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Showing
in: Circuit Empire
Date: September
22, 2000
Production
Information:
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
ingeniously re-creates the gangster picture as a
cross-cultural fusion of Eastern philosophy, hip-hop
music, urban darkness, and movie iconography. Written,
directed and produced by Jim Jarmusch, the film stars the
sublime Forest Whitaker as Ghost Dog, a man of few words
who shares his rooftop home with dozens of pigeons. Ghost
Dog lives by the precepts of the eighteenth century
warrior text Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai, practicing
the ancient disciplines of the samurai and applying them
to his work as a contract killer.
Whitaker's magnificently still
performance is complemented by the film's atmospheric
music. Composed by the influential, innovative producer
and Wu-Tang Clan founder THE RZA, the soundtrack
underscores both the hitman's zen-like qualities and the
lurking menace of his environment.
In the samurai tradition, Ghost
Dog has pledged his loyalty to one master, Louie (John
Tormey), a small-time mobster who saved Ghost Dogs life
many years ago. As an assassin, Ghost Dog communicates
only via his trusted carrier pigeon and moves through the
night like a phantom, handling his weapons with the skill
and speed of a medieval Japanese swordsman.
Louie is a foot soldier in a
struggling crime family headed by Ray Vargo (Henry Silva).
Acting on orders, Louie hires Ghost Dog to kill Handsome
Frank (Richard Portnow), a "made man" and the
lover of Louise Vargo (Tricia Vessey), Ray's beautiful
young daughter. Unfortunately, Louise happens to be in
Frank's apartment when Ghost Dog completes the job, and
now an irate Ray Vargo wants the hit man dead.
Using the strategic wisdom he has
gleaned from Hagakure and other Eastern books, Ghost Dog
prepares to battle the Vargo family. Ultimately, though,
it is Louie whom he must confront, in a melancholy
showdown between two men who know their world is changing,
its moral codes unraveling. In Ghost Dogs words, he and
Louie are "from different, ancient tribes ... both
almost extinct." But Ghost Dog will not abandon
Hagakure principles: he is a samurai, above all, to the
very end.
Filled with Jim Jarmusch's
signature humor and odd characters, Ghost Dog: The Way of
the Samurai takes the filmmaker's work to a new level of
accessibility, opening it up to genre fans (gangster,
urban, Western, martial arts) and students of Eastern
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Business
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