Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai (1999)
Posted by Solomon on 9/29/2020, 9:19 am
Edited by Solomon on 9/29/2020, 9:21 am
This film is problematic as a noir. I suggest removing it.
I watched it again last night. I like it. I like also The Limits of Control by Jarmusch, another one that's problematic as a noir.
Jarmusch uses language barriers in both films. He also uses a chain of linkages in both. In one it's books, in the other it's matchboxes.
I see Ghost Dog as a story devoted to obscure poetic philosophy. Some make it as thriller, crime, black comedy. Ghost Dog isn't a noir figure, in my estimation. His existential moments are overly restricted by a rigid adherence to the code and loyalty to his master. He doesn't seem a free agent in important respects. He's subservient. He believes that the old ways are better, however, and they include this kind of role. Only the old ways would include obligations on his master running in the other direction to the servant, and they're not in this picture.
Joaquin Phoenix could play this kind of role, but not too many other actors who project strong heroic qualities.
I did not see Don's new thread when I posted this.
Re: Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai (1999)
Posted by Don Malcolm on 9/29/2020, 1:26 pm, in reply to "Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai (1999)"
I responded strongly to this one when I saw it years ago. If one is searching for "artistic evolution" within a form that seems to be self-constricting, then I'd argue strongly that it's a film that needs to be on the list, in ways that are analogous to (but different from) what Altman is doing to classic noir with THE LONG GOODBYE.
I would say that LIMITS OF CONTROL goes past the boundaries into full-blown "neo-arthouse" but trying to have it both ways with various collisions of "vernacular" (including "film noir pastiche," which struck me as rather labored). Whereas GHOST DOG engages and is partially entrapped by "the old ways," LIMITS OF CONTROL just wants to blow things up (or blow them off). It's less ambitious than it seems.
Let's not limit ourselves from films that give neo-noir some fringe to work with, at least not until we've scoured the list a bit more in terms of quality. I'd argue that GHOST DOG is among the best films on this list for its singularity and odd pathways into notions of noir that often get discarded, much like a film like LES EAUX TROUBLES might confound folks who are looking for a more circumscribed concept of classic "noir."
Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai (1999)
Posted by Solomon on 9/30/2020, 12:30 pm
Edited by Solomon on 9/30/2020, 12:34 pm
Did I provide my original review? I think not. I Rated it 9/10. I didn't mention neo-noir in that review. I thought it was something other than neo-noir. Grant makes it neo-noir, wiki does not. What I wrote the other day, that this is problematic as a noir or neo-noir, was written without consulting this review. It was written after a re-watch of the film, so my puny powers of deciding a film's place in film history remain unchanged and diminutive. In both 2016 and 2020, my impression was that the film is philosophical in nature. Forest's character is not alienated where it counts.
Modern samurai story weaving bushido and Buddhism into new context, 1 December 2016
9/10
"Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai" (1999) is a deep movie. It can be appreciated superficially as a crime story, but its title, structure, and themes are deep; and they are about Buddhism most fundamentally. The central text of the film that divides it into chapters and parts of which are shown and read to us are from Hagakure, written by a Buddhist monk and important for bushido, the samurai warrior code.
Jim Jarmusch has written a film that has many levels, all of which are integrated seamlessly into the story. Buddhism is not all there is here. The film references Melville’s "Le Samourai", for example. At the same time, it presents myths and turns them on their head. It shows us clashing myths. Modern culture knows many myths, from worldwide and from the past, because we know history. Modern man still faces the quandaries always faced by man. Who are we? What are we? What’s the meaning of our existence? How do we deal with knowledge of our death? Different myths, ways and traditions have emerged. They are transmitted by texts. This movie is a text and shows a Buddhist text. So it is transmitting a philosophy as the title suggests; and the movie itself shows Forest Whitaker as having received the text and then transmitting it to a little girl who is an avid reader. Jarmusch is capable of a kind of mirror effect in creating multiple parallels.
Whitaker’s character is not crazy, as Roger Ebert thought. He has merely adopted a religion or code, a comprehensive one, and he sticks to it.
The Mafia in the film are no longer vigorous. They are decadent and failing. They are old and failing. They watch cartoons impassively. These cartoons, by the way, are another level Jarmusch uses to deepen the movie because the action they show is mirrored in the story’s action. The best that the Mafia figures can hope for is to go out the old way, being disposed of by Whitaker efficiently. They await death, as Henry Silva even says.
Communication by words is not all there is. Zen promotes a wordless awareness at its deepest level. This happens between Whitaker and his Haitian friend, Isaach De Bankolé who speaks only French that Whitaker does not understand.
Re: Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai (1999)
Posted by Don Malcolm on 9/30/2020, 4:24 pm, in reply to "Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai (1999)"
German film noir scholar Matthias Merkelbach weighs in:
In fact, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai in broad outline is an exact paraphrase of the early neo-noir Le Samouraï by Jean-Pierre Melville, whose work Jarmusch also mentions in the credits of his film. In turn, Melville was influenced by Frank Tuttle’s This Gun for Hire (inspired by a novel by Graham Greene), a style-forming film noir from Hollywood in the early forties.
