Ghost Dog - The way of the samurai

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Movie
German title Ghost Dog - The way of the samurai
Original title Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
Country of production United States
original language English ,
French
Publishing year 1999
length 116 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Jim Jarmusch
script Jim Jarmusch
production Richard Guay ,
Jim Jarmusch
music RZA , Wu-Tang Clan
camera Robby Muller
cut Jay Rabinowitz
occupation
synchronization

Ghost Dog - The Way of the Samurai is a co-production by American, German and French production companies from 1999. In the film by Jim Jarmusch , Forest Whitaker plays the mysterious Ghost Dog , an African-American assassin in the service of the Mafia , who follows the old samurai code . The film opened in German cinemas on January 6, 2000.

action

The film tells the story of the hit man "Ghost Dog", who fulfills murder assignments for the mafia member Louie. The introverted pigeon friend Ghost Dog lives in a modest room on the roof of a skyscraper. His best friend is Raymond, an ice cream seller with whom he cannot communicate linguistically because he only speaks French. Ghost Dog and Louie keep in contact with the help of carrier pigeons only sporadically. Ghost Dog follows the "way of the samurai", the principles of which he takes from a book called Hagakure .

Louie orders Ghost Dog to kill a member of his own clan, Handsome Frank, because he has gotten involved with Louise, the daughter of boss Ray Vargo. Ghost Dog carries out the assignment conscientiously; Contrary to expectations, Louise stays with Handsome Frank and witnesses the murder. Although Ghost Dog doesn't kill Louise, Louie is summoned by Vargo and his right-hand man, Sonny Valerio. They tell him that Handsome Frank's killer has to die because he was a Made Man . After questioning Louie about Ghost Dog, the members of the clan are tasked with killing Ghost Dog.

Ghost Dog sees Louie as his master and unconditionally obeys him. At a meeting, the Ghost Dog saves Louie's life, but also shoots him so that Louie does not lose his face and consequently his honor towards the other mafia members. Flashbacks explain the urban samurai's devotion to his master: Louie saved Ghost Dog's life in a chance encounter years ago. The two remember the scene of the rescue differently. Ghost thinks Louie saved him from mugger execution, while Louie recalls a situation where he first saved his own life.

After the Mafia members have ravaged the house of Ghost Dog and killed all the pigeons, Ghost Dog decides to revenge. He announces this to the clan with a message that a carrier pigeon brings. He follows the clan chief to his country estate in front of the city and awaits the arrival of Ray Vargo and his daughter. At first it looks like he's just trying to ambush Ray Vargo. But when at the crucial moment a bird sits in front of the telescopic sight of his rifle and prevents this, he goes over to the frontal attack and attacks the gang directly on their country estate. He makes short work of everyone who gets in his way. He leaves Vargo's daughter and Louie alive (but he is shot again), a mafioso survives seriously injured. On the way back, Ghost Dog meets two poachers who have just shot a bear. He points out to them that ancient cultures viewed the bear as being on an equal footing with humans. When one of the poachers threatens Ghost Dog with his weapon, he shoots them both. Louie, the seriously injured mafia killer, and Vargo's daughter drive into town to get medical treatment for the injuries. During an inspection they shoot a policewoman who notices the car with the wounded passenger. The seriously injured dies shortly before reaching the city. Ghost Dog kills Sonny Valerio and his cronies a little later in his house in town.

Foreboding of his end, Ghost Dog gives his friend Raymond a briefcase containing his tools and money when he learns Louie has asked about him. He gives his book "Hagakure" to Pearline, a little girl he has befriended. Then Louie reappears and the two of them showdown. Ghost Dog pretends to defend himself and Louie fires three shots. He dies willingly for his master. When Louie drives away, it becomes apparent that not he, but Louise is now leading the clan and has become boss.

In the final scene, Pearline is shown reading Hagakure from the book and looking thoughtfully out the window. The last thing you hear is a quote she reads from the book that foretells the end of all things. That ends the movie and Ghost Dog's story.

criticism

The lexicon of international films wrote that the film was "a sometimes atmospheric and reflective genre film with a charismatic leading actor" . The plot, however, "all too often [...] slips into the grotesque" , which gambled away "the good socially critical approaches" .

As in Jarmusch's films Dead Man and Down by Law , the plot revolves around outsiders of society who live in a kind of parallel world. Jarmusch goes into particular on the consequences of an unconditional surrender of one's self to an ideological or religious ideal . However, the actions were conceived very differently. While some critics see the film as a respectful homage to the culture of the samurai , others interpreted the film as a sharp criticism of this very task of one's own self.

Dietrich Kuhlbrodt criticized the film's “simple-minded ethical message” in his eyes. Jarmusch has “mixed diverse cultures and turned them into a simple mind story”. Nevertheless, he praised the laconic style of the director and the work of the cameraman Robby Müller . Jörg Lau described the film as a slow-motion thriller in which the journey is the goal. The film, like its main character, is sliding along, resulting in a "seamless picture-and-sound symphony". Others praised Ghost Dog as an unusual mix of poetry and trash in the style of Tarantino's Pulp Fiction . Jarmusch turns it into a reminiscence of Melville and a satire on gangster flicks from Hollywood production and also fighting and hacking trash à la Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan . The slow-motion fight scenes are evidence of this.

