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Ghost

“You will believe.” Ghost was the movie that made pottery wheels as erotic and sexual as Madonna. It was romance, combined with suspense, comedy, and even a little fright. Ghost provided teenagers the option to say “ditto” on the phone with their significant others, rather than the embarrassing “I love you” in front of their parents. Since every romance movie needs a good romantic theme song, the selection in this case was “Unchained Melody” by the Righteous Brothers. It again became a chart topper, decades after its initial release.

Audiences crowded the theaters and ticket lines expanded all over the malls as the movie made over a half of a billion dollars in its run at the theatres. It is one of the top 75 grossing movies of all time, beating out box office notable heavyweights Saving Private Ryan, Pretty Woman, and even Jaws. Patrick Swayze (Sam) and Demi Moore (Molly) play a caring couple that are torn apart in the dark NYC streets by a hired hitman, Willy Lopez, who guns down Sam right in front of Molly. Sam finds himself lost in the afterlife, caught in the world between Heaven and Hell and is determined to find out the motive behind his slaying.

As he learns it was all set up due to a money laundering scheme that his co-worker was a part of, Sam hones in on his ghostly ways and strikes fear in Willy and Carl, the one ultimately responsible for Sam’s death. Additionally, Sam works to communicate through a psychic, Oda Mae Brown, played by Whoopi Goldberg, who landed herself an Oscar for Best Supporting actress for the role. Together, they work to convince Molly that Sam really is with her, despite his death, and that he is watching over her and protecting her. They warn Molly about Carl and Oda Mae eloquently explains that “Molly, you in danger girl!” Sam is able to thwart Carl’s final attacks on Molly and Oda Mae, thus resulting in Carl plummeting to his death out a window and having his soul captured and taken away by demons. Sam is finally somewhat visible to Molly, as he glows with the Heavenly light and manages to finally tell Molly he truly loves her as he ascends into the sky.

The movie, as a whole, aimed at showing that true love, no matter the obstacles, can eventually, if pursued hard enough, overcome anything. Or, perhaps, the alternate lesson was that if you kill somebody, that person will indeed haunt you and hunt you down and be sure to return the favor . . . and have you dragged kicking and screaming in utter terror, to Hell, just to make sure the point was made.