Ghost (1990)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Jerry Zucker

Writer (WGA):

Bruce Joel Rubin (written by)

Release Date:

13 July 1990 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Fantasy | Mystery | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

A love that will last forever.

Plot:

After being killed during a botched mugging, a man's love for his partner enables him to remain on earth as a ghost.

Plot Keywords:

Ghost | Bank | Love | Death | Mugging

Awards:

Won 2 Oscars. Another 15 wins & 22 nominations

Cast

Patrick Swayze	...	Sam Wheat
Demi Moore	...	Molly Jensen
Tony Goldwyn	...	Carl Bruner
Stanley Lawrence	...	Elevator Man
Christopher J. Keene	...	Elevator Man
Susan Breslau	...	Susan
Martina Deignan	...	Rose (as Martina Degnan)
Rick Kleber	...	Mover (as Richard Kleber)
Macka Foley	...	Mover
Rick Aviles	...	Willie Lopez
Phil Leeds	...	Emergency Room Ghost
John Hugh	...	Surgeon
Sam Tsoutsouvas	...	Minister
Sharon Breslau	...	Cemetery Ghost (as Sharon Breslau Cornell)
Vincent Schiavelli	...	Subway Ghost

Runtime:

128 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:14 | Iceland:16 (video rating) | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Canada:AA (Ontario) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Manitoba) | Chile:14 | Finland:K-14 | France:U | Germany:12 | Singapore:PG | South Korea:15 | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 (video rating) | USA:PG-13 (certificate #30013) | UK:12 | Canada:A (Nova Scotia)

Filming Locations:

104 Prince Street, Soho, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

Producers originally offered the role of Sam to Bruce Willis, Demi's husband at the time. But he turned it down, because he didn't think the film would work.

Goofs:

Factual errors: With the closing credits the spelling of "Cemetery Ghost" is wrong. The credits spell it as Cemetary Ghost, the correct spelling should be CEMETERY.

Quotes:

Sam Wheat: Write it down.
Oda Mae Brown: [to Molly Jensen] He wants you to write it down.
Sam Wheat: No, YOU write it down!
Oda Mae Brown: I ain't no DAMN secretary!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Mr. Wrong (1996)

Soundtrack:

UNCHAINED MELODY

Forever a classic

Certain movies will just always be hard to write a review for. You can give your opinion and say what you enjoyed or didn't enjoy but I find myself hesitating in certain aspects just because a classic must be left some space to be a classic. Ghost as far as I'm concerned will forever be a romantic classic. It's sheer brilliance is it's twists, it is incredibly, deeply, romantic and at the same time terrifying, and has an underlying story that is never fully explored. It's got action, mystery, horror, and at the heart is the pure, simplistic romance of it all.

The story is about an investment banker played by Patrick Swayze and his girlfriend, played by Demi Moore. Sam and Molly are deeply in love, planning for the future and happier in their lives than ever before. Until Sam discovers laundered money in investment accounts. He is robbed and subsequently murdered for his password to the computer in order to empty the laundered money from the accounts. But Sam doesn't go the other side. He is kept on earth in spirit form because of his unfinished business both with Molly and to discover his murderer. He must learn the ropes of being a ghost and nobody else can hear him until he runs into a so called psychic who scams people into believing she can contact their dearly departed. However it turns out, Oda Mae Brown played in her academy award winning role by Whoopie Goldberg can actually hear Sam. Together the unlikely team must help each other uncover the horrible murder plot and save Molly.

Swayze and Moore make an incredible couple..hot on screen. Their careers have perhaps slipped since then one might say but this was them at their best. Swayze was indeed at the top of his game coming out of Dirty Dancing and Roadhouse and Moore was young and a new hot commodity which made them undeniably perfect together. Their roles fit them perfectly. Whoopie Goldberg was hilarious and believable as Oda Mae and her character was such an integral part of the film. Tony Goldwyn plays a great villain as the betrayer of the film. In a short time director Jerry Zucker establishes a best friendship between Goldwyn and Swayze, a deeply loving relationship between Swayze and Moore, and a plot line that goes far beneath the movie. Obviously Goldwyn's character is being used by a much higher up criminal to launder money although we never see him. Is he being blackmailed? Paid off? Something held over his head? Maybe he's not the bad guy but rather forced to commit these acts? It's a big job because we also know Willie Lopez played by Rick Aviles is involved in this as well. And deeper than that we have the theology in the film. The light brings good people to the afterlife and the dark shadowy beings torture the evil.

This film is one of a few that is endlessly watchable meaning you can sit down any time and watch it through over and over and over again which is exactly what makes it a classic. It has it's holes, it has to with a plot like that. And it has it's disturbing moments, a gratituous death scene, a make out scene which although features Swayze and Moore is actually Demi and Whoopi...you have to see it to understand it. Also if Sam Wheat must learn how to physically touch things in his ghost form...how does he sit, walk, etc before he learns that? And his first experience with walking through a door happens days after his death. I'm sure sometime between then and that point he would have had to have walked through something. Perhaps those are minor points but they are things that will come up especially if you have seen it as many times as I have.

The film is a must see and if you haven't seen it, go watch it right now!! Because it's one of those staples of films that everyone must know about. Ghost is amazing!! 9/10

Happy Anniversary to my beautiful Sam...we watched Ghost together last night.