20 Underrated Movies From 2000 You've Probably Never Seen
14. Ghost Dog: The Way Of The Samurai
Released: 24th March 2000 (US)
Minimalist indie auteur Jim Jarmusch has turned his lo-fi idiosyncratic naturalism in recent years to vampires (Only Lovers Left Alive) and zombies (The Dead Don't Die), but perhaps the best of his forays into genre film was this take on the gangster hitman story.
Taking influence from Jean-Pierre Melville's 1960s neo-noir Le Samourai, Ghost Dog centres on Forest Whitaker as the titular mafia assassin hunted by his own associates to cover up the killing of a made man. A detached loner who only communicates via homing pigeon, Ghost Dog justifies his actions by a rigid adherance to Hagakure, the ancient Samurai code.
At turns an ironically humourous genre subversion and a melancholy, meditative and emotionally genuine character study, Ghost Dog is an odd, interesting movie that defies expectations.
The whole thing is anchored by a superb central performance from Whitaker, who threw himself into the role, immersing himself in meditation and eastern philosophy to play a professional killer who is also gentle, compassionate and humane.
The actor then immediately threw out all the good will he had earned by making his next film Battlefield Earth, but nevertheless Ghost Dog remains a fine example of the future Oscar winner at the peak of his powers.