My Favourite Movies: Ghost Dog – The Way of the Samurai

Ghost Dog (played in a brilliantly understated way by Forest Whitaker) is an assassin for the local Mafia. Over the past four years he has operated flawlessly and is highly valued by his employer. So when he is asked to kill one of his own he picks his best man for the job. Unfortunately, as a matter of honour, the Mafia boss decides that Ghost Dog himself should be killed in retaliation for a killing they themselves sanctioned. But they have seriously underestimated their strange assassin and have set in train a series of events that will result in a bloodbath.

I never saw this film on the cinema. In fact I don’t think that I had ever even heard of it until either my brother or I saw it in our local video shop and picked up on the word ‘Samurai’. It wasn’t exactly what either of us had been expecting. For one thing this film is in many places simply surreal (either that or rather badly edited!) The whole premise of the film is rather ‘off’ from the start. Ghost Dog (no other name is given for the Whitaker character) is seen being beaten up by white hooligans and is rescued by a local Mafia ‘soldier’. Four years later he returns and pledges himself as a ‘retainer’ and offers his services as a killer. In those four years it seems that Ghost Dog has become a Samurai complete with sword and all of the philosophical trappings underlined by Whitaker reading from several Samurai classics including Hagakure by Yamamoto Tsunetomo (pictured here) both on screen and in voice-over. I was so impressed that I bought the book (of course). 

Despite, or maybe because of, the fact that he lives in a very rough and dangerous neighbourhood he has adopted the Samurai Code and does everything he can to live (and die) by it. Those around him can see that he is both a man of honour, a gentle unassuming man and someone not to be trifled with or crossed. Seemingly emotionless, or at least not emotionally demonstrative, he goes about his life and his profession with the minimum of fuss. Indeed, as shown in more than one scene he is practically invisible to most people around him. The only people in his life are his ‘boss’, his best friend (who rather bizarrely only speaks French throughout the movie – fortunately with sub-titles – and sells ice-cream from a van. What makes it more than a little surreal is that neither one can understand anything the other is saying! The only other person in his life – who he met by accident in the park is a young black girl (played by the delightful 9 year old Camille Winbush) – to whom he lends his Samurai books on the understanding that she reads them and talks to him about them later.

As I say, all very odd! But somehow the whole thing works. It can be more than a little difficult to get your head around and, if you want to get its full effect you’ll need to watch it more than once (I’ve seen it 4-5 times now and I’m still seeing things I missed or didn’t understand the first few times) but you’ll get something from it each time. It is pretty violent in places and there’s quite a bit of swearing but unless you’re easily offended it shouldn’t prove much of an obstacle. It is much more that your run-of-the-mill Mafia/assassin movie - you know the kind that Hollywood endlessly recycles every so often for the ‘teen’ market. It also has an excellent soundtrack (also bought) which is one of my favourite things about the film. Whitaker is superb as Ghost Dog. I haven’t seen him in much else but was very impressed by this portrayal. If you’d like to see something different and something that will stay with you for a while I can certainly recommend this to you.