Ghost (1990 film)
Ghost (known as Ghost, beyond love in Spain, Ghost, the ghost of love in Paraguay, Ghost in Cuba and Ghost, the Shadow of Love in Peru, Colombia, Nicaragua, Chile, Costa Rica, Mexico, Argentina, Puerto Rico, Uruguay and Venezuela) is an American drama film, romance and fantasy, released in 1990. It stars Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore and Whoopi Goldberg, written by Bruce Joel Rubin and directed by Jerry Zucker. It won two Oscars: for best supporting actress (Whoopi Goldberg) and for best original screenplay. It was nominated for three others: Best Picture, Best Music, and Best Editing.
It is the highest grossing film of 1990.
Plot
Sam Wheat (Patrick Swayze), a banking and investment executive, and Molly Jensen (Demi Moore), a ceramic sculptor, are a happy couple living in New York City. The only problem in their relationship is Molly's discomfort with the fact that when she tells Sam "I love you" ("I love you" in English), he simply responds "idem" ('the same'; in Latin, "ditto, Duty" in the original English version, in Tuscan 'what was said'). He's never the one to take the initiative by telling her girl before she does. This annoys Molly, who feels she needs to hear him say "I love you" in response or first before she says it herself.
One night, while walking to their new apartment after a trip to the theater, they are attacked by a thief named Willy Lopez (Rick Aviles). He pulls out a gun and, during the struggle between Sam and the mugger, the gun goes off. After the shot, Sam begins to chase the robber, who runs away, although he eventually loses sight of him. When he returns to Molly, he realizes the truth: the shot has hit him in the heart and he has been killed almost instantly. As an unseen bystander, he witnesses Molly rocking her corpse, desperately and futilely trying to keep him alive. And he realizes that he has become a ghost, caught between both worlds. The light comes looking for him from above, but he doesn't want to leave Molly alone, and he manages to escape from her. Little by little, he manages to get used to the idea that he is no longer alive.
At the hospital where they took his body and are trying to revive him, he meets an old man, who is also a ghost. There they see a patient who is dying and the light comes to take his soul, it leaves the patient's body, while the old man says that he was lucky that the "others" did not come to take him away. Sam tries to ask him "who are...?" when the old man disappears At her funeral, Sam sees a woman in blue walk past a tombstone, as she greets him.
While slowly coming to terms with the fact that he's dead and that he can't be with Molly anymore. Sam realizes that the robbery had been planned when his killer Willy enters his house and walks through his belongings. Sam follows Willy and discovers that Willy's friend and co-worker Carl Bruner (Tony Goldwyn) had hired Willy to steal from Sam in order to obtain the password to his office computer. Carl was involved in money laundering at the bank where he and Sam worked. Sam had recently changed his password, preventing Carl from accessing the forged accounts in which he had hidden black money, in the name of a fictitious person named Rita Miller. Sam is filled with resentment towards his supposedly best friend, but realizes that, as a ghost, he can't do much.
Sam understands that Molly is in danger but he is unable to communicate with her in his current state. However, he finds Oda Mae Brown (Whoopi Goldberg), an artist posing as a medium. She who, ironically, discovers (after hearing Sam criticize her fraudulent business) that she actually has her family's power to hear ghosts, even though she can't see them. Seeing her as her only hope of connecting him with Molly, Sam begins to harass her until she finally gives in and agrees to help him.
Reluctantly, Oda Mae calls Molly and tells her that she is reaching out to Sam, but Molly is skeptical. She only manages to convince him of her when she tells him private things that only Sam knew about, mainly her use of the word "ditto".
While chasing Willy to his apartment, Sam meets a haunting ghost (Vincent Schiavelli), haunting the New York subway. Who teaches him to move and touch objects, focusing his emotions on the target. He also discovers that Oda Mae was being requested by ghosts from as far away as New York and New Jersey to speak to her living relatives. One briefly possesses her, but it significantly weakens her ghosts. Sam promises Oda Mae that she won't be bothered if she lends her help.
Meanwhile, Molly goes to the police, having returned her skepticism about Oda Mae's words. The sergeant assures her that she was right to doubt her and that there was no folder with the Willy López file. Although she did have data on Oda Mae Brown, who is recognized among local police officers as an impostor.
Sam and Oda Mae decide to thwart the plan of Carl, who had stolen four million dollars and deposited it into a fraudulent account. Under Sam's instructions, Oda Mae poses as Rita Miller (the assumed account name) and manages to withdraw the money. Sam advises Oda Mae to hand over the money so she won't be persecuted by Carl, donating the check to two nuns asking for charity. Carl panics when he realizes the account has been closed and is tormented by Sam who, unseen, behaves like a poltergeist and types the word "murderer" into his computer. Amidst Carl's despair, Sam reveals his identity by repeatedly displaying his name on the screen.
Carl thinks Sam took his money so he ends up on Molly's doorstep, asking for Oda Mae. Molly reveals that Oda Mae was Rita Miller and that she is a con artist. Carl realizes that the ghost of his old coworker is present and that he used Oda Mae to take his money, so he tells him (Sam) that he would be back at 11 p.m. m. to kill Molly if she didn't pay him back. Sam runs to warn Oda Mae, but almost immediately Willy and Carl arrive to try to take the check from the settled account. Oda Mae and her sisters escape, while Sam terrifies Willy, causing him to flee into the street in a panic. Willy is killed by a truck, but his soul is dragged by demonic shadows to hell. Witnessing this, Sam understands that these demons are the "others" that the old man from the hospital had mentioned to him.
