Ghost Dog: The Way Of The Samurai
Do you watch samurai movies? After you see "Ghost Dog" you will want to. I have enjoyed every film
of Jarmusch's that I've seen, and would rank them all as quality films, but I don't find them all
entertaining, simply because of a lack of action. I am into storytelling, and action is mainly how a
story gets told. Having said that, this is definitely his most entertaining movie to date, and I think
has the potential for a wider audience than previous works. Mainstream appeal is a bit much to ask,
perhaps, for a movie that opened in only one theatre in San Francisco, the Bridge, well known for popular
independent offerings such as 1999's "Blair Witch Project." The film has a formal quality that will be at
once recognizable to fans of Jarmusch, samurai movies, and westerns. First, we meet the hero, the villian,
the henchmen, the bystanders. The initial conflict is introduced. Then, we learn more about the hero,
and the conflict intensifies and expands. Finally, big showdown and epilogue. Where Jonny Depp as William
Blake in "Dead Man" struggles to find his identity and accept his fate as killer and artist, Forest Whitaker
as "Ghost Dog" re-creates his identity and lives inside his fate, again, as killer and artist, through the
way of the samurai. There is a variation on most every stock character you might imagine illuminating the
character of Ghost Dog. There's a little girl that keeps books in lunch box. Could she be his 'inner
child', a manifestation of his innocence lost? The silent dog that visits, is it a reflection of the
unquestioning, undoubting and finally, loyal animal that he has become? The strange boat under construction
atop the apartment building, might it be a metaphor for the creativity and industry that fills the picture
of one's life, even as it must be framed by failure? Maybe. Then there are the passenger pigeons. I have
no idea what they signify -- maybe you can tell me. The plot is simple and not hard to guess early on, but
the story is not about finding out what is going to happen so much as accepting what we already know is
going to happen. Forest reminds us that a samurai's life means death, is death. The contrast in
Ghost Dog between the cold samurai instrument and the still-human man who can still enjoy an ice cream
cone is made flesh in the form of Forest, a man who seems to be a gentle soul, within a giant imposing
frame. He carries the film, the audience happily trailing behind at a safe distance, waiting to see
what he will do next. The film has its funny moments, and they don't seem out of place or forced. The
characters often don't seem aware of the comedy they are a part of, and this gives the film some of those
sad-but-funny moments we remember in life but so seldom see on the screen.
"Ghost Dog" was introduced at the Cannes Film fesival last year. You can read about it
here.