*** out of ****
Year: 2000. Starring Forest Whitaker, John Tormey, Cliff Gorman, Henry Silva, Isaach De Bankole, Tricia Vessey, Gene Ruffini, Richard Portnow, Camille Winbush. Written by Jim Jarmusch. Directed by Jim Jarmusch. Rated R.
"Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai" is the kind of film that, despite being written and directed by "arty" Jim Jarmusch, will be prematurely dismissed by many as a superficial, testosterone-driven movie about gangsta rappers with delusions of being samurai warriors -- a glorified Wu-Tang album, so to speak. Containing music credited to Wu-Tang producer RZA certainly doesn't help the film do away with that sentiment. But such dismissals are unfair, because "Ghost Dog" has a lot more substance to it than the trailers might have you believe. It's a film that can be enjoyed on more than one level. Upon first glance, this is the adolescent fantasy of behaving like a samurai in modern-day New York City. Upon deeper inspection, however, there is a message here about adherence to tradition and adjustment to change. Some viewers will see this, and some won't, just like the characters in the film.
Forest Whitaker plays Ghost Dog, a large black man who lives in a shack on a rooftop, raises pigeons, and studies the Way of the Samurai. By night, he performs contract killings for an Italian mobster named Louie (John Tormey). We learn that Ghost Dog does this because as a young man, he was saved by Louie from a pair of ruffians. According to the samurai code, he must now take on the job of Louie's "retainer," protecting him and obeying his commands. But a problem occurs when Ghost Dog accidentally performs a killing in front of the daughter of Louie's boss. The boss (Henry Silva) wants Ghost Dog snuffed out. Louie explains that it won't be terribly easy, because the assassin only communicates with him via carrier pigeon, and he doesn't know exactly where he lives. The boss gives Louie a choice: Ghost Dog's life, or his. For the sake of protecting his master, Ghost Dog now must put his own life on the line.
There will probably be a large contingency of young males who consider "Ghost Dog" a "cool" movie. And there is plenty of cool stuff going on here: There are the ostensible and operatic fight scenes involving lots of gunplay and slow-motion action. There is the hip-hop score done by Wu-Tang's RZA, which is surprisingly not a *soundtrack* (frequently a collection of songs thrown together to sell albums), but is most definitely a film *score*, one written specifically to enhance the movie it was written for. RZA does inspired, eclectic work here, evoking various moods appropriate to particular scenes. The film is also frequently funny, especially in a scene where Louie must explain to his boss exactly who Ghost Dog is while the incredulous mobsters look on. Despite its slow pacing and occasional inscrutability, "Ghost Dog" has a good gangster movie plot and can most definitely be enjoyed as a trivial popcorn flick.
There is, however, more going on in "Ghost Dog" than you'll see in most popcorn flicks: It contains themes to be pondered. Director Jarmusch firstly dives into the theme of displacement; he takes ancient Japanese values and places them into a contemporary Western setting. Whitaker, for his part, gives himself over to the material thoroughly, every second presenting Ghost Dog as a man who staunchly believes in his philosophy. He has nary a line of dialogue for the first fifteen minutes of the film, and even afterwards his lines are scarce, but Whitaker manages to deliver some inspired physical acting to get his point across: His face will tell you everything, and he moves uncannily well for a large man. The actor's conviction further enforces the idea that Ghost Dog is a man who is out of place and time, which helps bolster Jarmusch's vision. The director is interested in how well such a man would handle modern-day values and customs. The answer to Jarmusch's question is up for discussion.
Jarmusch starts his musing on the subject by contrasting Ghost Dog's ways with that of his adversaries. The mobsters are portrayed as bumbling fools who watch cartoons and stumble their way through killings. There is a very good reason for this: All of them are at least 50 years old. As presented by Jarmusch, the mobsters are past their prime, a once-noble group that has lost its way and has failed to attract any fresh blood. Ghost Dog, on the other hand, follows his code very closely. He kills no one unnecessarily, and he lives in constant obedience to his master. The mobsters don't remember their code; they've begun killing people without verifying their identities, and they've lost respect for the traditions they once held dear. They've gotten sloppy. This is why, during a confrontation, Ghost Dog is able to effortlessly move through their lair: He is moving with graceful and controlled movement while the mobsters, caught entirely off-guard, fall one by one. Ghost Dog remembers his tradition, and has applied it to modern technology (he holds a large collection of modern weaponry, much of it state-of-the-art).
There is also an interesting theme brought up about the supposed lack of communication between seemingly disparate people. Ghost Dog's best friend is a Jamaican ice cream seller who speaks only French. But despite the language barrier (Ghost Dog only speaks English), the two somehow manage to speak to each other, frequently not realizing each of them has said exactly the same thing. The mobsters likewise fail to see just how similar their ways are to those of the samurai, inner-city blacks, and Native Americans. ( An amusing moment comes when one of the head mobsters reveals himself to be a closet Public Enemy fan.) All of the groups refer to each other by nicknames, and all of them hold very strong familial bonds. The mobsters don't perceive these similarities, going on about how different they are from "niggers" and "Indians." Jarmusch seems to imply that the ways of both Ghost Dog and the mobsters will only succeed if the followers rediscover their roots, their tradition, and continually reapply it to an ever-changing world. It is also suggested that a girl Ghost Dog has befriended may carry on the tradition in just such a manner.
I suppose much of what I've talked about in this review makes "Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai" sound like a boring, impenetrable art house film. It 's not. Yes, it does have some "deep" messages to deliver, but "Ghost Dog" is also very entertaining. Nor is it a perfect film: The conclusion is drawn out far too long and some of the excerpts from the book Ghost Dog reads don' t make much sense at all. And sometimes they make perfect sense. "Ghost Dog" is maddening in that way, but fortunately, it's usually a good kind of maddening. Sometimes the films that are the most flawed also have the most to offer.
-reviewed by Shay Casey
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