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Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786305958253
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
ISBN: 6305958254
Label: Artisan Entertainment
Manufacturer: Artisan Entertainment
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Artisan Entertainment
Release Date: December 19, 2000
Running Time: 116 minutes
Sales Rank: 22824
Studio: Artisan Entertainment
Theatrical Release Date: 1999
Editorial Review:
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
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - Surprisingly good
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.
Rating:  - Stunning offbeat hitman movie
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.
Rating:  - complete waste of attention
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.
Rating: - Pathetic garbage
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.
Rating:  - Wanted to Like It......
Is this a great movie?.... No. Is this a horrible movie?.... No, but close. I really wanted to like this movie going in, but it didn't deliver for me. I was expecting a fairly offbeat cult movie similar to Dead Man with J. Depp or Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East and something where I could watch it over and over and pick up something new. I couldn't bare to watch this movie more than once. I did like the music in Ghost Dog but am hard pressed to find any scene in the movie that I really ... Read More
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