Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai

Starring: Forest Whittaker, John Tormey, Cliff Gorman, Richard Portnow, Tricia Vessey, Henry Silva
Directed by: Jim Jarmusch
Rating: R
Genre: Action, Crime, Comedy
1999

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: An assassin (Forest Whittaker) who lives by the ancient samurai code clashes with mobsters in his neighborhood.

Review:

Tim: I'm not really a huge Jim Jarmusch fan. I can appreciate that his films look and feel completely unique, and are certainly not what audiences are used to seeing. However, I also feel like it's a bit tough to break into his movies- to understand them on a deep level. I can appreciate their unique artistic beauty, but I don't generally love them. That isn't exactly true with Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai. This is a surprisingly accessible film that is entertaining, funny, and poignant. I was surprised by how much I liked this movie, and a great deal of that is because of Jarmusch.

Ghost Dog feels very unique. It's about an African-American samurai living in the United States who clashes with mobsters while staying loyal to the man who once saved his life. Movies like this don't get made very often. There's no real big action scenes, no laugh out loud funny moments, not even a real tear-jerking scene. However, the movie gets under your skin with his quiet, nearly imperceptible effectiveness. Jarmusch tells a captivating story that immediately pulls you in and really doesn't let go until the end. And yet, this is not a particularly intense or exciting movie. It's a slow rolling film that builds momentum without ever seeming like it's building towards something. This movie doesn't have the highs and lows like many films, instead moving along at its own pace. I liked that part of it.

The film is really helped by Forest Whittaker. I don't believe it would have been nearly as good without him. He's oddly believable as a modern day samurai assassin. He isn't a conventional choice, but his unique qualities as an actor perfectly matched the unique aspects of this film. He really is "Ghost Dog" and his portrayal makes this movie something special.

While there was so much I liked about this movie, I had a few complaints as well. There are a few powerful storylines here- I loved the relationship between Ghost Dog and Louie. Whittaker and John Tormey worked so well together. This unconventional relationship was complex and fascinating- and I wanted to see more of it. I also liked the relationship between Ghost Dog and the ice cream man, as well as the little girl. Again, we didn't get enough of these scenes. The other characters were markedly less effective, and this hurts the film a bit. I will say that they brought some nice humor to the film, but their levity also seemed occasionally like it missed the mark. The other characters could have been more effective.

The humor in this film was surprisingly good. I loved the conversations between Ghost Dog and the ice cream man. The humor was a one-trick pony, but it was used incredibly effectively, and I found it humorous every single time. The mobsters occasionally had a funny moment as well. Jarmusch uses humor in this film extremely effectively- it brings up scenes that would have otherwise between too slow, and creates a general sense of entertainment that could have easily been lost otherwise.

I really enjoyed watching this movie, and I would without doubt watch it again. It exists in its own little vacuum- a film too different to really compare it to anything else. In many ways, it stands alone in my mind. That's hard to accomplish, and Jarmusch should be given credit for pulling it off. While this might not be a great movie, it's a very solid one, and a film I thoroughly enjoyed watching.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 7.5



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