Ghost (1990 film)



Ghost is a 1990 American romantic fantasy thriller film directed by Jerry Zucker, written by Bruce Joel Rubin, and starring Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore, Whoopi Goldberg, Tony Goldwyn, and Rick Aviles. The plot centers on a young woman in jeopardy (Moore), the ghost of her murdered lover (Swayze), and a reluctant psychic (Goldberg) who assists him in saving her.

Ghost was theatrically released on July 13, 1990 by Paramount Pictures. It received mixed reviews and was a massive box office success, grossing over $505.7 million on a budget of $22 million, becoming the highest-grossing film of 1990. Adjusted for inflation, Ghost was the 93rd-highest-grossing film of all time domestically. The film received five nominations at the 63rd Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Original Score and Best Film Editing, and winning Best Supporting Actress (for Goldberg) and Best Original Screenplay.

Plot
Sam Wheat, a banker, and his girlfriend Molly Jensen, a potter, renovate and move into an apartment in Manhattan with the help of Sam's friend and co-worker Carl Bruner. One afternoon, Sam confides in Carl his discovery of unusually high balances in obscure bank accounts. He decides to investigate the matter himself, declining Carl's offer of assistance. That night, Sam and Molly are attacked by a mugger who shoots and kills Sam in a scuffle before stealing his wallet. Sam sees Molly crying over his body and discovers he is now a ghost, invisible and unable to interact with the mortal world.

Molly remains distraught in the days after Sam's death, as Sam remains close to her. Carl comes over and suggests Molly take a walk with him and Sam cannot bring himself to follow. Moments later, the mugger enters the apartment in search of something. When Molly returns, Sam scares their cat into attacking the thug, who flees. Sam follows the mugger to his Brooklyn apartment and learns that the man, Willie Lopez, was sent by an unknown party.

After leaving Willie's residence, Sam happens upon the parlor of psychic Oda Mae Brown, a charlatan pretending to commune with spirits of the dead who is shocked to discover her true psychic gift when she can hear Sam speaking. Sam persuades her to warn Molly that she is in danger. To allay Molly's skepticism, Oda Mae relays information that only Sam could know. Molly later gives Willie's address to Carl, who volunteers to investigate. She then goes to the police, who have no file for Willie but they show her Oda Mae's lengthy one as a forger and con artist.

Meanwhile, Sam follows Carl and is devastated to learn he and Willie are working together. Carl is laundering money for drug dealers and he had Willie rob Sam to get his apartment key, which Carl uses to obtain Sam's book of passwords and transfer the money into a single account under the fictitious "Rita Miller".

Sam learns from a violent poltergeist haunting the subway system how to manipulate objects with his mind. Sam then persuades Oda Mae to help him thwart Carl. Before Carl can transfer the money for his clients, Oda Mae impersonates Rita Miller, closes the account, and reluctantly gives the $4 million cashier's check to charity. As Carl desperately searches for the money, Sam reveals his presence by typing his name on the computer keyboard. Carl goes to Molly, who reveals she spotted Oda Mae closing an account at the bank. Carl and Willie go to Oda Mae's place but Sam warns her and her sisters to take shelter. When Willie arrives, Sam tosses objects at him, causing him to flee into the street in a fit of panic before being struck and killed by an oncoming car. Shadowy creatures emerge from the darkness to drag Willie's ghost down to Hell.

Sam and Oda Mae return to the apartment where—by levitating a penny into Molly's hand—he convinces Molly that Oda Mae is telling the truth about him. Oda Mae allows Sam to possess her body so he and Molly can share a slow dance. Carl breaks into the apartment but Sam is too exhausted from the possession to fight Carl. The women escape onto the fire escape, to a loft under construction, but Carl catches Oda Mae and holds her at gunpoint, demanding the check. Sam recovers and pushes Carl off her, prompting Carl to take Molly hostage and plead with Sam for the check. Sam disarms Carl and attacks him again. Carl tries to escape through a window and tosses a suspended hook at Sam, but the hook swings back, shatters the window and it slides down, fatally impaling Carl with a glass shard. The shadowy creatures return to claim Carl's ghost for Hell.

