Ghost is a 1990 American romantic fantasy film starring Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore and Whoopi Goldberg. It was written by Bruce Joel Rubin and directed by Jerry Zucker.^[2]

The film was a financial and critical success, and was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Score and Best Film Editing. It won the awards for Best Supporting Actress for Goldberg and Best Original Screenplay. Goldberg was particularly praised: she also won the BAFTA, Golden Globe, and Saturn Awards in addition to the Oscar.

Plot[link]

Sam Wheat (Patrick Swayze), a banker, and Molly Jensen (Demi Moore), a talented potter, are a loving couple who move into a New York City apartment. At work, Sam discovers a major discrepancy in a couple of bank accounts (too much money), and confides in his good friend and colleague, Carl Bruner (Tony Goldwyn). Carl offers to investigate the matter, but Sam decides to investigate himself. Later that night, Sam and Molly are attacked by armed thug Willie Lopez (Rick Aviles) and Sam is killed by a gunshot during a struggle with Willie. Sam's ghost arises from his dead body, which lies next to the distraught Molly; he gradually realizes that he is a ghost whose presence cannot be seen or heard.

One day, Sam is alone at the apartment (testing his ability to walk through doors) when Willie comes in, looking for something. Sam is unable to stop the killer but spooks Molly's cat, Floyd, causing Willie to get scratched and flee. Sam follows the killer to his place in Brooklyn, and hears that he will return to Molly's house. He also meets Oda Mae Brown (Whoopi Goldberg), a local con-artist posing as a medium and realizes she can hear him (not see him), although Oda Mae had been faking her abilities until then. He persuades Oda Mae to tell Molly that she is in danger, but Molly is disbelieving and Carl later convinces Molly that Oda Mae is a fraud preying on her grief. Molly talks to the police about her concerns but they confirm that Oda Mae is a known confidence trickster with a lengthy record whereas Willie Lopez has none.

Sam discovers that Carl was involved in a money laundering scheme at the bank and that the attack was an attempt by Carl to acquire Sam's security codes, so he could transfer the money from the many accounts to one at another bank. He learns how to move solid objects by willpower from an aggressive New York City subway poltergeist (Vincent Schiavelli). He persuades Oda Mae to thwart Carl's money laundering scheme. Following his instructions, Oda Mae impersonates the owner of Carl's fake bank account, closes the account, and gives its $4 million contents to a homeless shelter (this reluctantly).

Carl, due to transfer the money to a correspondent bank overseas, becomes desperate when he finds the account closed and empty. Sam taunts him in the deserted office by moving objects and making accusations appear on his computer screen, typing MURDERER, then his name (SAM), making it repeat. Carl visits Molly and declares to Sam that he will kill Molly unless the money is returned that evening. He and Willie then go to Oda Mae's apartment to find her. Sam manages to get there first and warns Oda Mae and her two sisters, who quickly escape and take refuge in a neighbor's apartment. Sam uses his powers to separate and distract Carl and Willie, who are ransacking Oda Mae's apartment in search of the money. Horrified by the experience, Willie flees and is killed in a traffic accident. Willie's ghost arises, sees his body and is told by Sam, he's dead. A group of howling demons emerge from shadows of ordinary things and and pull a screaming Willie into the shadows, while Sam watches in horror. It is implied they take him to some kind of Hell.

Afterwards, Sam and Oda Mae return to Molly's apartment to warn her about Carl, but she refuses to let her in and breaks down in grief. Sam finally convinces her that Oda Mae is genuine and he is truly present as a ghost by having her push a penny underneath the front door and Sam levitating it in front of Molly. Astonished, Molly lets Ode Mae inside and while waiting for the police, Sam uses Oda Mae's body to share a final dance with Molly.

Carl arrives, prepared to murder Molly and Oda Mae, but they flee. Sam is left momentarily weakened, as possession wipes a ghost out. In the storage room, Carl manages to get a hold of Oda Mae and threatens to kill her, but Molly comes to her aid and holds Carl off long enough for Oda Mae to escape his grasp. Carl grabs Molly and holds her at gunpoint for the money but is unsuccessful. As Sam recovers he is able to disarm Carl and attack him. As Carl attempts to flee through a plate glass window, he flings a scaffolding hook in Sam's direction which swings back and partially shatters the glass in the upper part of the window; the window slides down and kills Carl as he climbs out. Carl becomes a ghost himself much to his astonishment and to Sam's grief. Sam then watches in silence as the shadowy demons arrive and drag a screaming Carl away into the darkness.

