By the Flaming Sword of the Devil’s Reaper!!
Remember the brief opening scene from Darren Aronofsky’s beautiful but obtuse homage to mortality, The Fountain (2006)? Hugh Jackman as some kind of Portuguese Indiana Jones, darkly serious and intensely raw, making you all excited about what a cool movie this is going to be, and then just vanishing forever? Perhaps the director of Solomon Kane, Michael J. Bassett, saw that opening scene and reacted like me: Whoa, let’s do an entire movie in that style! And he bloody well went out and did it.
James Purefoy is perfect as an ersatz Hugh Jackman, and the Puritan hat even looks like something out of Van Helsing. Don’t worry, though; Solomon Kane is not merely a rip-off – far from it! It is based on a pulp fiction hero from the 1930s, a creation of none other than Robert E. Howard, the father of Conan the Barbarian. Solomon Kane, like Conan, has appeared in comic books as well as the old pulp magazines, and he is a child of the same inimitable Howard ruggedness, born into a world of pain and suffering, having to contend with magical forces, constantly battling for his very soul. And finding the strength to prevail.
The story takes place around the year 1600. Protestants and Catholics are in open war, but both God and the Devil are real. And so are the heathen gods. Solomon Kane is a man to whom killing has always come easy. He’s been a soldier in every war, fought under admiral Drake, done cruel things, and condemned his soul to hell for it. Yet he grabs hold of his own fate and resists the Devil, whose Reaper indeed comes looking for him with a flaming sword early in the film! Taking this as a rude awakening, Kane decides to mend his ways and become a man of peace. Yeah, how long is that going to last…
He falls in with a Puritan family, which (predictably) is massacred in short order by the henchmen of a powerful sorcerer who has taken over Kane’s father’s ancestral castle. The innocent young daughter is captured by the bad guys, and Kane promises her dying father that he will find her. Her father is so devout that he can promise Kane that his soul will be heaven-bound if he saves the girl – no matter what he has to do in order to do it. And so Solomon Kane the soldier makes a comeback and cuts a swathe through the bad guys, looking for the innocent girl. When one henchman tells him that she is dead, Kane loses all hope and gives up fighting – only to be crucified! Is crucifixion a doddle? Well, ask Solomon Kane!
Needless to say, not all is as it appears, and the climax features a really cool fire-demon from hell, and family reckonings ad seemingly infinitum/libitum/nauseam (take your pick).
It’s a very good film. It moves a bit slowly at times, but actually has lots of action and cool adventure. It’s Indiana Jones, only 300 years earlier, and darker and grittier. Some events are predictable, but these bits unfold quickly enough so as not to spoil the storytelling. There is plenty of rain, sweat, mud, blood, sweeping music, stylish slow-motion shots – and it’s all utterly serious. Let me belabor that point: The original story and style of Robert E. Howard’s Solomon Kane is taken seriously. Is treated respectfully. If there is any justice in the world, someone will tap Michael J. Bassett on the shoulder and offer him big bags of money for directing a new Conan the Barbarian film.
So, if you are a fan of Robert E. Howard, or rugged adventure with a touch of magic, consider this film recommended. It is not perfect, but that should not keep us from supporting and even championing it, for it deserves wider distribution and attention. It is a worthy and admirable Howard adaptation, and I have certainly already reserved a spot for it on my DVD shelf.
Rating: 
