Ghost – Special Collector’s Edition (1990/Paramount DVD-Video)
Picture:
C+ Sound: B- Extras: C Film: C
NOTE: This
film has now been issued on Blu-ray and you can read more about that upgraded
version at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/5058/Ghost+–+Special+Collector’s+Edition
In the
lame movie summer of 1990, when Dick
Tracy and Days Of Thunder were
both huge surprise bombs, the film that took advantage of their failure was
Jerry Zucker’s Ghost. Known only for his comedy work, many wondered
what the film would be about and with a cast that included Patrick Swayze
looking for another hit long after Dirty
Dancing, Demi Moore in a strange A-list cycle of contract films at
paramount that were not working out and Whoopi Goldberg looking for a hit years
The Color Purple and burning out her
female-Eddie Murphy attempts, none of them had anything to loose.
The
result was a huge surprise hit that shocked the industry and played so well
that Paramount barely had enough film prints to go around. Swayze and Moore play a couple just moving in
to a new place and getting helped out by a good friend (Tony Goldwyn) as they
start a new life. They are in love and
we see this expressed credibly early on.
One night coming home, they are mugged and he is shot to death, but his
spirit is still in the mortal world. As
he wonders about, he finds out the death was a set-up and the love of his life
is next.
Enter a
“psychic” (Goldberg) trying to make a living when Sam (Swayze) finds ways to
haunt her. The idea is to get her to
help him, but less willing to help is a mysterious figure in the subways (the
late, great character actor Vincent Schiavelli, who in some ways saves the
credibility of the film) who just wants Sam to go away. Bruce Joel Rubin’s script is full of
infantilized mall-movie humor and smug, condescending moments, but the audience
was distracted by the genre mix of comedy, murder, love, melodrama and
supernatural enough not to notice. Post
9/11, this is much more obvious.
Goldberg
made a temporary comeback thanks to this film and got her Academy Award, while Moore
is better here than she got credit for.
Swayze extended his career as well, but hardly anyone in front of the
camera saw this kind of success again.
The film ironically serves as a coda to commercial 1980s filmmaking, the
likes of which we will never see again.
I can live with that.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 x 1 image is a bit of a disappointment considering
how good Adam Greenberg’s cinematography looked at the time, not to mention an
interesting commercial turn for the brilliant editor Walter Murch, two more
reasons this was a surprise hit. The
source should be much cleaner and clearer, with more detail and depth like the
35mm prints. The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix
is also problematic, with some good surround activity, but missing the punch of
the original analog SR mix that it tries to upgrade. The 2.0 Dolby with Pro Logic surrounds also
does not cut it, both missing the naturalness and flow of the PCM 2.0 Stereo
tracks from the old 12” LaserDisc.
Extras
include stills, the original theatrical trailer, four featurettes (including a
making of piece) and audio commentary by Zucker and Rubin. All in all, fans will be happy, but I doubt
any new ones will be made with this edition.
- Nicholas Sheffo
