Title: The Shadow (1994)
Director: Russell Mulcahy
Cast: Alec Baldwin, Penelope Ann Miller, Peter Boyle, Ian
McKellen, Tim Curry, James Hong
The Shadow came out during the 90’s, at a time when Hollywood
was producing comic book movies trying to duplicate the success that Warner
Bros. had with Tim Burton’s Batman (1989). I guess its part of what you’d call
the 90’s comic book movie revival? So anyhow’s Hollywood’s idea of making a
successful comic book movie at that time was reviving the oldest comic book
heroes; the tried and true characters from the golden days. I guess they thought
these old characters would still be in the public’s collective mind, but boy
where they wrong. While The Shadow is a character with lots of background and
history, it is a hero that comes out of the 30’s; out of the depression era and
well, that was a long time ago. People don’t want old heroes like The Phantom
or The Shadow, they want contemporary heroes like The X-Men and Spiderman. And
so, films like The Phantom (1995) and The Shadow didn’t exactly grow legs at
the box office when they were released. The Rocketeer (1991) also failed
because it was also a period comic book film that took place during the 30’s.
So apparently, any comic book film that takes place in the old days is doomed
to failure. But if you ask me, The Shadow didn’t deserve to fail at all, it’s a
very fun film, a well produced comic book adaptation that is quite faithful to
its source material. The Shadow you knew from the comics, novels and the radio
shows is The Shadow you get on this film.
The Shadow tells the story of ‘Ying-Ko’ a ruthless opium
dealer from Malaysia who is suddenly abducted by these monks, not sure if they
are Tibetan or not so don’t ask. But they do have this cool looking temple in
the shape of a Snake! So anyways, the leader of these monks is a holy man known
as ‘The Tulku’ and he tells Ying-Ko that he will be given a chance to redeem
himself. He will live amongst the monks for seven years and learn to “cloud
mans minds”. Fast forward seven years and now Ying-Ko is living in New York
City, is reformed and calls himself by his real name, Lamont Cranston. During
the day, he is a wealthy “man about town” but at night, he roams the city
streets using his new acquired powers to fight crime and protect the innocent.
He is “The Shadow”, a mysterious figure that has the ability to make himself
invisible to others, and hypnotize evil doers. What evil lurks in the hearts of
man? The Shadow knows!
So in my book, this is an excellent movie that didn’t deserve
to fail at all. In fact, out of the these three old timey comic book movies of
the 90’s, The Shadow is the one I like the most. The production values where
high on this one, it had a lot of style, a lot of class and to top things off
an amazing cast! I think it’s sad that modern audiences just can’t connect with
a period comic book film. I guess this proves that it’s true, the grand
majority of movie going audiences are young kids who don’t really care for
anything remotely related to the past. The most recent example I can think of
right now is The Lone Ranger (2013), a film with huge production values (above
the 200 million dollar mark), a good director, a huge star and great visual
effects. Unfortunately it is also a cowboy movie and kids just don’t connect
with those anymore either, so I guess, the lesson to Hollywood is, if you want
to make a movie that takes place in the old days, you better either make it hip
and cool (for example The Great Gatsby (2013)) or make it an indie with a low
budget, for the art house crowd because if you don’t, you risk having a turkey
and loosing your precious millions. My cry out to modern audiences is, give these
types of movies a chance because you just might be missing out on a good movie!
Case in point: The Shadow.
What I love about The Shadow is the character itself, the
whole set up behind him, the premise. The character looks so cool with his
black hat and trench coat, with his twin guns! The red scarf, the mysterious
eyes, it’s a great visual in my book. But back in the 30’s, fans of The Shadow
could only imagine him, you have to remember, this is a character that comes
out of an era when people heard radio shows! Back in the 30’s comic book movies
didn’t multiply like rabbits the way they do today, in fact, comic book super
heroes hadn’t made the leap to the silver screen yet, that wouldn’t happen
until The Adventures of Captain Marvel debuted in 1941, yes my friends, Captain
Marvel (a.k.a. Shazam!) was the first super hero to get his very own feature
film! So until that day would come along, all comic book fans had during the 30’s
were radio shows. They’d have to snuggle up next to their radios and hear their
comic book heroes fight crime! Comic book fans had to imagine everything back
in those days, which is quite cool when you think about it! I remember when The
Shadow hit theaters back in ’94, they re-issued a couple of these old radio
shows and I bought a couple of them because I wanted to experience what it was
like to listen and imagine these old Shadow stories. I can’t tell you how much
fun I had listening to these old radio shows! I remember one of the stories was
called “The Man Who Wasn’t There”. There was this aura of mystery to these old
radio shows that was just awesome, they were very atmospheric, very spooky. And
this is something that this film effectively translated to the silver screen.