But apart from these obvious sources, Jim Jarmusch proves to be a connoisseur of the film noir tradition, who also tends to use little-known works as resources. When Ghost Dog kills a Mafiosi with a targeted shot that hits the victim in the forehead from the drain of a sink, this kind of invisible targeting is a direct quote from Seijun Suzuki's Branded to Kill (1967), which was still shot in black and white, And that such a film noir, which illustrates a very similar story, suggests that its use in Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai can hardly be considered a coincidence.
The story of this film is certainly not new. It is a tale that emulates role models. But with neo-noir that is almost in the nature of things and so Jim Jarmusch succeeds in what is important, which is to give his work a unique signature. From the actors to the camera work by Robby Müller to the soundtrack by RZA (Wu-Tung Clan), Jarmusch has created a seamless world; the choice of locations adds an atmospheric density that makes other big city thrillers look like stage sets. The mafia portrait--those stuffy henchmen who, contrary to the masterminds, not only behave like petty bourgeoisie, but have joined their ranks--is admirably accurate. And then of course it's Forrest Whitaker's film: Jarmusch, according to his own statements, credited Whitaker as being the catalyst of the project.
The script is filled with film noir bonds: the wound of one's own past, the hidden femme fatale, the finite and fickle nature of one's own fortune against the world. At the same time, however, it does display some weaknesses. Some scenes are too grotesquely funny; others are too long, Additionally, the multitude of quotes from the Hagakure cannot really be appreciated by the viewer during the flow of the plot: the messages become overwhelming. Despite these flaws, however, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai is a beautiful and atmospheric neo-noir, and is a film capable of revealing more of its essence via repeated viewings.
TransBuddhism: Transmission, Translation, Transformation by Nalini Bhushan, Jay L. Garfield, and Abraham Zablocki discusses this movie. It’s obvious that the movie is about eastern philosophy, but their discussion amplifies its nature. Insightful portions about "Ghost Dog" can be read free using Google to search.
As a movie that transmits feelings to us as viewers, we get the feeling that Whitaker’s character is at peace with himself and his profession as a hit man. He’s loyal to his boss and is willing to die for him if need be. He has found his way through life and needs no more. His ordinary emotions are muted. The religion he has adopted is eastern, and it’s much more fatalistic and submissive as compared with a western religion like Judaism or Christianity. They are poles apart, even though both cultivate a spiritual tradition which is their meeting place. Whitaker as an actor is fine in his part. The acting and staging of the film are as good as the writing and directing. It’s the depth of the story and its originality that raise it to the excellent category.
Re: Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai (1999)
Posted by Solomon on 9/30/2020, 4:53 pm, in reply to "Re: Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai (1999)"
Right, and in the next post, penned prior to yours above, I come out for Ghost being a neo-noir, but also The Limits of Control being one too.
I have reservations too about the inserts and some things, but the work overcomes all. I couldn't absorb them in real time. I also would have liked to have subtitles for the rap music and for the French, only pieces of which I caught.
I like Jarmusch in general. Down by Law is great, and there's one with a Japanese girl named Mystery Train that's nice. We'd be much poorer without his work.
The Limits of Control (2009)
Posted by Solomon on 9/30/2020, 2:49 pm
This one and Ghost Dog both use assassins as protagonists. Both use philosophical material. IMHO, they're either both neo-noir or neither one is. I searched a bit on "Limits". One review (translated) opined "The Limits of Control is post-modernist, metaphorical, solid structure, hypnotic and film noir in color." Another review says, among other things, "Categorically, Limits follows in the tradition of a minimalist neo-noir, something like Jean-Pierre Melville‘s Le Samouraï. So rather than employ a causal plot puzzle, the film instead is about the evocation of the gestures and mood of a crime drama."
Both movies have adopted a neo-noir skeleton involving hit-men, a category that gives rise to more than 100 neo-noirs. I consider the two films together to help me decide, and I decide that both are philosophical neo-noir. Once the clothes are placed on the skeleton, it's still there and it's undeniably neo-noir. A similar observation of the skeleton might help me to consider Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive as neo-noirs, rather than to doubt them. In these two cases, the skeleton is the workings of a person's mind, and neo-noirs that use that to hang the story's clothes on are frequent. Often this is referred to as involving identity.
Hit-men and identity (or fragmented thinking), what else is quintessential neo-noir? Schemes involving money, sex, insurance. Many such stories floating around. What else? Surveillance may make a small subset. More prominent are stories of criminality of upper echelon pillars of society. Backwoods or rural crime has gained a lot of ground. Revenge is a staple. Pathologies. Detectives. Serial killers. Attacks on the defenseless.
These things do not define neo-noir, but they may help to identify its presence. I'm not using a noir-meter here. I think that you look at a movie and you often know what sort of movie it is within a fairly short time, like 15 minutes or less. The presentation tells you by a variety of cues.
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