GHOST: Paramount Presents...Blu-ray re-issue (Paramount, 1990) Paramount Home Video

The picture to mark Jerry Zucker’s solo career as a director, introduce the 'boy cut' to women’s hair styling – conceived by Manhattan hair stylist, John Sahag – and, unexpectedly become the sleeper hit of the year, grossing a staggering $505,702,588 on a budget of $22,000,000, Ghost (1990) continued Patrick Swayze’s ascendance as Hollywood’s latest heartthrob, a moniker applied after his appearance in 1987’s Dirty Dancing. Difficult to say whether it was Swayze’s unassuming light manner, his taut physicality, or his way with a pottery wheel as foreplay to the sexual arts that most sent female patrons’ hearts aflutter. But Ghost’s deft blend of the rom/com meets supernatural thriller, with a twinge of horror factored in for good measure, proved just what audiences wanted to see. Cast opposite Swayze, two heavy hitters – Demi Moore, whose career was momentarily stagnated, and comedienne, Whoopi Goldberg; her big screen breakout in 1985’s The Color Purple done little to cement a place in the cinema firmament – until Ghost. Goldberg would win a Best Supporting Actress Oscar as the clumsy faux medium, Oda Mae Brown, who inadvertently taps into the netherworld when Swayze’s Sam Wheat decides to use her particular blend of nervous comedy and supernatural fakery to his advantage and forewarn his fiancée of a dastardly plan put forth by his enterprising and corrupt business partner.

Some 30 years after its theatrical release, Ghost remains a winner on so many levels, it is easy to dismiss it as just another slickly packaged Hollywood crowd pleaser, meant to sell a lot of tickets and appease the popcorn munchers on a sweltering hot summer afternoon. The screenplay by meditation teacher/photographer, Bruce Joel Rubin who, likewise, took home an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, Ghost never loses sight of its simple human interest, ever-after love story, unfettered from the bonds of the space/time continuum anchoring the rest of us to reality. Our protagonists are just ordinary folk – so, it would seem, above average in the looks department, but living remarkably sane and unprepossessing lives until a fateful stick-up gone wrong results in Sam’s death and his fiancée, Molly Jensen’s (Demi Moore) inability to move on with her life. From here, the picture reverts to a sort of stylized and escapist scenario about the unjustly dead coming back to observe the living, not unlike the plot of Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941). The wrinkle; Sam cannot return to earth in his physical embodiment. He is trapped between heaven and earth in a sort of shadowy purgatory, unable to reach or even marginally assuage Molly’s anxiety and sadness. In fact, Sam does not even know for certain if anyone in the human world can hear him until he crosses paths with the psychic con, Oda Mae Brown, as shell-shocked to discover she really does possess the ability to communicate with the dead.

In what could have so easily devolved into a bitter regression into slapstick, Sam gradually woos the terrified Brown into accepting the challenge to help him expose his ‘accidental’ stick-up as murder, perpetrated by none other than his fellow banker and best friend, Carl Bruner (Tony Goldwyn). The rest of Ghost is basically a race against time as Sam figures out how to hone his supernatural gifts to haunt and terrorize Carl, clawing back his ill-gotten gains, and also to prevent Carl’s romantic advances on the unsuspecting Molly who remains virtually in the dark, and totally skeptical about Brown’s claim she has made actual contact with Sam from the great beyond.  There was nothing in Zucker’s past to suggest he could so deftly handle all of these conflicting and darker elements; Zucker, having cut his teeth on light screwball comedies. Undaunted, Zucker approached the project with an invested interest to preserve the more darkly purposed plot points in Rubin’s screenplay. While the inclusion of Whoopi Goldberg’s medium lent the movie its brief respites into keenly scripted comedy, the bulk of Ghost would retain Rubin’s verve as a sinister romantic fantasy with a moral about the afterlife at its core. Indeed, Rubin’s inspiration was none other than Shakespeare’s Hamlet, desiring to tell the tale of ‘the ghost’, hellbent to avenge his untimely passing. While a few exteriors were shot in New York City, much of Ghost was confined to sets built on sound stages at Paramount.  Ghost would also feature a barrage of SFX shots to augment the supernatural elements, both Rubin and Zucker, determined these should not outweigh the elemental human story.

