The Drive-In Ronin - Solomon Kane

Disillusioned with the #MutantFam yet pledged to the Drive-In Oath, one man walks the Earth in search of the Three B’s (Blood, Breasts & Beasts) and the fabled Kung Fu City. His guiding mantra is that the Drive-In is everywhere…you just need to look for it.

These are his journeys.

He is…The Drive-In Ronin.

When you think of Robert E. Howard, you think of Conan: barbarian, king, Cimmerian. If you had to struggle to name a second creation…and were limited to film adaptations…you might recall Kull, The Conqueror…back when Kevin Sorbo was trying to Hercules without actually being Hercules. [And how’d that turn out? – Ed.] But 2009 delivers us a filmic adaptation of a character I wasn’t too familiar with…a name that once I heard it, I knew I’d heard it before, yet it remained locked in a phantom half-memory. That name is Solomon Kane.

Before I go too far into the film, let’s talk briefly about this new segment. I won’t go into the internet drama that set me on this path (you can read all about that here), but sufficed to say it was brought to my attention that the #MutantFam was not all it was said to be and, alas, while I still subscribe to the core tenets, I can no longer walk under that banner. As such, I felt like I had become a masterless samurai…a ronin.

With the American Drive-In more than well covered (although that doesn’t mean we won’t be visiting on this site…because of course we will), I’ve opted to turn my eye to the rest of the world. Given the nature and influence of Hollywood, rest assured if they’re making films on a topic, you can be certain other countries’ film industries are doing it too.

That said, our first stop in our travels is a hop across the pond. Solomon Kane is a co-production between England, France and the Czech Republic. Before we go any further, let’s try to summarize this film:

Solomon Kane, a pirate consumed by greed and murder, finds his soul in peril at the end of an unsuccessful attempt to steal an Ottoman fortune. Seeking atonement and an escape from his pending damnation, he is forced from a monestary and onto the path of a pilgrim…and the way to the home he left so long ago. But nothing is as he left it: a murderous army marches the land, taking anything they please in the service of a mysterious sorcerer. With his home desecrated and the people suffering, can Kane re-embrace the violence of his past in order to save his land’s future?

Badass Pilgrim are two words I’d never think to put together…and yet Howard in his 20s in the 20s managed to do just that. A puritan adventurer trekking across Europe and portions of Africa, while his adventures are not as numerous as Conan’s, he’s practically dead even with Kull and, like his other siblings, did find life beyond his creator in the pages of Marvel Comics. Interestingly enough, this film began its life in 1997…just as Kull was bombing at the box office. It is likely because of the prior stinker that Kane wouldn’t begin filming until 10 years later…2007.

That delay may have been for the best…or may not have been long enough. You see, the only thing I could really take this film down a notch for are the CG effects surrounding much of the magic and creatures Solomon encounters. No, it’s not as bad as it could be, especially for the time (completed in 2009) or the budget ($40 million)…but these more fantastical elements do end up pulling you out of the overall gritty atmosphere that most of the film has tried, and succeeded, in creating. It does make you wonder if perhaps waiting an additional 10 years, with 2019 CG effects might had done more service to the story.

Oh, there is one other grievance…the narrative jumps at times, all the while not really giving the viewer any kind of indication that we’ve fast-forwarded a bit. This is most noticeable in the first act as Kane travels with the Crowthorns, a family of Puritans heading to America, and we have these scenes where they know things about Solomon that we haven’t seen him tell them. Heck, his freaking name for example. Now, sure, a viewer can assume that the film isn’t going to document their entire travels together, only the pertinent bits needed for the story…and who knows, perhaps these bits were filmed and cut out for the sake of the movie’s pacing…but there are parts of the movie that have the same feeling as when you jump too close to a record player: you feel a definite skip.

Other than that…I must say, this film impressed me. The atmosphere that writer/director M. J. Bassett creates is tactile and gritty. You can almost feel dirt getting under your own fingernails as the movie goes on. Although at times the film feels episodic, as Solomon journeys from place to place in search of the kidnapped Meredith, these vignettes are serviceably chained together that allow the audience to catch their breath between setpieces. At no point are you, as a viewer, strung along to the point of impatience…as even some of the slower sequences have a way of turning very nasty very quickly! Even though I was critical of the CG effects, the practical ones as well as the makeup are all extremely well done here. The creatures, monsters and characters that are brought to life in this way all look outstanding. There is one thing that might get annoying to some viewers, however I thought these scenes were done well: there are a fair number of slow-mo hero shots. Being 2009, this hadn’t become too cliché yet as Zack Snyder only had Dawn of the Dead, 300 and Watchmen released at this time…but for current eyes, this might be worth an eyeroll or two. It’s also worth mentioning that the score by Klaus Badelt never draws attention to itself. It hits the emotional beats it needs to and really sounds about as you would expect a score for this type of film to sound.

I wanted to carve out a separate paragraph for the cast. Not a star in the lot, although you can tell they were trying to elevate James Purefoy into that position, what we have here is a fair number of character actors, each having both A-list and Drive-In films to their names: Pete Postlethwaite, Max Von Sydow, Jason Flemyng and Alice Krige. There’s an interesting contradiction that arises from this. As a viewer, you’re going to have moments where you point and say “Oh! They got Max Von Sydow? Nice!” or “Hey! It’s Pete Postlethwaite!” I mean, these are actors that are unmistakable and yet…they don’t do anything to draw attention to themselves. Instead, after that moment of recognition, you sink right back into the story and the characters these actors portray. Perhaps that’s the highest compliment one can give a “character actor”.

One of my favorite new YouTube creators is an account called “Cthulhu Jack”…and it was his review of this film that nudged me into seeking it out. I’m glad I did, for the most part. While the concept of “God’s Anti-Hero” may either be difficult to grasp or too “must they make EVERYTHING grim and gritty?”, I think the execution of Solomon Kane merits a revisiting and re-evaluation of the film, because what we have here is a European film telling a tale that American filmmakers have utterly blundered in the past [Van Helsing, I’m looking at you. – Ed.]. The only negative about finding a movie like this, some 15 years beyond its original release, is that finding a physical media release, especially a region 1 or region A (DVD and Blu-Ray respectively) is going to be difficult...and expensive. Still, it is on streaming and I’d encourage you to hunt it down. Not quite the sword-and-sorcery that viewers are used to from Howard, Solomon Kane retains the badass-dom of his better known siblings. So again, I ask you to consider the words “Badass Pilgrim”. If you read that and are intrigued by the possibilities, then Solomon Kane is definitely for you.