This is a new feature I'm going to bring to the blog, I call it: Random Movie Reviews. It is exactly what it sounds like. It is movie reviews of movies that have existed for a while but you may not have seen. The goal here is to a) expose you to a movie that you may have seen a trailer for but never saw and/or b) remind of something you saw a long time ago but may have forgotten about. I'm really hoping this will become a fun feature of the blog that people look forward to.
So without further adieu, Random Movie Reviews Part 1: Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
So first things first I guess, let's address the giant pink elephant in the room: the name. Ghost Dog is a terrible name for a movie that also involves the words the way of the samurai and does not in any way involve ghosts or dogs. Seriously, people actually laughed out loud at it in the movie theater when I saw the first trailer for it. What was even worse is that the trailer prior to it was for The Way of the Gun. That's two "the way of the" movies back to back in one sitting, and to be honest the trailer actually seemed like a joke. I was genuinely unsure if this was a real movie. It's kind of crazy that I remember seeing that trailer in the theater. I really don't know why I remember seeing it. But anyway, moving on.
The movie came out in 1999 and was written and directed by Jim Jarmusch. That in and of itself deserves touching on. I guess the first thing you should know about Jim Jarmusch is that he doesn't make movies he makes films, or at least that's the impression I get from him. He strikes me as one of those people who discusses "cinema culture" or some such nonsense. His films are definitely an acquired taste, he's the kind of guy who wins awards at film festivals you've never heard of or care about. So there's that.
As you can see from the poster above the movie stars Forest Whitaker. It also has a bunch of other actors that you will probably recognize as character actors that you've seen before but will probably not know their names. That's how it was for me anyway.
And now for the plot...
The story revolves around Whitaker's character, a man by the name of Ghost Dog, who is a hit man in the service of the mafia who lives his life according to the ways of the samurai as outlined in the book Hagakure. I'm just going to let that sink in for a second.
But wait it gets even better...
I said before that Ghost Dog was a hit man for the mafia but that's not entirely correct. Ghost Dog actually sees himself as a retainer (the samurai kind) of one mobster in particular, a man named Louie who saved his life years ago. The story revolves around Louie hiring Ghost Dog to kill a gangster that is sleeping with the daughter of the mafia boss. Ghost Dog obliges and afterword the mafia bosses decided that to tie up loose ends or save face or something that Ghost Dog has to die. They then track down Ghost Dog to try and kill him but instead kill his pigeons. Oh that's right I forgot to mention the pigeons. You see, Ghost Dog lives on a rooftop with pigeons he raises. He also uses those pigeons as a way to communicate with Louie.
Upon discovery of the dead pigeons Ghost Dog essentially realizes that he now has to kill all the mafioso in order to save himself and more importantly, Louie. Yes. That's right. He believes that as Louie's retainer that Louie's life is more important than his. He even says as much at one point. So now Ghost Dog goes on about killing all the mafioso only to (SPOILER ALERT) be killed by Louie at the order of the daughter of the mob boss who was sleeping with the guy killed in the beginning (END SPOILER).
And then there's all the random.
For example: Ghost Dog has only one friend who is an ice cream truck owner that only speaks French. Ghost Dog doesn't speak French. All they ever do is say exactly what the other one said. Then there's the mob boss' daughter who gives Ghost Dog a copy of the book Rashomon which then appears twice more in the plot. Also, a random dog, a child named Pearline, mafia guys rapping to Flava Flav, and the RZA. And we can't forget the cartoons. The mafia guys are always watching cartoons. The cartoons themselves actually foreshadow events that take place which would be cool except it isn't. Maybe because the exact same thing happens with quotes from the Hagakure which is the focal point of the movie.
The Hagakure is actually what made me see the movie. The Hagakure is a book written from 1709 to 1716 that outlines a lot of the philosophy of the Samurai (it's an excellent book that I highly recommend). Throughout the film there are quotes from the Hagakure both in text on screen and at the same time read by Ghost Dog. It's used as both plot device and transition element. Which actually is cool (although I may be biased because it's the Hagakure).
Despite the seemingly negative tone to this review, I actually like Ghost Dog. There are a lot of cool things about the movie. That said, there are a lot of things that keep it from being good. It's definitely not a movie that everyone will like, in fact I'm quite sure most people will hate it. For me though it's a middle of the road movie that I kind of enjoyed and can enjoy despite its shortcomings which I think says a lot coming from me. I'd give it a 2 out of a possible 5 stars. So if you happen to have Netflix or Hulu give it a watch if you have nothing better to do. But don't say I didn't warn you. I'll leave you now with a trailer for it. Enjoy.
