Ghost Dog tells the rather unlikely story of a modern, urban black man who has become so enamored by the ancient code of the Japanese Samurai that he has decided to take up that old code and live the quasi-honorable life of an Italian mafia hitman. Yup, just a slight strech of the imagination is required.... ok, so it's actually completely unbelivable. And in many ways this film doesn't work at all. In fact on the whole, while the plot makes some sort of sense, character motivations, and the themes are completely obscured by the glaring incredulity of the premise. Oh, well, this is Jim Jarmusch, I suppose we should've expeceted as much.
Ghost Dog, that's our protagonists name by the way, has walked into an ugly situation after a hit goes wrong. Now the mafia is out to kill him, although they don't actually know his name, and the only communication he has with his employer is through carrier pigeon, they're gonna try their damndest off him. Of course our protagonist is far too busy stealing cars and philosophising to really pay much attention. And while the maxiums of The Way of the Samurai, are very interesting, they do not a good movie make. Especiallly when we're constantly being bombarded by text literally printed upon our screen. The only really redeeming quality that somewhat saved this film was the relationships within Ghost Dog's dubious world. His bestfriend is a Hatian ice cream man who speaks no english, but they both seem to understand each other enough for their simple purposes. And the gangsters too are quite amusing amongst themselves, quite literally caractures of old time gangsters (I don't think any of them was under 60). There's also a running plot thread that all anyone ever watches on television is old cartoons. Possibly a salut to simpler times? Or maybe a recognition of baser heros and villians. Whichever it is, we do get some decent interactions, and character moments. But does this really excuse the far fetched plot? Yes. In the final analysis the good outweighs the bad, but go in with your eyes open. You have been warned...
3/5Ghost Dog has a very interesting look. And once you get used to the strange pacing and past the plot flaws; it's a pretty enjoyable film to watch. After all this is from the same man that brought us Dead Man, Fear and Lothing in Los Vegas, and This film as I said before, has flaws. But I find it hard to put my finger on wheather it has something to do with the casting or not. Forest Witaker plays Ghost Dog. Definately not what you'd expect a samurai to be like. But then again maybe that's the idea. He does seem to have a quiet grace to him, and a proud strength that works very well in the role. And he is quite definately a good actor, but I can't really say if he actually pulled it off... There was just too much plot going on, the character workssometimes, and sometimes it doesn't. I never forgot that iot was Forest Witaker, but that's pretty hard to do with a guy like him. Anyhow, most of the other actors were very well cast. I was particularily impressed with Isaach De Bankolé as Ghost Dog's Hatian friend Raymond. He really has a tremendous screen presence. Maybe it was in composition to Witaker's more subtle approach, but he almost upstaged our star a number of times. He really did a very good job, and I'd love to see more of him. Jim Jarmusch... well, what can you say. He's really just plain weird. His films all have this really strange quality. You can't really call them great, You can't really call them masterpieces. But I just might be tempted to call Jarmusch a genius. Because whatever I thikn of them, he consistantly produces high quality pieces of art. And I sure as heck bet that he does exactly the kind of movies he wants to do. And at the end of the day, that's the essence of being successful. The film has problems, it has merits too. I liked a lot of it, and was really put off by others. I suppose it's a fine line for a man like Jarmusch, I feel like I'm teetering on both sides of the fence. Good. Bad. Whatever, it sure is interesting. A weird film. I'm not sure if I'd really reccomend it to most people, the pacing is slow and the premise totally out there. Check it out if you're feeling odd.
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