting constantly beeing sabotaged by one of the worst books and stage directs since Bad Boys II .

"It hurts to see the good portrayals of Liam Neeson and Frances McDormand constantly being sabotaged by a script and director that is some of the worst since Bad Boys 2."

- International Filmeditors Guild

Sequels

Two sequels followed, both released directly on video:

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Clearance certificate for Darkman . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , May 2013 (PDF; test number: 64 789 V).
  2. ↑ Darkman - The man with the face mask. In: Prism online. Accessed December 31, 2016 .
  3. ↑ Darkman. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed December 31, 2016 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used