  • “Everything seems strange in Jarmusch's story [...] This world of the ghost dog seems like a dream. [...] self-contained, but also logically structured in itself "( Ulrich Behrens )
  • “This unpopulated universe has to be right next to it, because nobody notices the jokes. […] Delicious […] the real action is in the breaks, when Whitaker is doing nothing on the screen, but expressively ”( Kim Newman : Empire )
  • “Jarmusch's films can be seen as sequels that all have the same theme: the journey through life. [...] nothing seems more natural than [.. ghost dogs] swinging through New York on the way to the next assignment and the previous reading in Hagakure [... Jarmuschs] killers are basically meek people. "( Frame 25 )
  • “Undead who cannot die because they have yet to complete their journey to the River of the Dead. […] No American in the mid-80s better met the local zeitgeist, shimmering between anti-Americanism and postmodern inwardness […] Despite all mannerisms , despite an artificial naivety that always seems penetrative and mostly implausible, despite his dreary cultural pessimism, Jarmusch has meanwhile become more relaxed and has a lot more to tell. "( Rüdiger Suchsland : Artechock)

Awards

The film took part in 1999 as a competition entry at the Cannes International Film Festival , whereby Jim Jarmusch was nominated for the Palme d' Or. Robby Müller was nominated for a prize at the Camerimage Festival in 1999. Ghost Dog was nominated for the César in the category Best Foreign Film in 2000. The film also received nominations for the Independent Spirit Award and the Saturn Award in 2001 .

useful information

  • The Indian from the Cayuga tribe , called "Nobody" in the credits, is portrayed by Gary Farmer , who already embodied "Nobody" in Dead Man .
  • The young Ghost Dog, harassed by white criminals, is played by Damon Whitaker, Forest Whitaker's youngest brother.
  • Yabu no naka : The substance of the short story In a grove ("Yabu no naka") by Akutagawa Ryūnosuke , contained in his book Rashomon , finds its counterpart in the flashbacks. Yabu no naka tells the same story from seven different perspectives, resulting in seven different versions of what happened. The scenes in which Louie frees the young ghost dog from his life-threatening situation are depicted differently, depending on who remembers it.
  • In the film 8 Blickwinkel , in which Forest Whitaker also plays a leading role, a story is told from different angles.
  • RZA , whom Ghost Dog meets on the street, contributed large parts to the soundtrack. Although Ghost Dog and RZA greet each other like members of a secret society , it remains open until the end credits whether RZA is also a samurai.
  • In terms of the word sound, the French “lui” (German: him / her ) and the name Louie are very similar. As a result, Raymond and Ghost Dog seem to get on literally for the first time at the end of the film.
  • Ray Vargo mentions, when questioning Louie about Ghost Dog, that the name Ghost Dog reminds him of Indians. He mentions some Indian names, including Crazy Horse; This is also the name of Neil Young's long-time band, about which Jim Jarmusch had shot the film Year of the Horse two years earlier .
  • Ghost Dog is buying birdseed from a shop called Birdland in one scene. That was the name of the famous New York jazz club after the saxophonist Charlie Parker (Bird) , who played Forest Whitaker in the 1988 film Bird .
  • After this scene, Ghost Dog sees a young black man trying to ambush an old man in a backyard. The man seems frail, but he can kick the boy to escape with two kicks. He is played by Shi Yan Ming, the first Shaolin - Kung Fu Monk in the US, which also Kung Fu teacher of RZA was.
  • Animals communicate with Ghost Dog, who does not always understand them. For example, a Staffordshire Bull Terrier looks at him calmly and for a long time, and a songbird sits down on his telescopic sight when he is about to shoot the mob. In one scene, he sees two poachers with a killed bear and avenges it by shooting the hunters. A dove appears to him while reading the Hagakure and finally also when he dies.

synchronization

Literature from the film

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ghost Dog - The Way of the Samurai in the Lexicon of International FilmsTemplate: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used , accessed on January 15, 2008
  2. ^ Dietrich Kuhlbrodt : Ghost Dog - The Way of the Samurai. In: cut # 17. Retrieved February 6, 2009 .
  3. ↑ Cinema: Ghost Dog
  4. ↑ different from Suchsland, different from Herrmann
  5. ^ Ulrich Behrens: Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai. In: follow-me-now.de. Retrieved on February 6, 2009 (also from Filmzentrale).
  6. ↑ Kim Newman: Ghost Dog: The Way Of The Samurai (15). In: Empire . Retrieved on February 6, 2009 (English): “you have to assume it takes place in an emptier universe next door, hence no one sees the joke. [...] full of moments of stifled hilarity [...] the real action is in the pauses, when Whitaker is on screen doing nothing in an extremely expressive manner "
  7. ↑ NS: The journey is the goal. In: Frame 25. Retrieved February 6, 2009 .
  8. ↑ "what the hell is a» postmodern inwardness «?" (Max Herrmann) - Max Herrmann: Have you read that? Au Backe, Mr. Suchsland! In: Artechock. Retrieved February 6, 2009 (published immediately after).
  9. ^ Rüdiger Suchsland: Affectionate killer. In: Artechock . Retrieved February 6, 2009 .
  10. ^ J. Hoberman: Into the Void. In: The Village Voice . February 29, 2000, accessed on February 19, 2009 (English): "exercise in fathomless cool [...] From The Color of Money through The Crying Game, the actor has created some of the most vivid character performances of the past 15 years"
  11. ↑ Ghost Dog - The Way of the Samurai. In: German synchronous card index. Retrieved February 6, 2009 .