Review of Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999) by Jeremy R — 09 Apr 2009

Another memorable oddity from Jim Jarmusch. With its slow, meditative start, it took me a little while to get into this one. It wasn't until they started to focus more on the dialogue and work humor into the narrative that I really started to connect with it more - the humorous scenes between the gangsters and Ghost Dog's friendship with Raymond and Pearline are crucial in holding the story together.

Thematically, the film's essentially a follow-up to Dead Man in many ways. You get a strong lead in Forest Whitaker as Ghost Dog, after Johnny Depp's turn as William Blake. Both men end up on the run from pursuers bent on ending their lives, and both handle it in completely different ways - Depp learning philosophy along his journey, and Whitaker implementing bushido philosophy as read in Hagakure into how he lives his life. There's a very authentic, elaborate multicultural tapestry being woven in Ghost Dog, where Dead Man focused on the growth and development of an individual on the run. In Ghost Dog's case, rather than running, he turns and fights, acting through the bushido code to resolve his dilemma.

Like Dead Man, Ghost Dog mixes a lot of wonderfully interwoven humor into the otherwise completely serious narrative, with a cast of villains both menacing and comical. Where Blake had Nobody to turn to, Ghost Dog's developed more as a quiet, meditative individual through his friendships with the characters of Raymond and Pearline - Raymond's exchanges with other characters in general are a joy to watch, with the multi-lingual interplay in the exchanges, well-written communication in lacking a lingua franca. And Gary Farmer even gets a hilarious cameo in a modern day reprisal of Nobody, which really only made the film even better.

Following Dead Man's Neil Young score, Ghost Dog sports an original score by the RZA (Who has a brief cameo in the film as well), which helps to establish a strong, original atmosphere as well.

Overall, between the two, I'd have to say that Dead Man's the better of the two films, but Ghost Dog isn't far behind. The pacing and direction are a little uneven in Ghost Dog, and it loses points for that. But ultimately, both are excellent films, and I'd think viewing both in succession would make for one hell of an evening, watching their themes play off one another more directly.

Definitely one of Jim Jarmusch's better films.