The Dark Tower (2017)

The Dark Tower (2017)

Dir.  Nikolaj Arcel

'The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.' Those twelve words, the opening paragraph in the first part of Stephen King's fantasy western opus, will resonate with anyone that's read the book. Nothing about the film adaptation, however, has even the slightest hint of such resonance.

It begins with Jake (Tom Taylor) in NY, which, as fans will know, means it draws from more than the first book. The boy is having dreams about the Tower that include the Man in Black (Matthew McConaughey); but revealing the primary antagonist so early robs him of any and all mystery; he's a man who ought to be partially defined by his elusiveness. But that's only the beginning of the film's failings; there are many, many more reasons to turn off.

The Dark Tower: Book I: The Gunslinger (1982)

The Dark Tower: Book I: The Gunslinger (1982)

Author: Stephen King | Page Count: 212

'No one ever really pays for it in silver, he thought. The price of any evil – necessary or otherwise – comes due in flesh.'

Book I is our introduction to Roland Deschain, aka Roland of Gilead, the titular gunslinger and a man obsessed with reaching the Dark Tower. That goal carries him across Mid-World, the land of his birth.

Mid-World is a familiar amalgamation of our own recorded history and a romanticised version of the same. It's the type of fictional reality that fans of King's other works will feel right at home in.

King is best known for horror works, but Dark Tower is fantasy merged with the old-fashioned western. It's still populated with the kind of well-defined characters that the author is good at. Love him or loathe him, you can't deny his strengths.