# Just saw "Solomon Kane"
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-solomon-kane/633495
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [September 2, 2012, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-solomon-kane/633495 "2012-09-02T23:43:28Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2012, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-solomon-kane/633495/1 "2012-09-02T23:43:28Z")
On cable, On Demand. I’ve been wanting to see it since I read about it a few years ago- but it was never released in the US- not even on DVD, from what I could find.
It was a good, dark sword-and-sorcery type movie- and a good interpretation of the Robert Howard character. Why wasn’t it released in the US on the big screen? With a halfway decent marketing campaign, I don’t see why it couldn’t at least have made back its modest $40 million budget.
Anyone else seen it?
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### Author:  [@stegon66](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stegon66)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2012, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-solomon-kane/633495/2 "2012-09-03T00:14:07Z")
Saw it via the region two release awhile back. Thought it was “meh.” Gabriel Byrne would have been perfect for the lead…
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### Author:  [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2012, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-solomon-kane/633495/3 "2012-09-03T00:31:49Z")
Never heard of it! Is it one of those comic book movies?
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### Author:  [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2012, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-solomon-kane/633495/4 "2012-09-03T01:16:57Z")
I’ve read the Solomon Kane short stories, & I wish Howard had written a few more.
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### Author:  [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2012, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-solomon-kane/633495/5 "2012-09-03T08:40:25Z")
I liked it, I thought it was a fine swords and sorcery type movie.
There was some cool make up practical effects in it too.
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2012, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-solomon-kane/633495/6 "2012-09-03T08:43:47Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#):
>
> Why wasn’t it released in the US on the big screen?
Hearst wouldn’t allow it.
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### Author:  [@RhapsodyInBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RhapsodyInBlue)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2012, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-solomon-kane/633495/7 "2012-09-04T03:32:43Z")
I had bought the Region 2 DVD and thought it was a very good movie. There will be a limited theatrical release later this month; I’m looking forward to seeing it on the big screen.
James Purefoy did a good job, as usual. It also had an excellent supporting cast, including Max von Sydow, Pete Postlethwaite and Jason Flemyng.
Really strange that it hasn’t been released in the US until now. It’s better than most of the crap that hits theaters here - maybe that’s the reason, after all.
**Salinqmind** , Solomon Kane is a character created by Robert E Howard, who also created Conan. Kane is a Puritan who fights evil in the early 17th century.
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### Author:  [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2012, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-solomon-kane/633495/8 "2012-09-06T16:35:16Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#):
>
> Hearst wouldn’t allow it.
Well played, sir.
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2012, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-solomon-kane/633495/9 "2012-09-06T16:44:39Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#):
>
> Hearst wouldn’t allow it.
That went over my head and I’m a Howard fan.
😕
I didn’t think the film was an accurate interpretation of Howard’s Solomon Kane, but it was a fun movie.
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2012, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-solomon-kane/633495/10 "2012-09-06T16:54:39Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#):
>
> That went over my head and I’m a Howard fan.
>
> 😕
The joke is that William Randolph Hearst blocked the release of _Solomon Kane_, similar to his attempts to stop the release of _Citizen Kane_.
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### Author:  [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2012, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-solomon-kane/633495/11 "2012-09-06T16:57:33Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#):
>
> That went over my head and I’m a Howard fan.
>
> 😕
>
> I didn’t think the film was an accurate interpretation of Howard’s Solomon Kane, but it was a fun movie.
How was it inaccurate? FAR more accurate than the Conan adaptations, they toned down the religious stuff a wee bit but other than that?
The love interest is a teen girl, would raise some eyebrows nowadays but not in the time period the movie is set. That was one thing I liked about the movie, it did not change things that would squick modern people.
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2012, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-solomon-kane/633495/12 "2012-09-06T20:07:48Z")
> [@grude](#):
>
> How was it inaccurate? FAR more accurate than the Conan adaptations, they toned down the religious stuff a wee bit but other than that?
The film maker added Kane’s origins and the monk like behavior at the beginning.
He hasn’t been to Africa to acquire the magic stick from the witch doctor, I guess.
And the film Conan of curse has no blue eyes! 😉