On this film The Shadow inhabits a dark, seedy New York City
filled with art deco buildings and big band dance clubs. Russell Mulcahy, this film’s
director, turned The Shadow into a nourish event, a film noir in every sense of
the word. What’s film noir you ask? Well, these are films that usually take
place in urban settings (a city), at night and crime, sex and violence usually
figure into the story one way or another. The wind is always blowing in the
city streets; the lighting on these films is purposely dark, thunder is
clapping, there’s always an aura of mystery to these films, and I just love the
hell out of all that ambiance, that atmosphere. So The Shadow brings all that mystical
mystery from old film noir back to the silver screen. Keeping in line with one
of the requirements of a film noir, the hero is doomed somehow, he has a dark
side, and The Shadow most certainly has that in spades. The Shadow knows what
evil lurks in the hearts of man because he himself has to keep that evil side
of him under control, he was once ruthless, once cold, he has a constant battle
with his inner demons. One wonderfully awesome dream sequence has Lamont
Cranston actually ripping his face off and revealing the villains face
underneath! So we got a character that’s tormented by his dark past, constantly
trying to forgive himself, redeem himself. Speaking of The Shadow himself, what
a wonderfully spot on casting decision it was to put Alec Baldwin in this role!
This was before he went into the “Fat Elvis” stage he is now. Back in ’94 Alec
Baldwin still had some of those dashing good looks to him, plus that voice is
perfect for The Shadow.
The rest of the cast is equally great. I don’t know what
happened to Penelope Anne Miller, but man, I wish she was still around making
movies. She looks amazing playing Margo Lane. She wears these silky dresses
that look amazing on her, especially in dream sequences! The best part about
Margo Lane is that she’s is never, for one second portrayed as a helpless
damsel in distress. In fact, if we get down to it she plays an important part
in saving the day, I liked that about this movie. The damsel actually becomes
something of a threat to The Shadow! Then we have the great Tim Curry playing a
mad scientist and Ian McKellen playing a goofy one. John Lone plays Shiwan Kan,
the last living descendent of Genghis Kan! The villain in this film has the
traditional villainous desire to “conquer the world” by destroying it first; which
brings to mind that the film isn’t all that original in terms of story. But so
what, this movie is more about the look and feel then the brains behind it.
There’s tons of style and atmosphere here, not to mention fun. The film was
written by David Koep and I have to admit, his dialog was interesting, funny, it
kept me entertained. Koep wisely keeps things light by spreading jokes in the
dialog to liven things up, so be alert for a lot of word play. There’s this hilarious scene where hero and
villain are discussing the fate of the world and suddenly it turns into this: “Lovely
tie, by the way. May I ask where you acquired it?” “Brooks Brothers” “Is that
Mid-town?” “45th and Madison; you are a Barbarian.” “Thank You!” So
you should have fun with the script which is very witty and clever.
Russell Mulcahy brings a visual flare to the film by adding lots
of interesting camera angles and gimmicks to keep things visually interesting,
the production has a lush quality to it as well. I think he was an excellent
choice to direct this film. For example, Russell’s visual trickery involves
scenes like this inspired moment in which we follow a canister with a message
in it as the canister travels through a series of funnels, spread out through
the city…awesome sequence! Speaking of visually interesting directors, Sam
Raimi expressed interest at one point to direct yet another Shadow film, in
fact he stated that he owns the rights to the character, unfortunately, the
last he said on that subject was that a good script had not been produced yet,
and so, as far as I know, that idea has been shelved. Maybe one day, a hip
young director will find a way to make a Shadow film that can connect with modern
audiences by somehow bringing The Shadow into the modern age. But if you ask me,
I like The Shadow just the way he was portrayed on this film, living in the 30’s
New York City, going to dance clubs, moving around in taxi cabs, romancing the
ladies. The Shadow works best in that era, working the dark, seedy city
streets, hiding in the shadows, cackling away at the bad guys from the
nothingness…around every corner, in every empty room, as inevitable as your
guilty conscience.
Rating: 4 ½ out of 5