# Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999)

### reviewed by
Alex Ioshpe

    DIRECTED BY: Jim Jarmusch
    WRITTEN BY: Jim Jarmusch
    CAST: Forest Whitaker, Isaach De Bankolé, John Tormey, Camille Winbush

MPAA: Rated R for strong violence and language. Runtime: Japan:116

    RATING: 8/10

'Ghost Dog' is a strange-looking movie with a unique atmosphere. It's built of offbeat rhythms, outlandish jokes and a strange sensibility in which cultures and subcultures of Japan, Sicily, Port-au-Prince and the Wu Tang Clan seem perfectly harmonious. The experience is deeply hypnotic and almost haunting.

In director Jim Jarmusch latest picture the main character is a reclusive and mysterious inner-city hit man who lives and breathes by the code of ancient Japanese warriors, and moves with so much conviction that he barely needs to speak. Alone on the rooftop he calls home, silhouetted against a smoky sky and the ragged chimneys and TV antennas of neighboring buildings, Ghost Dog lives with the pigeons and his books. His life is simple, harsh and bizarre. When he is not on a mission, he writes his poetry with his sword. His only friend is the ice cream-man in the park. Though the ice cream man doesn't know English and Ghost Dog doesn't understand French, they seem happy with their relationship. Ghost Dog has the heart of a warrior, but he moves on little cat feet. As every samurai, Ghost Dog has a master in the form of a mafia chieftain. They communicate with the help of a carrier pigeon that lives on Ghost Dog's roof.

The film is divided into multiple chapters, where quotes from "Hagakure: The Way of the Samurai", which is basically Ghost Dog's bible, are projecting the events unfolding before our eyes, explaining at times Ghost Dog's behavior and state of mind. Animated parables of sex, envy, power and violence comment on the film's action as well. Jarmusch moves dreamy and unhurried, slowly capturing the audience in his world. At times it feels like no body is directing at all, that the movie kind of lives on its own. But there are times when you feel a powerful force behind the images. The clever parallels between dream and reality and time and space. The comparisons, philosophy and human emotions -- everything is implanted in a strangely complex picture. It's an action movie for maverick intellectuals, a noir thriller with a prankish streak, a genre film that knows and mostly obeys the rules but keeps cramming in odd insights, goofy jokes, offbeat allusions to cinema and literature. An exploration of the mind and deeds of a man who moves mysteriously and yet purposefully through a life filled with danger. There is also a strange connection and complete understanding of the main character, who is lost in dreams, space and time. He has simply lost all touch with reality. There is a strange surrealism in Jarmusch's picture, where parallel worlds virtually float into each other, co-existing simultaneously. Ghost Dog's alienation from human society, his loneliness, his attempt to justify inhuman behavior (murder) with a belief system (the samurai code) has no connection with his life or his world. The act of vengeance, a dream to return to the ancient traditions - the purity of mind and soul and the nearest you can get in our modern world is murder.

Ghost Dog appears in virtually every scene, yet he doesn't speak for almost an hour and when he does, it is only in short, concrete sentences. Yet, his presence is felt tremendously throughout the whole movie. Every minute he's on screen, Whitaker makes "Ghost Dog" worth watching. He basically carries the film on his shoulders, making the diffirence between success and failure. There are moments where his eyes and body language say more than any words ever could. It's nothing less than an awesomely grave and sensitive performance.

"Ghost Dog" might feel too close to a genre film, but it resembles no other mob story or action-revenge picture ever made. It splices together 18th century Japanese teachings, martial arts, mob iconography, the military primer, The Art of War, hip-hop, mythology and pop entertainment. There's the contrasty cinematography of Robby Muller, for one, the pulsing score by the RZA, for another. And there are those little Jarmusch touches -- the empty black spaces between some of the scenes, for instance -- which give the film an utterly unique sensibility. But there are times when the director's unhurried style and slow pacing seem tiring, close to dull, which certainly is a not very good element. In such moments Whitaker's presence helps a lot and saves Jarmusch from a close flop. In the end you'll sit amazed and a little confused by what you have seen. It's certainly not an action film that will rock the box office. It won't make any headlines until many years later, when many will wake up, remember embrace the original and misunderstood director Jim Jarmusch.

The review above was posted to the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due to ASCII to HTML conversion.

Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews