Thirty years ago, a love story entered cinemas that would go on to be one of the most successful in its genre in the decade that followed. Ghost is a touching, often funny, beautiful story of love and loss, featuring a brilliant cast led by Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore. As the film heads back to cinemas for Valentine’s Day to celebrate its 30th birthday, we remember one of the best love stories of the ’90s.
Image courtesy of Park Circus/Paramount
Sam Wheat (Swayze) is brutally killed in the opening reel of the movie, leaving his wife Molly (Demi Moore) behind, alone in the big city in which they’ve just bought a run-down, but full-of-potential loft apartment. Sam is gunned-down by a street hood in what seems to be a simple street robbery gone wrong, but it is soon revealed that the killer has actually been hired by Sam’s shady business partner Carl Bruner (a superb Tony Goldwyn) over a dodgy business deal. After his murder, which obviously leaves Molly devastated, Sam’s spirit is left to roam the earth as a powerless spirit until he can put things right, so he enlists the help of psychic Oda Mae Brown (an Oscar-winning Whoopi Goldberg) who can somehow hear his every word.
At the time, Patrick Swayze was Hollywood hot property, in the middle of a golden run which started with 1987’s sleeper-smash Dirty Dancing, continued the likes of Next Of Kin, Steel Dawn, Tiger Warsaw, and then cult fave Roadhouse in 1989. All of those slipped into the same genre, appealing to a certain audience, but Ghost changed all of that for arguably one of the best leading men of his time.
There are reports that there was initial hesitation for Swayze for the now-iconic role of Sam after director Jerry Zucker saw Roadhouse. “Over my dead body will ‘Roadhouse’ Patrick Swayze ever play this role,” the filmmaker is quoted in saying.
All that changed once the star was seen on camera for a read with co-star Demi Moore. Speaking to People magazine in 1990, director Zucker said: “We all had tears in our eyes, right there in the office—and we knew how it ends. I saw a side of Patrick that I never knew existed.”
Swayze was also instrumental in getting Whoopi Goldberg involved. Goldberg appeared on The View saying that if it weren’t for Swayze, she wouldn’t have been in the film and obviously wouldn’t have landed her Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress.
Once the cast was in place, shooting commenced in the summer of ’89 with interiors filmed in Los Angeles and exteriors in New York City where the film is set. Zucker directed from a screenplay (one that would also go on to win an Oscar) by Bruce Joel Rubin. Adam Greenberg, who would go on to shoot the likes of Terminator 2 and Rush Hour, was hired as the film’s cinematographer, while the editing was completed by the legendary Walter Murch, the man who spliced together The Godfather trilogy, Apocalypse Now! and The English Patient. Music was by Maurice Jarre and licensed tracks included the iconic 1955 song “Unchained Melody”, the song that places over the legendary ‘pottery’ love scene.
Ghost was released in 1990 and over the course of its run scored a whopping $505,702,588 from cinemas all over the world – all from a reported budget of just $22 million. It was nominated for five Oscars and won two – for Goldberg and for the original screenplay. It made Demi Moore a huge box-office draw – she would go on to star in the likes of A Few Good Men and Disclosure in the years that followed and paved the way for Patrick Swayze to pick whatever roles he wanted. He picked good the following year, co-headlining Kathryn Bigalow’s Point Break with Keanu Reeves – one of the greatest action movies ever made. Goldberg also went on to further success, leading the cast of the Sister Act movies and Corrina, Corrina.
As for Ghost‘s legacy? Thirty years on, the film in itself still stands up. It will play on the big screen in select cinemas this coming weekend, and all over the world people continue to enjoy the story on stage in Ghost: The Musical – a production featuring book and lyrics by Bruce Joel Rubin and music and lyrics by Dave Stewart and Glen Ballard. The musical has played on Broadway, London’s West End, and toured the likes of Germany, the UK, Australia, Russia and more.
The film was even remade in 2010 in Japan as Ghost: MouichidoDakishimetai gender-swapping the Sam Wheat character for a woman.
Modern audiences continue to connect to the story and the movie will live on for decades, occasionally popping up on network television and on the various streaming service. If you do have the chance to see on the big screen this weekend, do so, as it is an absolute treat. A timeless modern romantic classic.
Park Circus will screen Ghost as various cinemas nationwide on Valentine’s Day 14th February.
