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Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai

EMAILPRINTArtisan Entertainment

Ghost Dog:  The Way of the Samurai reviews
67
8.8 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 31 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 21 votes
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Drama

Written by: Jim Jarmusch

Directed by: Jim Jarmusch

Release Date:
Theatrical: March 3, 2000
DVD: August 15, 2000

Running Time: 116 minutes, Color

Origin: USA / France / Germany / Japan

Summary

RATING: R for strong violence and language

Starring Forest Whitaker, John Tormey, Cliff Gorman, and Henry Silva

Jarmusch's spiritual gangster film tells the story of an inner-city hit man (Whitaker) who lives on a rooftop, training himself as a samurai in the strictest sense. He communicates primarily by carrier pigeon, while remaining loyal to a gangster (Tormey) who once saved his life.

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Baltimore Sun Ann Hornaday

A thoroughly absorbing, even transfixing, journey to a future that may already be upon us.

100

San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham

Jim Jarmusch has come up with something strange and amazing.

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91

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

A purely cinematic experience. You've got to see it, in other words, to understand.

90

LA Weekly Ernest Hardy

Laced with brilliantly knotted ideas on race, masculinity and cults of violence.

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90

Los Angeles Times Eric Harrison

It's a nearly pitch-perfect melding of genres, influences and modes of expression--it's the first Mafia movie for the hip-hop age.

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90

Film.com Peter Brunette

What makes the film so special is that while tickling your postmodern funnybone, it never forgets to make you care for its characters, in a welcome, and almost traditional way.

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89

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

It's the kind of movie you wish you had more time to absorb and could see more than once before reviewing.

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88

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Perversely funny.

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83

Entertainment Weekly Ty Burr

The result has the dingy grace of pigeons flying across an urban wasteland.

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80

Dallas Observer Gregory Weinkauf

This infusion of warrior philosophy is the gas in Ghost Dog's tank, and Jarmusch pumps it up for maximum octane throughout.

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80

Time Richard Corliss

Niftily quirky.

75

TNT RoughCut Spencer H. Abbott

An ultra-violent cinematic rendering which will appeal to those moviegoers who like their action dramas laced with nice touches of meta-physicality and left-of-center humor.

75

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Weirdly intriguing.

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75

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Whitaker's acting is highly creative and Jarmusch's filmmaking is as elegant and original as ever.

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75

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

So filled with amusing, idiosyncratic touches and unexpectedly charming characters that you mostly don't mind its excesses.

75

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

It's fun, but not obvious fun.

75

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

(Jarmusch's) most accessible film after "Night on Earth," yet it's still elliptical and enigmatic.

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70

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

It's beautifully cast and filmed (cinematography by the matchless Robby Muller) and often quite moving, despite the fact that most of the characters are never developed much beyond mythic or parodic prototypes.

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70

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Every minute he's on screen, Whitaker makes Ghost Dog worth watching.

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67

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak

(Jarmusch) seems...to introduce gratuitous bloodshed that is out of sync with the engaging, offbeat tempo and dark, comedic moral fable that has come before.

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63

Boston Globe Jay Carr

Best when it's playful, toying with the fact that the Mafia has in a single generation been transmogrified from myth to joke.

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63

USA Today Staff [Not Credited]

The movie is still too solemn.

60

Village Voice J. Hoberman

A movie as laconic as its hero, Ghost Dog is nonetheless diminished by its most un-Zen-like attachment to this underlying sentimentality.

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60

The New York Times Dana Stevens

There is a lot of violence, but not much action; a plot involving vengeance, jealousy and double-crossing, but not a great deal of suspense.

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52

Mr. Showbiz Michael Atkinson

Likable, but frustratingly lazy, Ghost Dog has coolness running all through it, but little substance.

50

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Jarmusch has never seemed quite this baffling -- or quite this dull.

50

Slate David Edelstein

Am I the only one who finds the substance of this movie repulsive?

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50

TV Guide Ken Fox

Points for an interesting concept; demerits for the dull execution.

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40

Variety Todd McCarthy

The gambits in Ghost Dog seem simply like literary and cinematic games devoid of any larger meaning.

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30

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

It's too bloody to be funny and too silly to be dramatic and too self-indulgent to be anything other than what it is, one more bad movie.

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12

San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris

It's too cryptic and unfulfilled to serve as a tool for anything beyond its own obfuscation.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 8.8 (out of 10) based on 21 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Steven S. gave it a10:
Great philosophical dialogue, honorable characters, intriguing plot line among Samurai-Warriors, and was I believe Forest Whittaker's finest acting performance prior to his recent Award win. His breathtaking performance had me convinced that someday he would win an Oscar for best actor, and it all starts in the beginning. Also, props to Rza for being in this film and for producing such a killer soundtrack. One of the better underrated indy films I have seen, and is better than most over-produced studio films.

Pauls S. gave it a 10:
Most of Ya give 1, becaus it isnt a typical yankee movie, for those who give 10 its filosophy, which cant be understood by them who give 1. So simply it is. RZA is in the right place.

Yoon Min C. gave it a 6:
Another deadpan Jarmusch movie as disturbing as Dead Man because the modus operandi of both is violence. Jarmusch's earlier movies dealt with quirky outsiders, laidback and uninvolved with mainstream life. They had a certain charm as well as some annoying slackerish mannerisms. But, being laidback and gonzoed out about violence is a different matter. In both Dead Man and Ghost Dog, we're goaded into dumb, slo-mo laughter as we see a bunch of people--mostly white guys with no redeemable facets--get mowed down. I'm not sure if Jarmusch is pulling the rug on genre conventions(and for what reason particularly?), making a statement about racism, or simply being smug. It's inventive in the sense that Jarmusch brings together disparate elements; the usually slick gangster hero has been replaced by a fat, dreadlocked Forest Whitaker. An urban black guy leads an ascetic life based on Oriental warrior philosophy so at odds with the rhythm and lingo of rap. Perhaps, Jarmusch wants to push and hold us in that area where we're unsure of what to think or feel, whether to laugh or cringe, but overall it left me less illumed than squeamish.

Reygees R. gave it a 9:
Ce film est une reelle turie ... je l ai touvé extraordinaire !

Claude L. gave it a 9:
Like all Jarmusch movies, the caracters are so attractives. the mood of the movie is metaphysic, cool, violent and very bizarre. Another gift from Jarmusch.

Jack the Picker gave it a 9:
Better than all the crap big budget piece of sh.t no substance f....d up actors who think their life means something.

Rico P. gave it a 9:
Smooth, Kewl, Classic.

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