Ghost

To my generation, Ghost is considered the gold standard of romance films. Those of us who were teenagers and early twenties during the early 1990s remember just how prevalent this film was in the cultural zeitgeist. Yet at some point, it became a film to parody and lightly mock because, while it hit all the right notes for a certain audience, it also had moments that were laughably cheesy. And yet these moments are amongst the most fondly remembered as this film inches its way towards its fortieth anniversary. But underneath all that cheese is a romance story that still has power and an interesting, if not quite original, view on the afterlife. 

Stanley Kubrick once opined that any ghost story is inherently optimistic because it suggests that we exist after death. This observation negates the prospect of hell and damnation, things Kubrick didn’t believe in. He does have a point, though, as the very nature of a ghost story suggests an afterlife where our spirits continue to exist after the body has given up. This concept is hardly original, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth exploring if a truly good story can be found to utilize it. 

Screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin is known for incorporating the spiritual in his screenplays. This goes back to his days hitchhiking through Asia and living for a time in a Buddhist monastery. His experiences traveling through that vast continent and finding spirituality contributed to his fascination with the afterlife and can be found in many of his works, including Jacob’s Ladder, My Life, and especially Ghost. He would later revisit Ghost more than twenty years later by reviving it in the form of a musical play that continues to tour to this day. 

The story, as it were, involves two lovers: Sam Wheat (Patrick Swayze) and Molly Jensen (Demi Moore). Sam is a banker who has recently discovered a mysterious account that is holding too much money. His friend Carl Bruner (Tony Goldwyn) offers to track down where the money came from, but Sam is already invested and turns down the offer. Molly is an artist, specializing in sculpting, and the two have recently rented a loft in New York City. While they love each other, Sam has difficulty expressing that love verbally, which frustrates her because, as she puts it, a woman needs to hear it. Whenever she tells him she loves him, his response is simply: “Ditto.”

One evening, after attending a performance of Macbeth, a mugger attempts to rob them, and Sam is shot and killed. Now, as a ghost, he uncovers why he was killed, who was behind it, and that Molly may be in danger, too. He also connects with Oda Mae Brown (Whoopi Goldberg), a woman posing as a psychic to grift her patients, who discovers that she actually does have the gift to communicate with the deceased. Through Oda Mae, Sam tries to get through to Molly, but this proves fruitless because, even though Oda Mae knows things she shouldn’t possibly know, everyone else around Molly convinces her that she is a fraud. 

It’s no real surprise that Sam is killed over the mysterious account he discovered earlier in the film. This movie doesn’t try to hide this fact, nor who the real culprit is. If you are paying attention to that scene, most of the pertinent information is revealed well before Sam is killed. The film, however, assumes that you will not be paying that close of attention to this, though, and treats the big reveal like it should be shocking. The way that it is filmed and the musical cues accompanying it clearly indicate that we are supposed to be gasping with realization at that reveal, but it’s actually just confirming what we have already guessed. Misdirection is not this screenplay’s strong suit. 

Neither is world building. After all, there is nothing being presented to us that we have not already seen before. The portrayal of the afterlife, Sam’s ability to step away from the light in order to deal with unfinished business, even his eventual learning of how to manipulate the physical world around him after losing his body are all things we have seen in film before. It’s not originality we are here to see, though; we’re here to see our two leads.

There are two major draws this film has that allow it to tower over other films of this ilk: the relationship between Molly and Sam, and Oda Mae Brown, who is brought to life so perfectly by Whoopi Goldberg that she was awarded her only Academy Award win after losing a few years earlier for The Color Purple. In some ways, her win here feels like a make-up for the previous loss, but that is not a slight on her performance. It is great, and her comedic beats are spot-on. She was better, though, in The Color Purple, where she was the heart and soul of that film. 

No matter how well the script is written or how well the direction is, if we don’t like the on-screen couple, the film doesn’t work. Patrick Swayze was not the first choice for this film. The director didn’t feel that he had the necessary acting chops for the role and was initially against his casting. As it turns out, Swayze and Moore ended up having tremendous chemistry on-screen. Take the infamous pottery scene. This, as written, is as silly and over-the-top as the parody version seen the following year in The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear. Everything from the set-up to the choice of music is pure cheese. Yet when we see those two simply touching each other, the heat of the moment is thick enough to cut through. The ease in which they navigate the situation feels genuine, and this scene became the signature moment of this movie. It has become virtually impossible to listen to Unchained Melody without picturing these two at the pottery wheel. When you cannot separate the song and the image in your mind anymore, that’s a sign of a successful scene. 

The romance is done so well in this picture that there is an unintentional side-effect. The murder plot ends up being a complete letdown. I already mentioned that the identity of the man behind it is obvious; that’s not a serious problem. But his motives are poorly defined. He’s been laundering money for some unseen individuals who will eliminate him should their money disappear. That’s everything we know about his motivations. His whole plan is spoiled with one quick trip to the bank by Oda Mae, who is able to withdraw $4 million and close the dummy account with relative ease. This is a contrivance simply to get the plot moving and is poorly defined. So, too, is the man who actually did the killing. Willie Lopez (Rick Aviles) is said to have been in prison, yet the police have no record of him, unless they flat out didn’t bother even looking him up when Molly gives them his name. That is a possibility, but it makes little sense that they wouldn’t even do a rudimentary name search. 

The film posits that good and bad people meet very different fates when they step into the afterlife. This is portrayed in a very stereotypical way, with the good being offered a passage into the light while the evil are dragged away by shadow demons. It’s effective to a certain degree but is also portrayed in such a way as to come across a bit silly and cartoonish. Still, there is a degree of satisfaction when the villains are taken away by hoards of phantoms, presumably to their eternal damnation. It’s meant to appear horrific but the animation utilized is a bit childish and, knowing the limitations of the effects of the time, the film cuts away from the action and to a reaction from Swayze, trying to sell the horrors the effects can’t. 

Ghost is fun at times, silly at times, and romantic at times, too. It has some interesting things to say about the afterlife, such as people carrying their addictions with them when they die. But it mostly plays things safe and is not interested in presenting a truly compelling mystery; instead, it plays up the romance and the comedy. Both elements are solid and crowd-pleasing, aiming for the rom-com audience, which ate this up to the tune of $500 million. It was a critical darling, too, which helped it make a dent at that year’s Oscars. It competed against Dances With Wolves, The Godfather, Part III, and Goodfellas, though, and against that lineup, it just couldn’t compete when it came to the top award. 

Academy Award Nominations:

Best Picture: Lisa Weinstein

Best Supporting Actress: Whoopi Goldberg (won)

Best Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen: Bruce Joel Rubin (won)

Best Film Editing: Walter Murch

Best Original Score: Maurice Jarre

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Release Date: July 13, 1990

Running Time: 127 Minutes

Rated PG-13

Starring: Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore, Whoopi Goldberg, and Tony Goldwyn

Directed By: Jerry Zucker