Sam and Oda Mae rush off to warn Molly that she is in danger, but Molly is still unsure about Oda Mae. Sam manages to convince her of it by levitating a penny and giving it to Molly, as they both collected them for good luck. Molly asks the police to protect them from Carl, and meanwhile, Sam uses Oda Mae's body to get one last touch of Molly. Carl's sudden arrival interrupts Sam's possession, and he is expelled from Oda Mae's body and left very weak.
Molly and Oda Mae escape to a loft above the apartment, while being chased by Carl, who eventually catches Oda Mae. Molly comes to the medium's defense, but Carl takes her hostage. Sam recovers the power from him and forces Carl to throw the gun away from him, Molly fleeing unharmed. Struggling to no avail to stop Sam's attacks, Carl clumsily throws the building's crane hook (pulley) at him to pull things up. The hook passes through Sam's transparent body and strikes a window, whose shattered glass guillotines Carl's body. After realizing that he is dead, he is dragged by the demonic shadows to hell, screaming for help.
When Sam walks back to Oda Mae and Molly, Molly realizes that she can hear Sam. For a few moments, an intense light begins to shine, making Sam partially visible. Saying goodbye to Oda Mae, he shares one last kiss with Molly and tells her that he loves her, to which she responds with "ditto." Sam leaves accompanied by a bright light.
Cast and dubbing
Original Actor United States | Character | Voice actor Spain | Voice actor Mexico
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Patrick Swayze † | Sam Wheat | Manolo García | Carlos Becerril |
| Demi Moore | Molly Jensen | Rosa María Hernández | Marina Huerta |
| Whoopi Goldberg | Oda Mae Brown | María Dolores Gispert | Alma Nuri |
| Tony Goldwyn | Carl Bruner | Juan Antonio Bernal | Gabriel Cobayassi |
| Rick Aviles † | Willy López | Pedro Molina | ? |
| Vincent Schiavelli † | Ghost by metro | Camilo García | Cesar Arias |
| Phil Leeds | Phantom in O.R. | Antonio Crespo | Álvaro Tarcicio † |
| Augie Blunt | Orlando | Pepe Mediavilla † | Álvaro Tarcicio † |
| Tom Finnegan | Security guard | Mariano Fraile | Álvaro Tarcicio † |
| Laura Drake | Female police | Rosa Gavín | Dulcina Carballo |
| Vivian Bonnell | Hortire | Pink Pasto | Dulcina Carballo |
| Bruce Jarchow | Lyle Ferguson | Emilio Freixas | Armando Réndiz |
| Sam Tsoutsouvas | Priest at funeral | Alberto Mieza | Armando Réndiz |
| Charlotte Zucker | Bank employees | Monserrat Carulla | Carmen Donna-Dao † |
| Arsenio Hall | The same | Juan Antonio Bernal | Mario Castañeda |
| Armelia McQueen | Clara | Juana Beuter | Campa Help |
| Gail Boggs | Louise | Esperanza Navarro | Laura Ayala |
| Angelina Estrada | Rosa Santiago | Marta Martorell | Araceli de León † |
| Stephen Root | Police sergeant | Alejandro Ávila | Paco Mauri |
| J. Christopher Sullivan | Phantom | Antonio Villar | Paco Mauri |
| Derek Thompson | Friend of Hortence | Alejandro Albaiceta | Ismael Castro |
- Technical credits (Spain)
- Double study: Sonoblok, Barcelona
- Fold Director: Camilo García
- Translator: Sally Temper
- Recording and mixing of dialogues: Guillermo Ramos
- Double production: Universal Pictures Spain S. A.
- Technical credits (Mexico)
- Double study: Auditel, Mexico, D. F.
- Double Director: Gabriel Cobayassi
- Translator: Raúl Felipe Orozco
- Double Production: Paramount Network
Production
Bruce Willis and Tina Turner were originally going to play the roles of Sam and Molly, but the role ultimately went to Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore respectively.
Soundtrack
Ghost is the name of the soundtrack of the 1990 film of the same name, starring Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore and Whoopi Goldberg. It was produced under the Milan América label, with the production of Maurice Jarre.
It is classified as one of the most successful in sales and publicity in the history of cinema and music, especially for representing an orchestrated sector of a particular era. It remained in the first place of sales and lists for several weeks in its year of publication.
- «Unchained Melody» - The Righteous Brothers
- «Ghost» - Maurice Jarre
- «Sam» - Maurice Jarre
- «Ditto» - Maurice Jarre
- «Carl» - Maurice Jarre
- «Molly» - Maurice Jarre
- «Unchained Melody (orchestra)» - Maurice Jarre
- «Generique Fin» - Maurice Jarre
Reception
The film was the highest grossing of 1990. Due to its success, a musical of the film was created in 2011, which was also successful.
World premiere dates
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Panama
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Greece
Mexico
Norway
Paraguay
Peru
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Sweden
Uruguay
Venezuela
Awards
- Oscar Awards
| Year | Category | Person(s) | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | Best movie | Lisa Weinstein | Candidate |
| Best cast actress | Whoopi Goldberg | Winner | |
| Best original script | Bruce Joel Rubin | Winner | |
| Best soundtrack | Maurice Jarre | Candidate | |
| Better assembly | Walter Murch | Candidate |
- Golden Globe Awards
| Year | Category | Person(s) | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | Best movie - comedy or musical | Candidate | |
| Best actor - comedy or musical | Patrick Swayze | Candidate | |
| Best actress - comedy or musical | Demi Moore | Candidate | |
| Best cast actress | Whoopi Goldberg | Winner | |