Ghost (Blu-ray)

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Because the screenwriter of "Ghost" used a book by a friend of mine, Loyd Auerbach, as reference material for the film, I thought it appropriate to ask Loyd to preface this review with a few comments of his own about the movie. You may remember Loyd from his participation in the BD review of "Poltergeist." He's a parapsychologist, psychic investigator, and professional magician, whose Web site provides a wealth of fascinating information about him and his pursuits: www.mindreader.com/loyd.htm

The Movie According to Loyd:
When people ask me what the best movies on ghosts are, at the top of my list are "Topper" and "Ghost" (though my fave is "The Time of Their Lives"). If the question is specific to how "accurate" movies are about apparitions, "Ghost" is the movie I always point to. When I first saw it, I was impressed with how the film portrayed its spirits as people who had not changed their personalities, as this is just what witnesses have reported for well over 150 years of reports being really looked at.

But more than that, Swayze's character seemed to be on a quest not only to deal with his own murder, but to learn to use the "powers" of a ghost to do so. Of that, three things really stuck out. "Psychic" Oda Mae only heard his voice (and the voices of other spirits). Too many people seem to think that ghosts are only "seen" when, in fact, the reports clearly indicate auditory, kinesthetic ("feeling" a presence or touch), and even olfactory ("smelling" cologne, perfume, even body odor). Placing the perceptual focus on hearing instead of seeing not only differentiated the film, but also approached a more real form of ghost experience. The idea that a ghost is only a mind--and one without a body--also comes through quite well in the film. This is part of our model of apparitions. The third gave me a bit of pause. Swayze's character tried to move things, but could not. He simply didn't know how, until his encounter with the newspaper-hitting subway ghost. This entity drove home the mind-without-body idea and the concept that ghosts need to use the powers of their mind to move things, to think them to move. This is called psychokinesis. What gave me pause is that most apparition cases do not include unexplained object movement, and for a fleeting moment I was concerned that this would change because of this movie. The one aspect of the film that did not ring true was the shadowy beings dragging the bad guys down into the ground. We have no such reports. But then again, who would be around to tell us?

Still, the accuracy of the film (with respect to people's actual ghost sightings and the models of apparitions we have in parapsychology) was impressive. A couple of years after the movie's release, I was contacted by the screenwriter's assistant to discuss some ideas around psychokinesis. I was told that screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin used a couple of parapsychology books for primary research for "Ghost," including my first book "ESP, Hauntings and Poltergeists," something I've heard from several others in Hollywood since then. How cool is that?

The Movie According to John:
Pretty cool, Loyd, and thanks much. It's also pretty cool to welcome favorite films to high-definition, and "Ghost" has been a favorite of the Wife-O-Meter and mine for many years. The movie is unabashedly corny and schmaltzy, but we wouldn't want it any other way.

The film's screenwriter explains on an accompanying featurette that Shakespeare's "Hamlet" first inspired him to write "Ghost." But you knew that. He said he always wanted to write a ghost story from the ghost's point of view, but he could never get an angle on it. Then he remembered the ghost of Hamlet's father and found his approach. It would be a revenge story, and the rest is history.

Director Jerry Zucker had just helped make "Airplane!," "Top Secret!," and "The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!" and apparently wanted a break from films ending in exclamation marks. He was looking for a change of pace and found it in 1990 with "Ghost," a romantic fantasy comedy drama, and the rest is, well, you know.

Starring Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore, and Whoopi Goldberg, "Ghost" became a smash hit, the biggest moneymaking film of the year, as well it should have. It's just about everything to everybody. Schizophrenic is more like it, which is also its major failing for people who like their movies to fall into neat little cubbyholes. This one doesn't. As I say, it combines romance with fantasy, humor with drama. It's not an easy trick to make an audience grimace in pain one minute, laugh out loud the next, and cry after that. Rubin's script, Zucker's direction, and the cast's performances manage the job.

Given the material, the film is probably longer at two hours and six minutes than it has to be, but except for a rather prosaic opening sequence establishing the identity of the characters and their relationships with one another, it maintains a high interest level. Swayze plays Sam Wheat, a Wall Street investment counselor, already a stretch given his rugged appearance and tough-guy movie persona but a role he easily pulls off. Moore plays his girlfriend, Molly Jensen, a sculptor. And Tony Goldwyn plays Sam's best friend, Carl Brunner, a fellow investment broker. Sam and Molly are deeply in love, a fact we come to understand when they indulge in their famously erotic clay-turning scene, accompanied by the Righteous Brothers singing "Unchained Melody." I mean, any two people willing to get that messy being frisky have got to be in love. Since neither of them appears to make a really substantial income, they live in one of those New York City lofts about a block wide. Only in the movies.

Anyway, after watching a performance of "Macbeth," Molly and Sam are on a deserted street when a mugger attacks and murders Sam. It surprises me they hadn't been watching "Hamlet." But Sam doesn't go straight on to heaven as most good folks do. Instead, he hangs around in a sort of netherworld between this one and the next. At first he isn't sure why, but this halfway house for ghosts seems inhabited by an assortment of disembodied beings much like himself, the best of whom is a really scary specter on a subway train, a spirit played by Vincent Schiavelli, who eventually teaches Sam how to move objects without making any physical contact with them. It seems that someone, a higher being perhaps, is allowing Sam to find his murderer or protect Molly.