As Liam Neeson’s The Naked Gun is hitting theaters, it’s an optimal time to look back on this man’s impressive filmography. Across decades of acting credits, Neeson’s done a little bit of everything in every genre imaginable. That includes anchoring beloved dramas like Schindler’s List and Kinsey, but also scoring key supporting roles in hit genre films like Batman Begins. Plus, there’s his whole era of action cinema that Taken kicked off back in 2009. Believe it or not, though, Neeson’s days of vigilante justice and action cinema leading man date back to far before Taken was on anybody’s radar.
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Back in 1990, he headlined director Sam Raimi’s first acclaimed superhero movie, Darkman. The future Spider-Man helmer got a lot of mileage out of Neeson’s acting chops and striking visuals, in the process offering an exciting harbinger of his future web-crawler exploits.
A rare American superhero movie not based on any pre-existing material, Darkman followed scientist Peyton Westlake (Neeson), whose life is upended when he’s presumably killed at the hands of gangster Robert Ruant (Larry Drake). Westlake, though, is just horrifically disfigured and mentally erratic. Now, wanting grisly vengeance and to protect his girlfriend Julie Hastings (Frances McDormand), Westlake takes on the identity of Darkman. Evildoers beware, a man with nothing to lose is on the loose.
Raimi’s vision for Darkman is clearly more in line with classic misunderstood movie monsters than his Silver Age Spider-Man movies or anything audiences would associate with modern superhero blockbusters. That creepy-crawly influence (this is the filmmaker behind Evil Dead, after all) inspires some truly outstanding makeup work and practical effects work. Anytime stop-motion animation is used to realize parts of Westlake or scientific experiments, one can’t help but clap their hands in glee. These old-school techniques just radiate so much personality and tactility.
Meanwhile, Darkman is also aided by striking cinematography and production design leaning into a dank ambiance and precisely incorporated shadows. The result is a film featuring a visual aesthetic intersecting film noirs, gritty ’80s crime dramas (like To Live and Die in L.A.), and even traces of German Expressionism. It’s a melting pot of imagery influences, lending Darkman such a distinctive personality. Not even Raimi’s other superhero films have quite as tragic a visual scheme as this one, which achingly reflects a man displaced from the world and the woman he loves.
Liam Neeson Is Darkman’s Not-So-Secret Weapon
Though Raimi’s sharp visual sensibilities alone make Darkman worth a watch, it’s Liam Neeson who lends extra layers of unexpected pathos to the proceedings. Much like classic Universal Monsters titles were often elevated by unforgettable performances from Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney, so too does Neeson inject further depth into his central character. Rather than sleepwalking through the part, this future Oscar darling puts as much emotional conviction into this scarred vigilante as he would into his Silence and Widows performances. You can feel the regret and torment radiating off of Westlake thanks to Neeson’s excellence in this part.
With such a richly human anchor for Darkman, audience investment in what’s happening on screen is never in doubt. That gives Raimi plenty of room to get fun and silly with this outlandish plot and world. Combining the gravitas of Neeson with unabashed genre cinema tomfoolery is a combo that motion pictures extensively exploited in the decades that followed. If you want to see the origins of such an exciting mixture, Darkman is the movie for you.
Though plenty entertaining as a slice of superhero cinema, Darkman especially captivates the imagination decades later as an omen of cinema’s future. Nobody could’ve imagined back in 1990 that Raimi would go on to helm not only further superhero movies, but three features that changed the genre eternally. So beloved is Raimi in this space that Marvel Studios brought him back two decades after Tobey Maguire’s first Spider-Man for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
The genesis of all those projects can be traced back to a little Liam Neeson star vehicle from August 1990. Though Raimi would further refine his chops as a filmmaker and superhero film helmer in the years that followed, Darkman is still an exciting display of the talents that would make movies like Spider-Man so special. Everybody starts somewhere, and for Sam Raimi’s superhero cinema adventures, it was with the underrated gem Darkman.
Darkman is now available to rent or purchase from Prime Video or Google Play.
What do you think of Darkman? Let us know in the comments below!
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