The Spirit (1987 TV Movie) User Reviews (9)

I loved it!

[BandSAboutMovies · 6/10 · 8 May 2022]

Written as a series pilot by Steven E. De Sousa (Die Hard, Commando, Bad Dreams, The Running Man, The Return of Captain Invincible, Street Fighter) and directed by Michael Schultz (Cooley High, Car Wash, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band, The Last Dragon, Krush Groove, Disorderlies) this was a try at turning the Will Eisner newspaper strip into something viewers could see every week.

This has been released by the Warner Archive, but for years it was on convention tables and a lost film of sorts. It aired at a time where comic books weren't in movies and on TV all the time. Batman was still years away.

The show looks great! It's as close as a low budget TV show can get to capturing Eisner. De Sousa told Den of Geek, "We did this three or four years before Dick Tracy, but we made some of the same exact choices - only first! Whenever we designed things like costumes and locations, they would be your basic Crayola box of colors. So there's one blue, one red, and one green."

The look of the comic showing up was no accident, as he also related "Will Eisner was one of the first artists to approach comics with a conscious cinematic look, starting with The Spirit. So, wherever it was possible, we totally did panel for panel some famous moments from the comic. When the Spirit first meets Dolan, that sequence was shot almost exactly like the scene in the original Eisner comic."

Sam J. Jones makes a terrific Spirit and Nana Visitor feels like she is Ellen Dolan stepping out of the comic page. Despite its $2.5 million or less budget, it somehow works better - and is so much more fun - than the Frank Miller The Spirit movie.

Feels like an 80s music video

[peefyn · 4/10 · 28 March 2016]

This is an origin story, but does not dwell much on the character's origins. You get to see the moment he decides to become The Spirit, but not much of his story before that. The case he's trying to solve involves the curator of a museum being involved in criminal activity. The character himself is dumb, clumsy, and at times quite rude. It's hard to see why one should sympathize much with him.

The best thing with this movie (TV pilot) is also one of the things that makes it hard to take it seriously: it looks more like a music video then an action story. A bit similar to the Schumacher Batman-movies at times, while at other times it looks like any 80s TV-series. Especially the graveyard set reminds me of something like Michael Jackson's Thriller.

So is it worth a watch? Maybe if you have some sort of relationship with The Spirit, or if you like movies based on comic books. It's typical for its era, but that's about the only interesting thing about it.

A decent, well-intentioned attempt at a classic character

[johntrumbull · 2 December 2001]

I just saw this unsold pilot for the first time since it aired in 1987, and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it was much better than I remembered. Sam Jones looked great as the Spirit and he played the part in a tongue-in-cheek manner that was just right. Nana Visitor (STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE 9) was also very good as Ellen Dolan and showed some real chemistry with Jones, as well as a gift for physical comedy (she did start out as a dancer, after all). The fellow who played Commissioner Dolan suited his part very well. The woman who played P'Gell was okay, but she didn't have quite the spark the role needed. A sultry young Joan Collins type would've been better. Eubie (formerly Ebony) White didn't have much to contribute to the plot and consequently didn't make much of an impression. The movie's plot (about some art forgeries at a Central City museum) is more of a straightforward adventure story than anything Will Eisner ever did, which does take away from some of the Spirit's uniqueness. There are a couple of plot holes here and there (why do they have a gravestone for Denny Colt in a Central City cemetery when he was just visiting?), but nothing too heinous. And, if you have more than a passing familiarity with the Spirit, it's all too easy to figure out who the mystery villain is. The movie takes place in 1987 instead the 1940s (with plenty of contemporary references to remind you of that fact). It was too expensive to do it as period piece, I'd imagine. Sometimes the budget limitations are all too evident (Wildwood Cemetery looks like nothing so much as a studio set). And a few too many scenes are daytime ones. But there are a few shots here and there which positively REEK of the right sort of film noir atmosphere. You can definitely tell the creators of the movie had a genuine affection for the Spirit. It would've been very interesting to see where this show would've gone if it had become a series. If you come across a copy somewhere (I was told it originally ran 90 minutes long but it was edited down to 70 before air), check it out, it's worth a look. For another cool movie with a Spirit reference, see THE IRON GIANT.

