While writer/director Jim Jarmusch and actor Forest Whitaker were well established by 1999, GHOST DOG feels like something of a calling-card project, an attempt to expand their mainstream base with genre elements, crowd-pleasing violence (mob thuggery vs samurai finesse) and a coating of sentiment hidden behind chess matches and an appreciation of classic literature. It works, but there’s a price to pay. Whitaker, playing possum under his bulky, phlegmatic presence, is a mob hitman (on retainer), waiting in his rooftop coop with carrier pigeons for a new assignment. But the hit turns complicated as the ‘made man’ target had mob friends and wasn’t alone when the kill went down. A girl Whitaker lets go, leaving a trail to follow and pushing Whitaker into defensive offense: he’ll have to rub out a whole gang of old-school mobsters while staying within the bounds of his personal Way-of-the-Samurai code. With a tasty cast Jarmusch put together for Whitaker to take apart (Henry Silva & Cliff Gorman best known and slimmest of a dozen ‘dese-dem-dose’ wide-load wiseguys. On the side, or rather on Whitaker’s side, a pair of supporters: one book loving little girl; one French speaking ice cream truck owner. Precision shot by Robby Müller and scored with a beat by RZA, the fly in the ointment (alas a disfiguring one) is that by the second act, it’s become too cute for words. And no matter how many people Jarmusch guns down (awkwardly with Whitaker doing the balletics) blood is spilled, or sacrifices made, he can’t straighten up in time for the film to acquire the philosophical gravitas he needs for the soufflé to rise.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: In the credits, Jarmusch tips his hat at the many influential filmmakers referenced (sometimes quite specifically) in the film. Including Japanese genre great Seijun Suzuki. A director who never recovered from gaining his freedom from studio restrictions and interference after going indie. Best intro to Suzuki probably YOUTH OF THE BEAST/’‘63, stylistically decades ahead of its time. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/06/youth-of-beast-1963.html
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