Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai • 1h 56m
Directed by Jim Jarmusch • 1999 • United States
Starring Forest Whitaker, John Tormey, Cliff Gorman
Jim Jarmusch combined his love for the ice-cool crime dramas of Jean-Pierre Melville and Seijun Suzuki with the philosophical dimensions of samurai mythology for an eccentrically postmodern take on the hit-man thriller. In one of his defining roles, Forest Whitaker brings a commanding serenity to his portrayal of a Zen contract killer working for a bumbling mob outfit, a modern man who adheres steadfastly to the ideals of the Japanese warrior code even as chaos and violence spiral around him. Featuring moody cinematography by the great Robby Müller, a sublime score by the Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA, and a host of colorful character actors (including a memorably stone-faced Henry Silva), GHOST DOG: THE WAY OF THE SAMURAI plays like a pop-culture-sampling cinematic mixtape built around a one-of-a-kind tragic hero.
Up Next in Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
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Q&A with Jim Jarmusch
In June 2020, the Criterion Collection invited fans to send in questions about GHOST DOG: THE WAY OF THE SAMURAI for director Jim Jarmusch to answer. The questions came in from cities around the world.
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Forest Whitaker, Isaach De Bankolé, a...
This conversation among actors Forest Whitaker and Isaach De Bankolé is moderated by film scholar Michael B. Gillespie, author of “Film Blackness: American Cinema and the Idea of Black Film,” and was recorded using an online video-conference-call application in summer 2020.
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Casting GHOST DOG with Ellen Lewis
In this interview, recorded in 2020, casting director Ellen Lewis discusses the process of finding actors for GHOST DOG: THE WAY OF THE SAMURAI.