One and Only adaptation of Will Eisner's SPIRIT was pretty good

[redryan64 · 7/10 · 1 June 2005]

The adaptation of Will Eisner's SPIRIT to the TV screen followed many other offerings developed from comic strip pages or comic books. (Remember, the two aren't exactly the same medium) It is indeed ironic that this is the one and only adaptation (as of the time of this writing)of Eisner's smart alec, wise cracking, tongue-in-cheek super hero.

Story has it that Republic Pictures was interested in doing a film version and was in negotiation with the copyright owner in the mid '40's, but they were never able to close the deal. The left over screen play became the serial, THE MASKED MARVEL, one of Republic's best. Perhaps that it was just as well, for that studio had a penchant for tinkering with material adapted from the comic strips, pulp mags, radio and the comic books.

As for this 1987 made for TV movie, it's pretty obvious that it was a failed pilot for a proposed television series. Whereas an old, long time comic reader,like myself, can be a little harsh in criticism of an adaptation, a viewer unfamiliar with the character may be able to give some fresh observations, clear of any preconceived notions of what this screen version should look like.

Well, while sitting and watching the story unfold, with the characters interacting amid some crime wave, the Little Lady (my wife, Mrs. Ryan) nailed it with one statement. "This can't make up its mind if it's serious or not!" That pretty well describes both THE SPIRIT and his creator, Mr. Will Eisner, the true creative genius in the comics.

The film is a sincere attempt to put Eisner's world on the screen. The casting of Denny Colt/The Spirit, Commissioner Dolan and Ellen was really quite well done. Though in a contemporary setting, it was still in the tradition of "the good old days" as far as the costuming goes, you know, when men and women still wore hats! That brings up this one final (and meandering) point, and that is that the director and the production made a conscious effort and succeeded in giving the characters a Will Eisner look as far as facial expressions and body language. We say,Kudos to them for their efforts.

It's just too bad that no series followed! Oh, well in today's motion picture world, comic adaptations seem to be a hot item. Maybe some big timer producer and director could do a really 1st class SPIRIT production for the Big Screen. We can only hope.

UPDATE: Dateline, Chicago, Illinois. 6/4/2008. By now, everyone who goes to the Movies at the Shopping Centre Multiplexes has seen the poster advertising the new film of THE SPIRIT, (subtitled, MY CITY SCREAMS); which is to be released Christmas Day, 2008. Well, we'll see then just what we've been talking about. Just keep your fingers crossed! TO BE CONTINUED.............

UPDATE II: We saw the new film, Writer-Director Frank Miller's rendition of THE SPIRIT a couple of days ago. Well, we got our wish; but is this a good thing or another case of "Be careful what you ask for; because you may get it?" Please read our write-up elsewhere in IMDb.com. THANX!

TV Spirit Entertaining

[coker-8 · 9/10 · 1 January 2009]

The 1986 TV movie of The Spirit was a pilot for a possible series. However, Spirit creator Will Eisner did not like the film and thus no series was produced. I thought it was a very entertaining film and captured the spirit (sorry) of the comic with a modern twist. I'm sorry it didn't materialize into a series. Sam (Flash Gordon) Jones was a perfect Spirit. Nana Visitor was a nice Ellen Dolan and of course would later go on to Star Trek:Deep Space Nine years later. Maybe with the release of Frank Miller's big-screen version of The Spirit, more people will be able to see this rare gem of Spirit history. It seems that when Hollywood makes a film from an already established character or idea, someone will inevitably seek out previous versions of the property and release it to video in order to make a few dollars. When Antonio Banderas donned the mask of Zorro, we were able to get earlier versions of the masked hero on DVD, such as the great Alain Delon version of the 1970s (although all copies I ever saw were badly edited). Heres hoping someone will release the TV adventure of The Spirit to DVD soon.

