The Use of Animals in The Making of the Film "The Ghost and the Darkness" thesis: It IS ethically acceptable to use trained animals in film-making, so long as they are treated well.

In a 1939 film called Jesse James there is a scene in which a horse and rider jump off a cliff into a river. In the next shot, rider and horse are shown swimming in the river. If you were to look very closely you might notice that the horse in the river is not the same horse that jumped off the cliff. That's because that horse died in the fall. Out of this tragic event came the American Humane Association's film and tv unit. When you see the sentence "No animals were harmed in the making of this film" that means that the AHA gave their approval of the animal usage in the film. I agree with the AHA's philosophy on using and portraying animals in films. It's alright, as long as the animals are treated well. How the animals are portrayed is completely up to the film-makers.

Lieutenant-Colonel Percy Muir McFarlane boarding U...

Colonel Orie W. Coyle Special Collection Photo

Français : Val Kilmer au festival de Cannes

That's freedom of speech. In The Ghost and the Darkness lions are portrayed as ferocious man-eaters. Is it wrong to portray them that way? I don't believe so. It's evident to me that the animals used in this, and most North American productions are treated very well.

First a brief summary of the film is necessary to place the contents of this essay in context. This is a true story, embellished only a little by Hollywood in order to bring in another big name to draw crowds. An Irish engineer named Colonel John Patterson (Val Kilmer) goes to build a bridge in Africa, at a place called Tsavo. The Colonel is a very smart man who always dreamed of going to Africa. On his first day there a lion attacks a worker and Patterson hunts and kills it. This wins the workers over to him and the project goes well...