From Comic Book To Film: Soloman Kane

The Solomon Kane movie is an entertaining popcorn piece with action, horror and dramatic elements. It tries to be a serious "Van Helsing" with spiritual and even metaphysical overtones. Some many find these elements overdone or even pretentious but they do contribute to the mood and atmosphere of the movie.

The story is not faithful to the Howard version and purists may be outraged. This version of Solomon Kane is a disgraced son of nobility who becomes a mercenary but is spiritually scarred by his experiences. He tries to take refuge in religion and pacifism but is forced to return to violence. He never actually 'becomes' a Puritan but he is sheltered and befriended by a Puritan family and absorbs some of their ways. I suspect the producers felt that the word "Puritan" had too many negative connotations to modern audiences so they downplayed that part of the character.

Duing a journey home to his ancestral castle, Kane discovers that the English countryside is being overrun by men who have been transformed into monsters-- sort of a hybrid of the Orcs from "Lord of the Rings" and the zombies from the Romero movies. Naturally, Solomon tracks down the source of the evil and defeats it, but not before experiencing all sorts of abuse and horror.

The plot is a bit contrived. The bad guys conveniently appear just behind Kane just at the crucial moment when they need to conk him on the head or push him into a pit. And yet they never just stab him in the back and kill him. This sets the hero up for all sorts of sword and knife fights.

But the fight scenes have a dynamic, kinetic look to them without coming off as ripoffs of Hong Kong action movies. The scenery-- of snow-covered forests, crumbling castles and haunting moors-- is superb, giving the movie a look of genuine gloom and despair. The acting isn't great but it does the necessary job of getting us into the story.

The ending seems to set up Kane for a series of sequels. However the part where Kane decides to wander the world as some force for good, is perhaps the least convincing part of the story.

Thank you, Koppy That gave me a very good feel of what the movie is like.

I had heard that the director was in favour of filming in grim, cold conditions to add some authenticity to the piece - I'm glad that it seems to have worked.

I'm sorry that they deviated from the source material somewhat, I can see that they might have gotten a little edgy about that though, even though it is an adaptation and a period adventure. They get around it with a bit of 'slight of hand' it seems. Haha.

One of my friends mentioned this just yesterday, I gave him the lowdown. I'll tell him your views on the film so that he gets a fuller picture.