Crime

Drama

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai

Bac Films

Pandora Film

Plywood Productions

ARD Degeto

Le Studio Canal+

France

Germany

Japan

United States of America

English

Forest Whitaker

John Tormey

Cliff Gorman

Frank Minucci

Richard Portnow

Tricia Vessey

Henry Silva

Gene Ruffini

Frank Adonis

Victor Argo

Isaach de Bankolé

Camille Winbush

Damon Whitaker

Vince Viverito

Chuck Jeffreys

Dennis Liu

Kenny Guay

Gano Grills

Touché Cornel

Jamie Hector

Yan Ming Shi

Vinny Vella

Joseph Rigano

Roberto Lopez

Salvatore Alagna

Jerry Todisco

Dreddy Kruger

Timbo King

Clay Da Raider

Dead and Stinking

Deflon Sallahr

Gary Farmer

Clebert Ford

José Rabelo

Jerry Sturiano

Tony Rigo

Alfred Nittoli

Angel Caban

Luz Valentin

Renee Bluestone

Jordan Peck

Jonathan Teague Cook

Tracy Howe

Harry Shearer

Vanessa Hollingshead

Sharon Angela

Scott Bryce

Paul Diomede

Richard Guay

Jay Rabinowitz

Robby Müller

Ted Berner

Jim Jarmusch

Mario Ventenilla

John Furniotis

Don Nolan

Drew Jiritano

Karen L. Thorson

Thomas Hocking

Adenike Wright

Stacey Smith

Louis Mucci

Peter DeCurtis

Phil Saccio

Mario Herrera

Jennifer Snoeyink

Joseph Proscia

Danny Rovira

Richard S. Kamin

Steve Swanson

Gabrielle Mahon

Bill Cassidy

Manny Siverio

David Boulton

Mark Tureski

John Stifanich

John Werner

Norman Douglass

Jason Canovas

Ryan Collison

Yvette Nabel

Gary Lamantia

Eric A. Christoffersen

Andrew Mortelliti

John Chamberlain

Ann Hadsell

Alex Raspa

David Kleinstein

Jeff Ward

Joe Dohner

Thomas A. Gulino

Lynn Sable

Brian Vancho

Keith Culbertson

Gray Miller

David Norris

Blythe Cappello

Carl Archibald

Suk Yi Mar

Peter Phillips

Joe Facey

Gayle Keller

Demond Stafford

Akira Kurosawa

Mary Shelley

Sara Driver

Jeanne McCarthy

Ged Dickersin

Kathleen Gallagher

Nicolas L. Charuet

Jessy Terrero

Ricardo Olivero

Tom Jarmusch

Christopher Porter

Ulysses Terrero

David Davenport

Catherine Rankin

Kevon Murphy

Jennifer Ehman

Jesse Bodine

Cynthia Bauer

Aaron Douglas

Orlando Ferreyra III

Jeff Gilbert

Chaim Kantor

Anthony Ortiz

Kate Schultz

Brian Cantaldi

Mimi Turner

Amy Habacker

Jennifer Apel

Kevin Brainerd

Bart Walker

Tony Grocki

Jill Goldstein

Ariel Greene

Mara Galus

Damon Keller

Randall Balsmeyer

Jean-Pierre Melville

Jen Cox

Steve McAuliff

John Arena Jr.

Harris Smith

The eponymous protagonist of Jim Jarmusch's 1999 film GHOST DOG is an African-American hitman (Forest Whitaker) working for an Italian mafia in New Jersey and living according to the Hagakure, Japan's samurai code. After a hit goes wrong through no fault of the assassin's own, his mafia liaison Louie (John Tormey) is sympathetic, but explains that his superiors now want Ghost Dog dead. The film follows Ghost Dog's revenge and depicts a clash between two ancient tribes that both seem out of date in this modern world: Ghost Dog's samurai code and Italian mafia ideas of loyalty.

Jarmusch has always been open about the fact that he soaks up a huge number of inspirations from earlier films, books, and music and then lets them reflect in his own work. Any cinephile will instantly recognize Jean-Pierre Melville's 1967 film Le Samouraï as the point of departure for GHOST DOG. In Meville's classic, a Parisian hired assassin lives according to a strict code. But Melville didn't really know much about Japan, and even the quotation from a samurai text at the beginning of his film was just made up by Meville himself. Jarmusch seems to have decided, "OK, I'll show you a hired-assassin film that's *really* rooted in the code of the Samurai". Forest Whitaker quotes from Hagakure throughout the film, and there are also references to the work of Akira Kurosawa.

But GHOST DOG is not a remake, and Jarmusch takes the basic premise in a very individual direction. There's a lot of humour here, something missing from the serious Melville inspiration. In casting for the mafia dons, Jarmusch chose faces as brutal and distinctive as Dick Tracy's rogues gallery: Henry Silva as the don, and Cliff Gorman and Gene Ruffini as his righthand men. But Jarmusch then gives them the occasional zany line that cracks that chilling façade. Isaach de Bankole plays a supporting role as a French-speaking Haitian immigrant and Ghost Dog's best friend, a role that is pure comic relief because the man doesn't speak English and Ghost Dog doesn't understand French, but they always manage to understand each other.

Until the late 1990s, Jarmusch had mainly been known as a fairly low-budget independent filmmaker writing cute little stories about personal relationships in low-key American life. Jarmusch's America was consistently depicted as run-down neighbourhoods and overgrown vacant lots. With its generous budget, large cast and special effects, GHOST DOG marked a huge leap forward in Jarmusch's work. Still, it maintains Jarmusch's interest in America as a land of urban blight and seedy underbellies: most of the film takes place in an ugly New Jersey urban setting. Furthermore, instead of being glamorized, the Italian mafia is depicted as a spent force, mainly elderly men who can't rake in the cash and influence they used to, and even forced to pay protection money to Chinese newcomers. As the film reaches its shocking ending, the glamour is drained from Ghost Dog's warrior code, as well.

The music for GHOST DOG was provided by RZA, at the time still best known as part of the Wu-Tang Clan. The music mainly consists of wordless beats, though, with actual rapping only at a few points. Personally, I find the use of hip-hop a weak point of the film (Jarmusch looks like an outsider looking in to this scene, unable to organically make it part of his own work), and RZA's insistence on appearing in the film itself disrupts the rhythm of the film's climax.

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Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai

Cast & Crew

Videos

Cast

Forest Whitaker

John Tormey

Cliff Gorman

Frank Minucci

Richard Portnow

Tricia Vessey

Henry Silva

Gene Ruffini

Frank Adonis

Victor Argo

Box office

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