Forest Whitaker gives even an eccentric hitman enough private seriousness to move us. We rate him most highly when he has time to be still, though the films around him do not always reward that patience.
Fi1m perspective
Forest Whitaker pauses in Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999), and the film has good reason to wait. Playing an assassin devoted to a samurai code, he takes the man's convictions seriously enough that we can do the same, without approving of his profession. We were moved by his face in the quiet passages, because his commitment to those rules makes his solitude painful. He makes this unlikely character someone worth spending time with.
Supporting parts in Platoon (1986) and Good Morning, Vietnam (1987) had brought him notice before Bird (1988) gave him his first major lead, as Charlie Parker. He did not then abandon smaller parts. Through the 1990s, he continued with character roles, including The Crying Game (1992). We see no reason to regard that as a retreat when the work is this persuasive.
As Jody in Neil Jordan's The Crying Game, he helps establish why we should care about the people before the plotting becomes too pleased with itself. Stephen Rea gives the film its vulnerable centre, and Whitaker contributes without having to displace him. We find his performance persuasive even when the screenplay draws attention to its own cleverness.
Jim Jarmusch gives him more room in Ghost Dog, and editor Jay Rabinowitz lets us study his face rather than cutting away. Robby Müller's cinematography makes the bird passages a welcome break from the gangsters, while production designer Ted Berner's oddly empty settings suit Whitaker's self-contained presence. RZA's hip-hop score keeps a pulse beneath the unhurried scenes. The patience works less well with the gangster caricatures, who cannot sustain the interest Whitaker can.
He later played Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland (2006) and Cecil Gaines in The Butler (2013). His preparation involves accent work, physical changes and immersion in a character's world. We respect the effort, but it is those quiet stretches in Ghost Dog that most persuade us of what he can do. Start there, provided a patient crime film with some tiresome gangsters sounds like a fair bargain.
Biography
Forest Whitaker is an American actor, filmmaker and activist. Born on 15 July 1961 in Longview, Texas, he made his film debut in Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) and trained at the University of Southern California and Drama Studio London.
He is known for his performances as Jody in The Crying Game (1992) and the title character in Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999). Whitaker won the Academy Award for Best Actor, a Golden Globe Award and a British Academy Film Award for his portrayal of Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland (2006). Other credits include Platoon (1986), Bird (1988), for which he received the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor, Panic Room (2002), Arrival (2016), Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) and Black Panther (2018).
Whitaker has directed films including Waiting to Exhale (1995), Hope Floats (1998) and First Daughter (2004). He has also received two Screen Actors Guild Awards.