Ghost begins with our introduction to banker, Sam Wheat and his potter/girlfriend, Molly Jensen. The couple are in the process of renovating a loft apartment in Manhattan with the help of Sam's friend and colleague, Carl Bruner. A number-cruncher by trade, Sam confides in Carl his accidental discovery of unusually high balances in obscure accounts. Carl offers to assist, but Sam insists to investigate further on his own. That evening, while returning from a fashionable dinner, Sam and Molly are attacked by a mugger, Willie Lopez (Rick Aviles) who murders Sam in a scuffle before stealing his wallet. Released from his earthly bonds, Sam’s spirit witnesses Molly weeping over his body and struggles to come to terms with the fact his life as a mortal has ended. Unable to move on, Molly is watched over by Sam, who begins to suspect Carl has dishonorable intentions towards her. Molly leaves the apartment with Carl. Moments later, Willie breaks in and begins to vigorously search the apartment. Sam frightens Willie by employing his psychic powers to stir their cat into attacking him. Sam then pursues Willie to Brooklyn. Unable to piece together the clues, Sam stumbles upon the psychic, Oda Mae Brown – a con artist who is startled when she begins to hear Sam from the great beyond. Sam is as shocked by this revelation, refusing to let up on Brown until she agrees to help him convince Molly her life is in danger.  

Molly is, at first, understandably, skeptical of Brown, until she begins to relay information about their lives only Sam would know. Now, Molly informs Carl of Willie’s address. Carl feigns ignorance, but later – unknowingly with Sam at his side – confronts Willie at his apartment; Sam, realizing Carl is the one who hired Willie to perform the mugging. Worse, Carl is behind the money laundering scheme Sam unearthed at work, siphoning funds to a drug cartel. Willie’s botched mugging was meant to get Sam’s apartment key that Carl then could use to obtain Sam's book of passwords and transfer all of the money into a single account under the fictitious ‘Rita Miller’. None of this should have ended in murder. Sam is beside himself with grief and anger. Meanwhile, Molly goes to the police. Although they are unable to locate Willie’s mug shot, Molly is shown Brown’s, to include a lengthy list of indictments for forgery. As such, Molly now believe Brown is out to steal from her and puts considerable distance between her and the ‘fake’ psychic.

Learning how to hone his psychic powers from a violent poltergeist (Vincent Schiavelli), Sam haunts Brown until she agrees to help him expose Carl’s terrible scheme. Brown impersonates Rita Miller, withdrawing the reserve of $4 million, donating the entire sum in a cashier's check to charity. Realizing the money is gone, Carl begins to panic. Indeed, his backers will be coming for him next. Now, Sam reveals his presence by typing his name on the computer keyboard. A thoroughly spooked Carl goes to Molly, who reveals she witnessed Brown closing an account at the bank earlier in the afternoon. Carl and Willie go to Brown’s establishment. But Sam arrives there first, ushering Brown and her two sisters to safety. Hence, when Willie arrives, Sam terrorizes him instead. Willie darts into the street and is struck by an oncoming car. Sam then witnesses shadowy demons rise from the ground, claiming Willie’s soul. Back at the apartment, Molly is thoroughly mistrusting of Brown’s insistence she is in grave danger. To illustrate the truth to Molly, Sam levitates a penny into Molly’s hand. And although Molly now comes to believe Sam is her guardian angel, there is little opportunity to rejoice at having found him again. Carl arrives, taking Molly hostage and ordering Sam to return the money, lest he harm Molly too. Instead, Sam channels all of his pent-up psychic rage to prevent the attack. Exhausted from his efforts, Sam nevertheless manages to delay Carl’s pursuit of Molly and Brown up the fire escape to another, as yet undeveloped, loft.  In the resulting struggle, Carl is impaled on a broken pane of window glass – the same demons who claimed Willie, now returning to drag his tortured soul to hell. Now, a shaft of heavenly light reveals Sam to Molly and Brown for the last time. Molly and Sam are afforded one final kiss before he retreats into the light.