Sam asks if the women are all right. Miraculously, Molly can now hear him. A heavenly light shines in the room, illuminating Sam's presence. Realizing that it is time for him to go with his task now completed, he and Molly share a tearful goodbye and one final kiss, finally having a proper closure between them. Sam thanks Oda Mae for her help and then walks into the light and onward to Heaven.

Cast

 * Patrick Swayze as Sam Wheat
 * Demi Moore as Molly Jensen
 * Whoopi Goldberg as Oda Mae Brown
 * Tony Goldwyn as Carl Bruner
 * Rick Aviles as Willie Lopez
 * Vincent Schiavelli as Subway Ghost
 * Gail Boggs as Oda Mae's Sister, Louise
 * Armelia McQueen as Oda Mae's Sister, Clara
 * Phil Leeds as Emergency Room Ghost
 * Augie Blunt as Orlando
 * Stephen Root as Police Sgt
 * Bruce Jarchow as Lyle Ferguson

Production
Ghost was the first film Jerry Zucker directed on his own. He had previously been part of the Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker directing team, known for their screwball comedies. Zucker stated that his decision to direct Ghost was not made to distance himself from comedies or to mark a new chapter in his career, but was merely “just looking for a good film to direct.

Screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin was initially apprehensive when he learned that Zucker intended to direct the film, as his initial drafts were much darker and he feared Zucker would try to turn the film into a comedy. But after a meeting with Zucker, Rubin realized that he had nothing to worry about and the two collaborated on further drafts of the script. Some humor was ultimately added, but Zucker’s main contribution was increasing the story’s pacing, as his time as a comedy director had instilled in him a keen understanding of pace.

Filming for Ghost began shooting in July 1989. Most of the interior scenes were shot at Paramount in Los Angeles while the exterior scenes were shot in New York City, particularly in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Soho, and Wall Street, for about five weeks. The film features about 100 special effects shots. Demi Moore's famous 'boy cut' in the movie was designed by Manhattan hair stylist John Sahag.

Soundtrack
The music for Ghost was written by veteran composer Maurice Jarre. The soundtrack also featured the 1955 song "Unchained Melody", composed by Alex North with lyrics by Hy Zaret. That song appears in both instrumental form and in the 1965 recording by the Righteous Brothers. Jarre's score was nominated for the 1990 Academy Award for Best Original Score, though it lost to John Barry's work for Dances with Wolves.

The soundtrack album was issued on Milan Records (and licensed to Varèse Sarabande for North American release); it was subsequently reissued in 1995 with two extra tracks, and later as part of Milan's Silver Screen Edition series with the extra tracks and an interview with Maurice Jarre.

Box office
The film became an unexpected huge box-office success, grossing $505,702,588 on a budget of $22,000,000. It was the highest-grossing film of 1990. Box Office Mojo estimates that the film sold over 51.46 million tickets in the US.

Critical response
Ghost received positive reviews and has a rating of 74% on Rotten Tomatoes based on reviews from 66 critics, with an average rating of 6.8/10. The consensus states that the film "offers viewers a poignant romance while blending elements of comedy, horror, and mystery, all adding up to one of the more enduringly watchable hits of its era." It has a score of 52 on the review site Metacritic, indicating mixed or average reviews. Roger Ebert gave Ghost two-and-a-half out of four stars in his review for the Chicago Sun-Times, regarding the film as "no worse an offender than most ghost movies, I suppose. It assumes that even after death we devote most of our attention to unfinished business here on Earth, and that danger to a loved one is more important to a ghost than the infinity it now inhabits." He was also critical of the film's "obligatory action climax", the "ridiculous visitation from the demons of hell", the "slow study" of the Molly character, and the "single best scene" in which Sam overtakes Oda Mae's body to caress Molly: "In strict logic, this should involve us seeing Goldberg kissing Moore, but of course the movie compromises and shows us Swayze holding her - too bad, because the logical version would actually have been more spiritual and moving." David Ansen of Newsweek, despite finding the ending too sentimental, praised the film as "a zippy pastiche that somehow manages to seem fresh even though it's built entirely out of borrowed parts." Variety magazine called the film "an odd creation – at times nearly smothering in arty somberness, at others veering into good, wacky fun."

