Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai [Region 2] | ![Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai [Region 2]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51RMQQ7T2AL._SL500_.jpg)
| Director: Jim Jarmusch
Actors: Forest Whitaker, Henry Silva, John Tormey, Cliff Gorman, Dennis Liu
Studio: Artisan Entertainment
Category: DVD
This item is no longer available
Rating:  223 reviews
Format: Pal
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Region: 2
Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1
Running Time: 116 Minutes
EAN: 3388334563475
ASIN: B00004X0VW
Theatrical Release Date: October 6, 1999
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Amazon.com
Forest Whitaker makes an unlikely modern samurai with his laser-sighted pistols, shabby street clothes, and oddly graceful gait--but then Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai is an unusual film. Quirky, contemplative, and at times absurd, it's just the kind offbeat vision we've come to expect from the fiercely independent Jim Jarmusch (Stranger than Paradise, Dead Man). Whitaker is Ghost Dog, a mysterious New York hit man who lives simply on a tenement rooftop and follows a code of behavior outlined in Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai (passages of this book are interspersed throughout the film). When the local mob marks him for death in a complicated code of Mafiosi-style honor, Ghost Dog sends a cryptic message to his foes. "That's poetry. The poetry of war," remarks mobster Henry Silva, with sudden respect upon reading the verse. He could be describing the ethereal beauty of Jarmusch's vision, full of wonderful imagery (a night drive across town seems to float in time) and off-center humor. Though it briefly stalls in a series of assassinations (Jarmusch is no action director), it settles back into character-driven drama in a quietly epic showdown, equal parts samurai adventure, spaghetti western, and existential crime movie. The film is likely too unconventional and offbeat for general audiences, but cult-movie buffs and Jarmusch fans will appreciate his idiosyncratic vision. He finds a strange sense of honor in the clash of Old World traditions, and salutes his heroes with a skewed but sincere respect. --Sean Axmaker
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| Customer Reviews: Read 218 more reviews...
 Ancient tribes and their rites May 8, 2009
H. Schneider (window seat)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
When a movie maker is as controversial as Jarmusch, one has to take sides. Or ignore him, as I did for a long time. Now not any longer, after watching a few of his very special gems.
Ghost Dog, in summary, sounds like a standard action or mob film. The title hero, Whitaker, is a black hit man in New York, working for the mob with a special personal bond of loyalty to one the mobsters, not the top guy. He gets entangled in a complicated farce of an honor issue of the senile and ridiculous gangsters that dominate the film. The top mobster, a ghost- like Henry Silva, decides that the hitman must be killed.
Ghost Dog has self-styled himself as a samurai, and he follows the code as he sees it from a book that he reads on his roof, where lives with his carrier pigeons. He fights back with restraints of loyalty.
Those who take the film as a normal action film will be disappointed. It is an absurd farce on the genre, with great dialogues and cinematography. It is packed with cinema allusions, some explicit like the High Noon show down at the end, many others less blatant. Great fun.
Surprisingly good October 10, 2008
Lisa Mooren (USA)
My boyfriend nicely lured me into watching this, and I loved it.
I have seen Forest Whitaker in plenty of movies, but this was one of my favorite performances. I'm surprised it didn't receive more attention in the past.
Stunning offbeat hitman movie August 25, 2008
Chris Wood (UK)
This is a real gem - a cool, Eastern influenced assassin movie. It has a great performance from Forest Whitaker and some stunning action, as well as a heart and soul that place it well above the above hitman movie. This is a brilliant film, strongly recommended.
 complete waste of attention August 17, 2008
schnoggi
0 out of 6 found this review helpful
Jarmusch is one of the most overrated directors, can't imagine how he is taken seriously. Read all the one star reviews and believe them fully. Dead editing, lifeless acting, derivative soundtrack, stapled-on topheavy pointless samurai nonsense; nothing here to see except a very dull man blathering on about how deep and oh-so-cool he is. WORTHLESS.
Pathetic garbage July 13, 2008
A. Simon (USA)
0 out of 9 found this review helpful
This movie would be laughable if it wasn't so insulting to the audience's intelligence. It was obviously written and directed by a couple of ghetto trash mediocrities. The use of both the term "samurai" and the extensive quotes is a pathetic, transparent, contemptible trick to make the film appear respectable (or have some worth) in what is otherwise cinematographic toilet paper.
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