Day 13 - The Phantom (1996)

When my schedule for this thing actually works (i.e. when annoyances like paid employment don't intrude), I don't watch films the same day I write about them. I'm very much a morning person, and I always prefer to make use of those precious hours between about 5 and 8am, when the world is quiet and the chances of interruption are low. That way I can write, get on with other things, and then once it gets to early afternoon I can use the post-lunch lull to watch a movie for the following day.

This works particularly well on Sundays, when there's usually a whole raft of poorly-received family films showing on TV. Invariably, I find my self spoiled for choice - last weekend I even gave myself a headstart and watched two days' films back to back.

Yesterday offered me a number of options. I immediately rejected Daddy Day Camp as being too obvious a target. Barry Sonnenfeld's Wild Wild West was tempting, but my husband, who has a better memory than I do for the flat-out unwatchable, put his foot down. I put my own foot down over Spider-Man 3.

Which left The Phantom, a 1996 superhero romp based on a thirties comic that pre-dated Batman by somewhere in the region of four months. At 4.8, its IMDB score was appropriately low, but a lot of legit film critics seemed to rather like it. All in all, it seemed like an ideal candidate for the blog, and possibly even for a pleasant Sunday afternoon.

The plot revolves around Kit Walker, the latest but not the first individual to bear the title of The Ghost Who Walks. Clad in purple spandex and a black mask, he protects a mysterious country with the aid of Devil, the wolf, and his white stallion, Hero. When a group of reportedly magical stone and metal skulls go missing, he is forced to travel to New York to try and retrieve them from the nefarious hands of sadistic industrialist Xander Drax (now, there's a name to conjure with). Complicating things somewhat, meanwhile, is his college sweetheart, Diana Palmer, plucky niece of the newspaper owner Drax has sworn to buy out.

I can practically hear the Devil's Gallop playing in the background...

The good

The Phantom comic was born in 1936, the same year as my father, and I'm sure he'd have a good time watching this one - heck, I know I did. The characterisation is strong, the location shots are beautiful and the stuntwork is defiantly non-CGI. Appropriately enough, it feels like a frozen slice of a bygone era, with all the good and bad that entails.

Certainly, I have nothing but praise for the performances. In a film that cannot be faulted for its willingness to provide strong female characters, original vampire slayer Kristy Swanson makes for a sweet, brave heroine who isn't afraid of anything, happy to travel halfway across the world to try and protect her uncle's interests. One particular scene of near-suicidal cinematic boldness even sees her eating a sandwich with visible enjoyment and (whisper it) no trace of guilt. Think about it, though, really - how often do you see a film where the heroine goes down to the kitchen, makes herself a snack and doesn't seem to think of this as some sort of big moral deal?

As Drax, meanwhile, Treat Williams provides a deliciously old-fashioned villain who seems to thoroughly favour each tiny act of spite. When he hid scalpel blades in a booby-trapped microscope, even as I shuddered in revulsion I couldn't help but want to applaud his ingenuity.

The real pleasure of The Phantom, however, comes from Billy Zane in the titular role. He has a graceful, goofy charm that reminds me of a young Christopher Reeve and, as Kit Walker, wears the kiss curl with almost as much panache. Devoid of Batman's brooding and Superman's pomp, the Phantom seems to be that rarest of entities: a superhero who does what he does out of a genuine affection for the people around him. It doesn't hurt, of course, that he's more or less entirely without superhuman abilities, relying instead on his wits, his athleticism and his mythos.

For those with an interest in that sort of thing, The Phantom is very much a true family film; there's not much here to frighten the small people or offend their parents.

The bad

There isn't really much to dislike about The Phantom, and in truth, I feel sort of churlish even raising such problems as there are. Compared to the Indiana Jones movies it seems to seek to emulate, it's a virtual beacon of moral rectitude.

Unfortunately, the film arguably suffers from being a little too faithful to the source material.

Like every male of his line for the past several hundred years, the Phantom is sworn to protect the people of the jungles of Bengalla - a fictional country whose location in the comics began around India but shifted to Africa at some point during the sixties. In the film, its precise whereabouts are never made clear, allowing for both be-turbanned manservants and tree-dwelling natives and neatly perpetrating two unhelpful stereotypes for the price of one.

True, the wealthy Western colonialists are presented as the villains, and their attempts to steal native artefacts are never portrayed as anything other than villainy. On the other hand, bringing them to justice still requires a noble white man - a noble and endlessly wealthy white man, as it happens, since this is a film where the lower social orders seem not to even exist. 

Could it have been possible to find a way round these issues? I'm not sure. I think it would require a radical re-working of the original material, however, which would be a pity for such an obvious period piece.

The verdict

Lower-key than the average superhero flick, and none the worse for it. Its charm and transparent humanity meant this one definitely brightened my day.