Goldberg was highly praised for her performance. In a review for The New York Times, Janet Maslin comments "Ms. Goldberg plays the character's amazement, irritation and great gift for back talk to the hilt. This is one of those rare occasions on which the uncategorizable Ms. Goldberg has found a film role that really suits her, and she makes the most of it." Even some writers who gave negative reviews of Ghost extended praise to Goldberg's work in the film. Goldberg went on to win an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Golden Globe for her performance.

Accolades
The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:
 * 2002: AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions – #19
 * 2004: AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs:
 * "Unchained Melody" – #27

Musical adaptation and parodies


The film has inspired a musical stage version, Ghost the Musical. The show had its world premiere in Manchester, UK, in March 2011 before transferring to London from June 2011 and having its premiere on July 19, 2011. Richard Fleeshman created the role of Sam, with Caissie Levy as Molly and Sharon D. Clarke as Oda Mae Brown. The success of the West End production led to a Broadway transfer in March 2012. This run was short-lived however, closing August 2012. Subsequently, the original production closed on October 6, 2012. A national tour of the United Kingdom launched in April 2013, with a tour of the United States also announced.

The pottery wheel scene is very well known and often parodied, with examples occurring in In Living Color ("Ghost II: Sammy Davis, Jr.'s Spirit"), Two and a Half Men, Saturday Night Live (with Patrick Swayze as host, spoofing his own character), Family Guy ("The Story on Page One", "Baby Not on Board", and "Don't Be a Dickens at Christmas"), All's Well, Ends Well, Naked Gun $2 1/2$ (directed by David Zucker, brother of director Jerry Zucker, and released by the same studio as this film), Loaded Weapon 1, The Penguins of Madagascar, Futurama ("Bendless Love" and "Bender's Game"), Community ("Beginner Pottery"), Victorious ("Survival of the Hottest"), Wallace and Gromit ("A Matter of Loaf and Death"), 6teen ("Unhappy Anniversary"), Ellen ("Alone Again ... Naturally"), The Office ("The Fire"), Glee ("Girls (and Boys) On Film"), Bob's Burgers ("Synchronized Swimming"), 30 Rock ("Governor Dunston"), and Fuller House ("Save the Dates").

The scene where Oda Mae closes the bank account under the name Rita Miller is both featured and parodied in the comedy film Madea's Witness Protection. The characters are seen watching the scene on TV when they get inspired by it. In similar fashion to the original film, Madea is asked to pretend to be a woman named Precious in order to close an account filled with money laundered from a Ponzi scheme, and then subsequently transferring the illegal money to a charity.

Home media
The film was released on Region 1 DVD on April 24, 2001, and Region 2 on December 11, 2001. It was released on Blu-ray on December 30, 2008.

Remakes
In November 13, 2010, Paramount and Shochiku released a Japanese remake of Ghost, titled Ghost: In Your Arms Again (ゴースト もういちど抱きしめたい). The remake stars Nanako Matsushima, South Korean actor Song Seung-heon, and veteran actress Kirin Kiki. In this film, the ghost is a woman, played by Matsushima. An unofficial remake of the film was made in Telugu language by name Aatma Bandham. A Bollywood Hindi remake of the film was also made in the year 1991 just after the original film released in 1990, the remake was titled Pyaar Ka Saaya starring Rahul Roy as the protagonist.

TV series
In November 2013, it was announced that Paramount Television is developing a television series adaptation of Ghost, with Akiva Goldsman and Jeff Pinkner writing the pilot.