The eschatological imagery is disappointingly traditional – a conventional Christian affirmation of life after death with a Hell represented by shadowy leftover Jawas and a Heaven represented by indistinctly glowing angelic hosts and distant slightly off-coloured fields, all overlaid with a just-rewards to the good and punishment of the wicked-type morality. Underneath it all, Ghost pertains to an easy formula – popular box-office casting with names like Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore and Whoopi Goldberg, the revival of a golden oldie song that ended up being a huge charts hit all over again. Cast line-up – (l to r) Demi Moore, Patrick Swayze, Whoopi Goldberg While the murder plot exists solely to spin out drama, Rubin manages to whip it through a tensely compounded series of twists with a torturous corkscrew irrevocability. Not to decry Bruce Joel Rubin, he is a most adept plot-master. There are odd moments when plot convenience get in the way of logic – like failing to explain how ghosts are able to walk on substantial stairs when they pass through everything else, or how Patrick Swayze can make a jump from train to train – surely if the ghosts pass through everything inertia would carry him through the wall on the other side? (One also questions how it would be possible for Tony Goldwyn to have transferred the money into the accounts in the first place if he did not have the computer password). Screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin has clearly spent time thinking out his central premise and it becomes fascinating to see all the traditional elements of the ghost story – possession, mediumship, poltergeist activity, haunting and so on – rung up from the ghost’s point-of-view and played with a refreshing matter-of-factness. Ghost is what Hollywood calls a ‘high-concept’ film. Always sputtered out at the box-office but it was enough to create a groundswell that produced Ghost, which became the No 1 box-office film of 1990, along with other explorations of the afterlife that included Jacob’s Ladder (1990) and Flatliners (1990). Steven Spielberg’s guardian angel fantasy Always (1989) had started the interest. The real significance of its message is encapsulated in one specific scene, says iconic critic Roger Ebert: “The single best scene – that does touch the poignancy of the human belief in life after death – comes when Swayze is able to take over Goldberg’s body, to use her physical presence as an instrument for caressing the woman that he loves.Ghost was part of a sudden interest in afterlife themes that emerges in 1990. It’s sweet and loving and cute and romantic, that a ghost has stayed in the world of the living to protect his soulmate. It does everything it says on the box, which is why it made a box office profit of $480 million. The acting is good, the storyline is pretty cool, and the cast is great (including Whoopi Goldberg as Oda Mae Brown, a psychic who channels Sam). You know the one we’re talking about: where Sam and Molly make pottery. That’s thanks to one scene between Patrick Swayze’s murdered character Sam Wheat and his very-much-alive lover Molly (Demi Moore). But then it was used in 1990 romcom supernatural movie Ghost and became a global phenomenon. Unchained Melody was always a great song.
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