DARKMAN

US, 1990, 95 minutes, Colour.
Liam Neeson, Frances Mc Dormand, Colin Friels, Larry Drake.
Directed by Sam Raimi.

Darkman was co-written and directed by Sam Raimi, the celebrated director of the over-the-top cult films, The Evil Dead. (He also directed the spoof Crime Wave but complained that the producers ruined his original cut - and that even he could not follow the final product.)

Raimi believes in all stops out film-making. The design of the film is lavish, a comic strip coming alive. The violence is strong with touches of brutality in the comic strip style as well. The characters are broadly drawn - though very well acted by Liam Neeson as the disfigured scientist, Frances McDormand? as his girlfriend lawyer and Australia's Colin Friels as the suave and charming maniac. Larry Drake is also very effective as a repellent villain.

There are many holes in the plot and the characterisation - but, nevertheless, the sweep and pace of the film suspends the disbelief while it is there on screen.

Neeson plays a scientist who is disfigured by criminals when they attack his laboratory. With an eye to The Phantom of the Opera, Batman, The Invisible Man, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Beauty and the Beast, he becomes a caped avenging character who is impervious to pain and emotion and who wreaks vengeance on those who destroyed him. (The film also has a highly orchestrated and forceful score by Danny Elfman, composer of the score for Batman.)

The film's screenplay is not neat in tying up of loose ends - it might have been better had this been so. However, with over-the-top flair and panache, Darkman is a strong action adventure.

1. Impact of the action, adventure? Comic strip style on screen?

2. The background of comic strip writing and drawing and its being dramatised on screen? Larger than life, horrible crimes, elaborate revenge, strong characters and comic strip dialogue? The musical score and its orchestrations?

3. The traditions of universal movies and of comic strips: the obvious influence of The Phantom of the Opera, Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Invisible Man, Beauty and the Beast, Batman ...?

4. The work of Sam Raimi, his over-the-top style? Appropriate to the film?

5. The title, Westlake and his discoveries about light and darkness, his suffering and being in the dark, in the shadows, and the shadow side of his character? Finally withdrawing from the world into the dark?

6. The mood of the film, lightness and dark, violence scope, special effects and action?

7. The portrayal of the city, the old and the new, the future city based on corruption and greed? The girders for the climax? The freeways and the vehicles? Tunnels? Helicopters?

8. The initial confrontation by Durant with the gang, the elaborate set-up in the St Valentine's Day massacre style? The slaughter? Durant and his gang, their cruelty? The taking of the fingers - and being kept by Durant? Giving a tone to the film?

9. Westlake, a serious young scientist, his assistant? Working with the cells and the skin? Their dissolving? The discovery of light and darkness and the preservation of the skin? Julie and Westlake, their love, romantic, the proposal? The document and the coffee stain?

10. Julie, going to Strack, the truth, the document? His insinuating threats? His suave style, vision of building the city? Julie's decisions?

11. Durant and his group, the drug and violence backgrounds, brutality? Their going to the laboratory, the confrontation, the violence to Westlake, the death of his assistant, the mammoth destruction of his work? His own disfigurement? Being propelled into the river? Julie watching? Westlake's escape, going into the hospital, revived, the scientific explanation of his nerves being cut? The doctor and her explanations? Westlake's escape, seeing himself in the mirror, walking the city streets, in the gutters and the rain, the coat? His going to see his laboratory and its destruction? The new laboratory? The experiments, making the skin? The other faces? His quest of vengeance, the photographs, tracking down the group? Taking the brutal assassin and having him in the manhole, his head in the street and his death? The various masks and unmaskings, the fights? The drug payoffs and his taking the money? Durant and the videoed robbery? Confusing people? Taking on the personalities of his opponents and destroying them?

12. Julie and her grief, the funeral? Strack and his offers of consolation? The cemetery, meeting Westlake, her disbelief? The enjoyment at the carnival? But Westlake's anger and the shooting gallery? Her being upset at his not telling her the truth? The discovery of the truth, seeing his face - beauty and the beast?

13. The relationship between Strack and Durant, the meeting, the truth about Westlake, the thugs following Julie, the confrontation with Westlake, the shootings, the explosion, the chase? The range of artillery against him? The helicopter and the pursuit through the city, smashing into the skyscraper? The police pursuit and Durant's destroying them? The tunnel and the destruction?

14. The effect on Westlake, the skins and masks - and their bubbling? His own face? Showing it to Julie? After Durant's death and his pretence? Going onto the girders of the building? Being unmasked by Strack? The confrontation, the danger to Julie, the deaths?

15. The portrait of Strack: his family background, ambitions, suave and charming, dancing, banquets? The proposal to Julie? His charming madness? Orders to Durant? On top of the world, seeming invincibility - and his death?

16. The final rescue of Julie? Westlake's explanation to her, impervious to pain, his moral dilemmas, his thinking it better to disappear and go into the dark?

17. The blend of action and moral fable?