DVD Review: Ghost (Special Collector's Edition)

DVD Reviews

By Jeff Swindoll Mar 13, 2007, 18:39 GMT

Get your pottery wheel, Righteous Brothers album, and lots of wet clay ready because Ghost returns to DVD in a new special edition. Everybody sing “woooooooman!”

Sam Wheat (Patrick Swayze) is walking his girlfriend Molly Jensen (Demi Moore) home one night when they’re attacked by a mugger. Sam gives chase to the mugger, but he gets away. Only when he returns to Molly does he realize that she holds his own lifeless body in her arms. It seems that Sam is now a ghost. He tries to make contact with Molly to no avail. It’s not until his wanderings bring him to the workplace of crooked medium Oda Mae Brown (Whoopi Goldberg).

Freud says that sometimes a pot is just a pot

Much to her shock, she can actually hear Sam. Sam discovers that his business partner Carl (Tony Goldwyn) is making moves on Molly. He also discovers that his murdered didn’t get what he was after and he’s going to go after Molly to get it. Sam has to convince Oda Mae to warn Molly, but he has a larger task in convincing Molly that he’s trying to warn her from beyond the grave. I guess we could compare Ghost to Titanic in that it was a crowd pleasing film that audiences went to see over and over again. I think that Titanic might’ve trumped Ghost in the amount of return visits, but Ghost only cost 22 million to make and in the end made over 200 million. 200 million is the estimate of how much it cost to actually make Titanic. Ghost even garnered a best picture nomination in the 1991 Oscars. It didn’t win that title, but Whoopi Goldberg got the gold for supporting actress and Bruce Joel Rubin got gold for best screenwriting. I think that universal appeal of Ghost lies in the fact that we all want to have reassurances that our loved ones are awaiting us on the other side. We all live in the hope that we’ll even be able to contact those that have recently departed from us. In the movie the fake medium actually finds that she has the gift (instead of grift) to actually contact the dearly departed. Though the movie really doesn’t subscribe to a particular religion it also shows us that there’s a place for bad guys to go and it’s not a very nice one. What makes the film are the performances. We really feel for both Sam and Molly. They seem so much in love (or “ditto”) that we really are sad when the icy hand of death separates them.

Not only can Oda Mae hear Sam she might also hear Oscar calling

Whoopi Goldberg is also excellent as the charlatan medium that discovers that she really does have the gift. As I said, she was rewarded with an Oscar for her performance. Ghost may come away as one of the classic romance stories of the 90s when the tally is made.Ghost is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include a commentary by director Jerry Zucker and writer Bruce Joel Rubin. I think that was a holdover from the previous release of the film onto DVD. Next is the 13 minute “Ghost Stories: the making of a classic.” It features new interviews with screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin, director Jerry Zucker, Patrick Swayze, Whoopi Goldberg, production designer Jane Musky, and a 1990 interview with Demi Moore (looks like it was on the set of Noting but Trouble). The 8 minute “Inside the Paranormal” follows and is interviews with various psychics. This seemed a bit of a stretch to me as an extra since after watching the likes of Penn & Teller and the Amazing Randi I’m not so sure I believe in psychics. Whatever the case, the featurette has interviews with spiritual medium/psychic Shelley Duffy, psychic medium Laurie Campbell, medium George E. Dalzell, and spiritual medium James Van Praagh. The 6 minute “Alchemy of a Love Scene” is all about the famous “clay throwing” scene of the film and adds interview footage with director of photography Adam Greenberg. The final featurette is the 19 minute “Cinema’s Greatest Romances” which should’ve been more apt to title “Paramount’s Greatest Romances.” It interviews AFI historian Patricia Hanson, film critic/author Jami Bernard, Drew Casper (USC School of Cinematic Arts, and author Kim Adelman on a host of romantic films, but they only cover films from Paramount (no dummies they since they’re all available on their DVD label). Finally there’s the 2 minute theatrical trailer, a photo gallery, and previews of other Paramount DVDs.

Sam witnesses his own death

I think of Ghost as a classic romantic film from the 1990s. Its popularity may attest that mine is not the only opinion that it is so. Paramount has dipped again and come up with some new extras, but you’ll have to decide if they’re enough to make you venture to the DVD store. Ghost (Special Collector's Edition) is now available at Amazon. As of yet, there is not a release date for this version of the DVD in the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.