In spite of its flaws I liked it.

[DN-6 · 28 January 1999]

Based upon Will Eisner's comic book character, the movie manages to capture the essence of the hero while sacrificing the film noir elements of the original comic book. Here are all the trademarks of the original character: the torn shirt, the beautiful femme fatale, the cemetery, the rain storms. However, the film never looks "right" - the film appears low budget despite some very good actors and actresses. Part of the problem is the translation of the Spirit to the 1980's. Two scenes in the film stand out as classic Esiner: the scene in the foundry and the final fight in the museum. Not a great film but a fun way to spend an afternoon.

Semi-comical version of a serious character, but it mainly works

[Skragg · 8/10 · 27 January 2005]

I saw this pilot when it was first shown, and I'm sure countless "Spirit" fans hate it, because, like Batman, the Green Hornet etc., it took the character in the direction of "camp". But I evidently never got enough of Batman, because I thought it was entertaining, in some of the same ways as that show. There are two parts that stay with me. First, when Denny's partner has been fatally wounded, and he makes a dramatic speech about how he always stood for the law, and obeying the exact letter of it. Then, he says something like, "Boy, was I stupid!" Which is his way of telling Denny to become a vigilante instead, which he does (though the TV Batman kind). Then, there's the scene where he tries to seduce the villainess into letting him go by kissing her, but she isn't fooled, because he's too honest to kiss her convincingly ! This was a great example of "camp", that was also "underplayed", by both the actor and actress.

Good, but not great.

[vanwall · 25 February 2009]

I enjoyed this adaptation of The Spirit comics, and in many ways it caught the flavor and humor of the original stories. It had a nice cast of virtual unknowns, and hit all the marks for fun and adventure. Sam J. Jones did a creditable job, and Laura (McKinley) Robinson had P'Gell down cold, and was a gorgeous femme fatal. It had a low budget look, tho, for much of its length, and not enough of the wonderful camera angles The Spirit comic practically cried out for. That said, Will Eisner told me himself, at a ComicCon, that he would rather I never mentioned it again. He wanted a darker, more noir look to it, with a better cast. As for the re-make from 2008, which reeked, the less said the better - I'm sure Mr. Eisner would have plenty of negatives to talk about for that film; many, many more than for this one.

Although the movie has its ups and downs, most fans will find this easier to digest than Frank Miller's big-screen adaptation

[ersinkdotcom · 8/10 · 22 October 2013]

Originally made as a pilot for a series based on Will Eisner's legendary comic book character, it ended up forever lost as a TV-movie. It wasn't until the arrival of Frank Miller's ill-received big-screen adaptation that this garnered attention once again.

Denny Colt (Sam Jones) comes to Central City to investigate the death of his good friend (Philip Baker Hall). After getting a little too close to the truth, Colt is shot and left for dead to drown in the harbor. Thought to be dead, he "raises" from the grave as the masked avenger the Spirit. He joins forces with the city's police commissioner Dolan (Garry Walberg) to find the connections between his friend's murder and a local art heist.

The cast of "The Spirit" features some interesting actors in key roles. Sam Jones steps out of his Flash Gordon outfit and into the blue suit and fedora of the masked vigilante. Nana Visitor ("Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," "Torchwood") plays police commissioner Dolan's daughter, Ellen, who has a crush on the Spirit. Television actor Garry Walberg of "Quincy, M.E." fame portrays Commissioner Dolan.

Most fans of "The Spirit" will find this failed 1987 TV-pilot much easier to digest than Frank Miller's big-screen adaptation of the hero. Although the movie has its ups and downs, it's more accurate to the tone and visual appearance of Will Eisner's beloved comic book.