Ghost was an unanticipated smash hit worldwide, striking exactly the right chord with audiences. Undoubtedly, the picture still packs an emotional wallop – the Sam/Molly ‘ever love’ leaving a distinct ‘lump in the throat’ with daydreamers and romantics alike. Whoopi Goldberg’s turn as the lovable con turning over a new leaf, and never to mince words, is simultaneously genuine and charming. She also proves a welcomed respite from the more darkly purposed machinations in this diabolical whodunit. Upon repeat viewings, Tony Goldwyn’s gawky goon lacks something. He is more awkward than sinister, leaving his penultimate act of aggression against Molly, seemingly to have come out of left field. But otherwise, the story clings together with the right/light touches of tension and pathos, sexual chemistry, danger and ultimate tear-stained elation to make Ghost a memorable and meaningful outing. Were that Patrick Swayze could be with us to see how the picture has held up and endured as one of his better accomplishments. Alas, while shooting the pilot for TV’s The Beast in 2007, Swayze began to experience a burning sensation in his stomach. This was later diagnosed as stage IV pancreatic cancer. Enduring hellish treatments, an operation to attempt containment – the cancer had already spread – and continuing to tirelessly work on his new show, as well as become an advocate for cancer research, Swayze was admitted to hospital on Jan. 9, 2009 with pneumonia. Regrettably, the cancer metastasized to his liver, and this, coupled with Swayze’s life-long addiction to cigarettes hastened his decline. He died on Sept. 14, 2009, age, 57.

In retrospect, Patrick Swayze is one of the last truly recognizable ‘stars’ to emerge from the mid-1980’s – a rare breed, as easily identifiable for his chiseled good looks as his breezy air of confidence (likely, the hallmark of his dancer’s training) and unanticipated humility (which cannot be taught); also, gratitude for having been afforded such opportunities in life. Patrick Swayze was a gentle man’s gentleman – the sort of Southern gallant one only imagines to have existed in colorful antebellum romance novels, and, could scarcely fathom, even as a unicorn to have once walked among us in more contemporary times. His loss put a period to a certain air of intangible and infectious graciousness, and, ever more manly gracefulness – the kind to make women swoon and men desire to behave half as well in their own lives. Swayze’s good ole boy was far more appealing than what first met the eye. There was not another like him from his generation of male ‘stars’. Likely, there will not be another for a very – very – long while. And as epitaphs about the famous are oft written under the tinny rubric begun with ‘he was a good man’ – in Patrick Swayze’s case, the honor is not only one of merit, but equally as well-deserved.  Around our house, we sincerely miss Patrick Swayze and like to think, as with the finale to Ghost, he has since entered the upper echelons of immortality as one of God’s true beloved’s – a guardian angel now and for all time – watching out for the rest of us. Retrospectively, the finale to Ghost now plays like a sad reminder of Swayze’s own painful loss, but more importantly, the purpose and responsibilities afforded mankind in general: to be kind to – and not merely tolerant of – one another. Regardless of personal longevity, ours is a brief span on earth. And what follows, optimistically speaking, is arguably more important and satisfying than the prologue.

Ghost gets reissued on Blu-ray as part of the ‘Paramount presents…’ studio line-up of time-honored and culturally significant pictures made by the studio throughout its illustrious history. I certainly champion its inclusion in this series. However, if you already own the previous Blu-ray from 2011, there is really little – if any – reason for a repurchase. Ghost was shot on 35mm, and the results on either hi-def incarnation are similar, with this reissue ever so slighting etching ahead in color saturation. The image is softly focused throughout, likely as cinematographer, Adam Greenburg intended. Even close-ups appear warm and slightly fuzzy, but very organic, with a light smattering of accurately realized grain factored in. Colors are very natural, with solidly rendered flesh tones. There is a realism here that belies the usual high gloss treatment of Hollywood fare. Everything looks as it should – or rather – as I vaguely recall from my own theatrical viewing experience from long ago. Even then, the SFX did not seem state of the art, but pared down for budgetary reasons. Viewed today, they are positively primitive. Mercifully, they are not the whole show, nor does their big reveal in 1080p lessen their crudeness now. We get a 5.1 DTS audio that appear to be identical to the original Blu-ray release in every way. Extras on the old Blu-ray included a commentary from Zucker and Rubin, and brief featurettes on the ‘making of’, the paranormal and the creation of the now famous ‘love-making/pottery’ sequence, set to the haunting strains of The Righteous Brothers ‘Unchained Melody’, plus a photo gallery and theatrical trailer.  The new Paramount Presents…disc is, in keeping with the studio’s inexplicably short-sighted marketing ploy to jettison old extras, never to replace them with anything worthwhile or new. We get a ‘new’ interview with Jerry Zucker – barely to last 6 minutes, and lose the featurette on the paranormal, as well as the photo gallery. Come on, Paramount! For a series of movies that are thusly celebrated as the crown jewels in your collection, all of these Paramount Presents…releases should come jam-packed with extras – old and new – period!  Bottom line: if you already own Ghost on Blu-ray, you can skip this reissue. Otherwise, a solid purchase.

FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)

4

VIDEO/AUDIO

4.5

EXTRAS

2