MOVIE REVIEW: The Dark Tower (2017)
“The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.”
-Stephen King “The Gunslinger” (1982)
I first read Stephen King’s Dark Tower series when I lived in the Florida Panhandle; the Southern-similar cowboy twang expressed by the idea of a heroic “gunslinger” came easy to my ears. It was a steady diet of Western-themed entertainment, from Firefly to the manga Gun Blaze West, to the anime Outlaw Star and Rising Zan: the Samurai Gunman (it’s an old PSX game, look it up). But the Dark Tower was something different. My literate friends had been raving about it for years, and I started reading it soon after. The books gave me chills as I read them, seeing it all and in some cases, not understanding what I was seeing/reading — making it all the more exciting. In any case, I never thought Hollywood could make a movie out of it…until I saw it in theaters this past Saturday.
Much like my impressions of the written tale of the Dark Tower, it is a fascinating world filled with mild-mannered men that remember the faces of their fathers…and wild monsters of every dark stripe. The visuals were plain compared to the mind’s eye when reading the books, as it should be, but serviceable. The multiverse of Stephen King’s books was represented as well as it could be, as was the titular Dark Tower which holds them all together. The two main characters were there too: Walter, aka “the Man in Black”, was played to perfection by American actor Matthew McConaughey (a White guy), and Roland, aka “the Gunslinger”, was played by…British actor Idris Elba (who is Black).
I know quite a few people have or had problems with race-switching characters (see Scarlett Johanssen in Ghost in the Shell (2017), Michael Clarke Duncan as the Kingpin in Daredevil (2003), Idris Elba again as Heimdall in Thor (2011), Zazie Beetz as Domino in the upcoming Deadpool 2) but it’s a sign that Hollywood is listening to what the people want, but doing it their way. Instead of allowing original works with people of color, they want to use established and recognized IP and change it to make it theirs, to evade full scrutiny and criticism, all the while using said criticism as a platform to advertise their latest film (for good or bad). It did not work as well for Ghost in the Shell, despite the director’s claims of the main character actually being an Asian (Japanese) mind in a Caucasian-modeled robot body. Will it work for the cinematic adaptation of the Dark Tower? Yes…and no.
The movie is a brisk 90+ minutes, and it seems only concerned with the simple transit between New York on “Keystone Earth” (what we call the Real World) and “Mid-World” (the home of Roland, Walter, and the Dark Tower). It’s been put out there the movie is a sequel to the end of the Dark Tower book series, as Roland has an item he didn’t have before which signals this is not the same story that was told, but a continuation. Go read the books from before to see what I’m talking about. All that said, anything’s possible and the movie can be whatever it wants. It essentially is a follow-up to the Dark Tower book series, not an exact retelling. In light of that sentiment, I can stop the review here.
CHOICE CUTS:
- In my list of race-switched characters, please note I did not list Amandla Stenberg’s portrayal of Rue in the Hunger Games film series despite the controversy caused by readers that can’t read. I also didn’t list Laurence Fishburne as Perry White in Man of Steel (2013) because nobody cared.
- The Easter eggs from all Stephen King’s earlier books are there, proving the Dark Tower book series indeed ties them all together in some direct or indirect way. The red 1958 Plymouth Fury from Christine, the number 1408, psychic powers called “shining”, Randall Flagg from The Stand, Pennywise the clown from IT, the misty monster-filled world of Todash space from The Mist — all of it can be found in the movie. It’s so nice to see it all come out and play. I just wish they had found some way to tie in Salem’s Lot and Needful Things somehow.
- The movie hints at some of the book series’ adventures, like Charlie the Choo-Choo in book III (The Waste Lands). Sadly, none of those include the henchmen dressed up like Doctor Doom on horseback or author Stephen King (yes, he is also in the book). Read the books to learn more.
- Idris Elba as Roland/the Gunslinger. The New York hospital scene is priceless.
- Matthew McConaughey as Walter/the Man in Black. It’s as if he was born for the role.
- <SPOILER>There was once one rose…now there are two. Given what the rose stands for, how can there be two roses?</SPOILER>
- Also, there’s some punk kid fucking up the show that is supposed to be Jake. I wish he had been hit by a car like he did in the book, and they made HIM the audience cipher.
See the movie; if you can’t, go read the book series (WARNING: it’s 7 books, totaling around 5000 pages) sand see why someone could not possibly make this movie. In any case, you’ll be entertained. I hope.
— previously published 8/5/2017 on Facebook Notes —
