Solomon Kane
I've wanted to see this film since it was announced, but it was mostly released in Europe and so limited was its American release that it took until today that I could.
It is a great Halloween film. It has demons. It has witches. It has James Purefoy doing an excellent job in this "origin" story of R.E. Howard's classic Puritan Adventurer.
Here is a picture of Solomon Kane in action from Savage Worlds just for comparison's sake. James was all that and more.
I first discovered Howard's Kane in Marvel Comics and thereafter read the original short stories. For years I was something of a Solomon Kane fanatic and consider myself well versed in the lore. I was not disappointed. What changes were made, and there always are changes, worked with the story and made for a truly enjoyable action film with story (I felt the same about Cage in Season of the Witch by the way).
The monsters, the action, the creepy setting all make this a good Halloween season film in a heroic vein.
I especially liked the true-to-Howard's-character lack of sex or a love interest.
Check it out, well worth the 4 bucks.
Yeah it is cool. I saw it over at John's after he borrowed it from Mike.
ReplyDeleteHe told me that Mike got a copy. I wondered about that since it delayed so long in the States. Bastards. That said, yeah, there were changes but I approved of the changes. Too often these old characters are not accessible to an audience that does not know the full backstory, so you have to create one in the film itself to capture the audience, which I felt it did. If anyone had said "Let us play the casting game" and asked who should play Solomon Kane if ever there were a film I would not have had an answer, but after seeing James Purefoy play the role, and noting that I have liked him in other works, I think he was an excellent choice.
DeleteHhm, looks interesting. I've only read a couple of Solomon Kane stories, which I didn't care much for, but there seemed to be a lot of interesting ideas to explore.
ReplyDeleteI'll see if I can find this and check it out!
Would you say it was the writing or the subject matter that you did not like in the stories? Howard's writing, like Lovecraft's (a friend and contemporary) is of a style that was designed for magazines. To that end I find it Spartan in many ways. I never felt that Howard fleshed out Solomon Kane very much, but he provided a framework upon which later writers, primarily in comic books, were able to develop the character. It is perhaps unfortunate that most heroes are essentially boring and lacking in depth while villains get to be complex and interesting characters. Perhaps Kane suffers from that condition in prose.
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