Indie 90s: Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999)
- Tue, Aug 25
- Wed, Aug 26
Director: Jim Jarmusch Run Time: 117 min. Rating: R Release Year: 1999
Starring: Cliff Gorman, Forest Whitaker, Frank Minucci, John Tormey, Richard Portnow
Country: United States, France, Germany, Japan
Language: English, French
Indie 90s: The Revolution That Changed Cinema
The ’90s didn’t just give us great movies, it changed what movies could be. Independent filmmakers that were breaking the rules, finding new voices, and reshaping American cinema.
Our Indie 90s series features twenty-two films in all — all independent, all revolutionary.
About the film:
Jim Jarmusch combines his love for the ice-cool crime dramas of Jean-Pierre Melville and Seijun Suzuki with the philosophical dimensions of samurai mythology for an eccentrically postmodern take on the hit-man thriller. In one of his defining roles, Forest Whitaker brings a commanding serenity to his portrayal of a Zen contract killer working for a bumbling mob outfit, a modern man who adheres steadfastly to the ideals of the Japanese warrior code even as chaos and violence spiral around him.
Featuring moody cinematography by the great Robby Müller, a mesmerizing score by the Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA, and a host of colorful character actors (including a memorably stone-faced Henry Silva), Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai plays like a pop-culture-sampling cinematic mixtape built around a one-of-a-kind tragic hero.
About the filmmaker:
Jim Jarmusch is an American filmmaker and writer born near Akron, Ohio. With his minimalist, unconventional style, deadpan humor, and striking imagery, he became a defining figure in American independent cinema. In the late 1970’s, he honed his skills studying film at NYU’s Graduate Film program where he was classmates with Spike Lee. Jarmusch established his distinct visual and narrative language in his breakthrough feature Stranger Than Paradise (1984) and went on to direct such acclaimed works as Down by Law (1986), Mystery Train (1989), Night on Earth (1991), Dead Man (1995), and Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999). He won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival for hist most recent feature, the 2025 triptych comedy-drama Father Mother Sister Brother (2025).
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