Darkman
August 24, 1990
(No Ratings Yet)
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Plot
A hideously scarred and mentally unstable scientist seeks revenge against the crooks who made him like that.
Release Year: 1990
Rating: 6.4/10 (23,124 voted)
Director:
Sam Raimi
Stars: Liam Neeson, Frances McDormand, Colin Friels
Storyline
Peyton Westlake is a scientist who has discovered a way to produce synthetic skin. This could revolutionise skin grafting, except for one minor glitch; the synthetic skin degrades after 100 minutes of exposure to light. When gangsters attack Peyton, he is horrifically burnt, and assumed dead. In his quest for revenge, Peyton, aka the Darkman, is able to take on the appearance of anyone (using the synthetic skin,) but he's only got 100 minutes per disguise.
Writers: Sam Raimi, Chuck Pfarrer
Cast:
Liam Neeson
–
Peyton Westlake
/
Darkman
Frances McDormand
–
Julie Hastings
Colin Friels
–
Louis Strack Jr.
Larry Drake
–
Robert G. Durant
Nelson Mashita
–
Yakitito
Jessie Lawrence Ferguson
–
Eddie Black
Rafael H. Robledo
–
Rudy Guzman
Dan Hicks
–
Skip
(as Danny Hicks)
Ted Raimi
–
Rick
(as Theodore Raimi)
Dan Bell
–
Smiley
Nicholas Worth
–
Pauly
Aaron Lustig
–
Martin Katz
Arsenio 'Sonny' Trinidad
–
Hung Fat
Said Faraj
–
Convenience Store Clerk
Nathan Jung
–
Chinese Warrior
Taglines:
Who Is Darkman? Find Out This August.
Release Date: 24 August 1990
Filming Locations: 3rd Street Tunnel, Downtown, Los Angeles, California, USA
Box Office Details
Budget: $16,000,000
(estimated)
Opening Weekend: $8,054,000
(USA)
(24 August 1990)
(1786 Screens)
Gross: $48,878,520
(Worldwide)
(1991)
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Did You Know?
Trivia:
A display case in Robert Durant's mansion seems to imply that he is a veteran of the U.S. Army's famed 101st Airborne Division.
Goofs:
Factual errors:
When Durant and company are destroying Westlake's lab, Durant is seen turning the valve on a tank of flammable gas to let the gas out. However, he turns the valve handle clockwise, which would shut the valve, not open it.
Quotes:
[first lines]
Eddie Black:
[on phone]
'Cause he's an asshole! Tell him no. Tell him no, too. Him, tell "fuck you." No, I'm gonna be here a minute. Got some guy coming up who thinks he's gonna muscle me out of my property. What's it matter! Just another tough guy, that's all.
User Review
Was _very_ impressed — what could have been a forgettable Z-movie turned out to be something rather profound
Rating:
This movie might have joined the ranks of the utterly forgettable Z-movies
of the genre had it not been for excellent direction, superb
characterization, and outstanding acting on the part of Liam Neeson, who
played Peyton Westlake/Darkman, and Larry Drake, who played his enemy, the
arch-villain, Durant. The movie presents the destruction of a man by a
psychopathic monster for utterly trivial reasons — and makes it clear that
however horrifying the physical damage perpetrated on Peyton Westlake by
Durant's minions might be, the effect on his soul and spirit is far worse.
At the same time, it showed that in spite of what happened to him,
Westlake/Darkman was able to rise above it at least enough to choose the
life of a giver of justice rather than one of evil, as the physically
unscarred drug-lord Durant & Co., the _real_ monsters in this film, had.
This film does _not_ glamorize psychopathic, criminal violence in any way,
but rather shows it for what it really is: repellant, ugly, and
contemptible, destroying life and everything that supports it without a
qualm for no better reason than cheap thrills or a very minor profit. This
is _not_ a typical Hollywood film, nor just a cheap garage-flick monster
movie special. It shows with graphic realism exactly what is left when
conscience, civilization, and the rest of the more delicate mechanisms that
constitute our humanity are stripped away: pure beastliness, without
glamour and without redemption of any sort. — And it shows, as well, that
even when everything is taken from a man, he can rise above it, choose to
remain a man, however damaged, rather than sinking down to the level of the
beast.