GHOST

1990 / Director. Jerry Zucker.

I'm really feeling my age creeping up on me here. I vividly remember seeing GHOST at the cinemas when I was 11 years old. In fact my mum and I saw it 3 times at the Northland Cinemas in Melbourne. It's obviously a movie which stuck with me because I also remember just about every time I watched it on home video too. It's probably been 10 years since I last saw it and so over the weekend I thought it might be a good movie to introduce my 14 year old daughter. Yep, we've got a winner. She loved it. While I know the film back to front I was surprised at how well it stands up almost 24 years later. First and foremost it's script is bloody amazing. Some will fob it off as drivel and others will call it sappy but lets be honest, it was always a melodrama. Having studied film and scriptwriting I watched it for the first time with a new knowledge of the medium and was taken aback at how well structured the movie is. Firstly it's amazing that so many genre conventions can be packed in to one story and yet maintain absolute credibility throughout. Drama, Comedy, Thriller and Horror are all represented. If you've never seen GHOST then I wonder what planet you're living on and would recommend seeing it. Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore star as a couple madly in love. He is killed in a robbery gone wrong and crosses over into a realm between Heaven and Earth. It's only in death that he learns that he was set up and murdered and he enlists the help of a psychic medium played by Whoopi Goldberg to help warn Demi Moore. To enjoy GHOST you have to embrace it and to embrace it you need to understand the type of film it is. Be prepared to have your heart strings pulled and just go with it. Movie making is all about manipulation and GHOST does it brilliantly. 

A couple of years ago a Japanese remake was made, which flipped the characters around. I haven't reviewed it but have seen it and would also recommend it. It might be the same story but it reaches for a different emotional level and stands alone as a provoking and sweet drama... with less of a thriller set-up. 

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