THE SHADOW
A film review by Scott Renshaw
Copyright 1994 Scott Renshaw
Starring: Alec Baldwin, John Lone, Penelope Ann Miller. Screenplay: David Koepp. Director: Russell Mulcahy.
When it comes to action hero chic in the 90's, bleak is beautiful. BATMAN, of course, set the course with its Gothic Gotham and tortured Dark Knight, and later films such as THE CROW have attempted to capture the same moody atmosphere. The latest challenger for that murky throne is THE SHADOW, based on the radio character of the 1930's and 1940's ... well, not much of a challenger, actually. THE SHADOW is the kind of film that makes others in the genre look better by comparison. Warts and all, BATMAN and THE CROW were at least consistent in their tone; THE SHADOW is messy, convoluted and plodding, the work of a director without an ounce of vision.
Alec Baldwin stars as Lamont Cranston, who as the film opens is a brutal warlord in China. After an encounter with a mysterious holy man, Cranston renounces his evil ways, returning to New York with the power to cloud men's minds and a new alter-ego--The Shadow. While he is successful dealing with petty hoods, Cranston discovers a bigger threat on the horizon. That threat is Shiwan Khan (John Lone), only living descendent of Genghis Khan and a man with powers similar to The Shadow's. When Khan manipulates a government scientist (Ian McKellen) to achieve his aims, the scientist's daughter Margo (Penelope Ann Miller) joins The Shadow's team of operatives in an attempt to save New York from the world's first atomic bomb.
Director Russell Mulcahy's last film was the execrable Kim Basinger exercise THE REAL McCOY, and if THE SHADOW proves anything it is that Mulcahy hasn't learned much about pacing since then. For an adventure film, THE SHADOW moves like a truck through mud. There is promise through the film's opening fifteen minutes, as Mulcahy takes advantage of some nifty special effects to make The Shadow's first showdown with bad guys brisk and effective. Then, just as quickly, THE SHADOW slams into a wall (or maybe one of the many laughably bad matte paintings which fill the film). There is no tension or excitement to any of The Shadow's confrontations with Shiwan Khan or his henchmen, and the dialogue is lacking in any real wit. When we see that screenwriter David Koepp (JURASSIC PARK) has set the climactic scene between The Shadow and Khan in a hall of mirrors, we see how truly lacking in creativity was any aspect of THE SHADOW's production.
It also appears that Koepp and Mulcahy couldn't agree as to whether they were making a dark tone-y picture a la BATMAN or a more traditional comic book adventure closer to THE ROCKETEER. Like Batman, The Shadow is a character with a dark side, and Koepp seems to want to keep that dark side in focus. But then, just when the tone seems clear, Mulcahy will whip out an egregious crane shot or, in one of the most pointless exercises in whiz-bang photography in recent memory, follow a message through miles of pneumatic tubing. Perhaps one of the reasons THE SHADOW feels so stagnant is that writer and director are pulling so hard from opposite ends that it ends up going nowhere.
That confusion wastes the fine casting of Alec Baldwin in the title role. With his low, intense rasp, Baldwin has the perfect voice, and his piercing eyes glow behind The Shadow's scarf. Unfortunately, he gets virtually no supporting help. John Lone is much too low-key as Khan, and doesn't seem to realize what a villain has to be in a film like THE SHADOW, namely charismatic. Penelope Ann Miller is once again nothing but eye candy, perhaps the only actress on the planet who makes Kim Basinger look talented. Tim Curry literally froths at the mouth as one of Khan's toadies, and poor Ian McKellen slums through his stock absent-minded professor part. When it comes right down to it, very little in THE SHADOW works, because no one involved seemed to have anything interesting to say or present visually. Here's hoping that Universal's marketing department doesn't have the power to cloud too many minds into spending money on this one.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 clouded minds: 3.
-- Scott Renshaw Stanford University Office of the General Counsel
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