Ghost Dog - The Way of the Samurai
                                                                                                  
Director: Jim Jarmusch
Year: 1999
Rating: 8.0
A hitman film directed by Jim Jarmusch might seem unexpected from the man who helmed Mystery Train, Stranger Than Paradise and Coffee and Cigarettes, but he takes this well-worn genre and gives it a makeover. Like his early films, it is quirky, observant and whimsical often digressing into philosophy and elements that have little to do with the plot but are absolutely captivating. Those bits and pieces - often humorous - make this film so engaging. He creates a character - especially written for Forest Whitaker - that is one of a kind. The Last Samurai in a time where honor no longer is relevant to most, but he still lives by the code of Bushido.  At the same time, he pays homage to the classic hitman films by co-starring Henry Silva who was probably a hired killer in more films than he could remember. One of the great ones. Here he plays the Don of a Mafia Clan whose best days were back in the time when Carlo Gambino and Vito Genovese were bosses. All of his gang should be retired and living in Florida betting on the dogs. Things are so bad that they can't even pay the rent on their headquarters. They like watching cartoons on the television. Though Jarmusch pokes fun at them, they are still Mafia and live by that code.



Ghost Dog is a hitman. How he came to be that would be a story in itself, but the film never says. Just that at one time he is being beaten up by three punks when Louie (John Tormey) passes by and stops it. Four years later Ghost Dog appears at his door and tells him that he owes him and any favors he needs done, Ghost Dog is obliged by his code. Louie is a lower-level mobster. In those four years Ghost Dog has mastered the art of killing and become fully enjoined into the Samurai code. He reads from the Hagakure aka The Book of Samurai written in the 1600s by an attendant to Nabeshima Mitsushige, a daimyo of the period. The book is a collection of the thoughts and writings of his master. Ghost Dog lives on a rooftop with his friends, the pigeons - which he uses to communicate with Louie. Because Louie has taken him up on his offer and Ghost Dog has carried out a number of hits over the past years - flawlessly.


Ghost Dog's only human friend is the man who sells ice cream in the park. Raymond only speaks French and Ghost Dog only speaks English. But they communicate - often Ghost Dog saying the same thing in English that the Haitian (Isaach De Bankolé) has just said in French. He also meets a small girl in the park and lends her a copy of the book Rashoman. How he got that is the story. Ghost Dog is assigned another killing - of a mafia member who got out of line. He sneaks into his home and plugs him - three shots - and then notices a young woman sitting - reading. A hitman would of course kill any witnesses - but he lives by a different code - and so lets her live - particularly when he sees the book she is reading is Rashoman. Jarmusch thanks Akira Kurosawa in the end credits.



The girl is the daughter of the head of the gang (Silva) who decides that the hit needs cleaning up - and when he finds out that the assassin is black and his name, he goes into a bizarre and funny rant on nicknames. But he wants him dead - he killed one of us (at his orders but still) and tells his righthand man (Cliff Gorman) to get it done. But these are a bunch of old guys who nearly have a heart-attack getting up to the roof. Then Ghost Dog decides he needs to visit them. The film is paced at its own unrushed desire - sitting in the park, reading from his book, walking through the neighborhood where everyone knows him but not what to make of him, driving through the city at night and seeing the dreamy world at its worst. Little things like a mugger about to attack an old man and the old man kicking his ass with kung-fu. In many ways large parts of the film could have been in any of his films from that period - he just injects a hitman into it. Whitaker is astonishingly charismatic in this though he rarely shows any emotion or utters any unneeded words - just how he walks and stares is enough. Perhaps every male director has a hitman film in them wanting to get out, this was Jarmusch's.