As Sam goes to Oda Mae and Molly and asks if they are all right, Molly suddenly realizes that she can hear him. A heavenly light fills the room and Sam becomes fully visible to both Molly and Oda Mae. Sam looks behind him and sees hundreds of people, presumably angels, in a portal to Heaven. His task is completed and he can move on. Sam says an emotional farewell to Molly, thanks Oda Mae for her help, and departs to the afterlife.

Cast[link]

• Patrick Swayze as Sam Wheat
• Demi Moore as Molly Jensen
• Whoopi Goldberg as Oda Mae Brown
• Tony Goldwyn as Carl Bruner
• Rick Aviles as Willie Lopez
• Stephen Root as Police Sgt.
• Vincent Schiavelli as subway ghost
• Phil Leeds as emergency room ghost
• Bruce Jarchow as Lyle Furgeson
• Armelia McQueen as Oda Mae's sister
• Gail Boggs as Oda Mae's sister

Soundtrack[link]

The music for Ghost was written by veteran composer Maurice Jarre. The soundtrack also contained use of the 1955 song "Unchained Melody", composed by Alex North with lyrics by Hy Zaret, which appears in both instrumental form and the 1965 recording by The Righteous Brothers. Jarre's score was nominated for the 1990 Academy Award for Best Original Score, though it lost to John Barry's work for Dances with Wolves.^[4]

The soundtrack album was issued on Milan Records (and licenced to Varese Sarabande for North American release); it was subsequently reissued in 1995 with two extra tracks, and later as part of Milan's Silver Screen Edition series with the extra tracks and an interview with Maurice Jarre.

Reception[link]

Ghost has received generally favorable reviews and has a rating of "81% fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes.^[5][6][7] It has an average rating of 53/100 on the review site Metacritic.^[8] The film has been criticized for featuring the Magical Negro stereotype with Oda Mae Brown. ^[9] However, in spite of this, Goldberg's performance was highly praised. Janet Maslin in her review for The New York Times comments, "Ms. Goldberg plays the character's amazement, irritation and great gift for back talk to the hilt. This is one of those rare occasions on which the uncategorizable Ms. Goldberg has found a film role that really suits her, and she makes the most of it."^[10] Goldberg went on to win the Academy Award, BAFTA, and Golden Globe for her performance.

Box office[link]

The film was a box-office success, grossing $505,702,588 on a budget of $21,000,000.^{[11][12][13][14]}

Awards[link]

Ghost was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Film Editing and Best Original Score. It won for Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress for Whoopi Goldberg.

American Film Institute Lists

• AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions - #19
• AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs:
  • Unchained Melody - #27
• AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes:
  • "It's amazing, Molly. The love inside, you take it with you." - Nominated^[15]
• AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers - Nominated^[16]
• AFI's 10 Top 10 - Nominated Fantasy Film^[17]

Musical adaptation and parodies[link]

The film has inspired a musical stage version, Ghost The Musical, which had its world premiere at Manchester Opera House in March 2011^[18] before transferring to the Piccadilly Theatre in London's West End in June 2011.^[19] The show stars Richard Fleeshman as Sam, Caissie Levy as Molly and Sharon D. Clarke as Oda Mae Brown. Fleeshman and Levy will reprise their roles when the show transfers to Broadway's Lunt-Fontanne Theatre from March 2012.

The pottery wheel scene is very well known^[3] and often parodied, most notably in Saturday Night Live, Family Guy ("The Story on Page One"), All's Well, Ends Well, Naked Gun 2½, Loaded Weapon 1, The Penguins of Madagascar, Futurama ("Bendless Love" and "Bender's Game"), Community ("Beginner Pottery"), Victorious ("Survival of the Hottest"), Wallace & Gromit ("A Matter of Loaf and Death"), 6teen ("Unhappy Anniversary") and Ellen ("Alone Again... Naturally").

Remake[link]

In November 13, 2010, Paramount and Shochiku released a Japanese remake of Ghost, titled Ghost: In Your Arms Again (ゴースト もういちど抱きしめたい, Gōsuto Mouichido Dakishimetai^?).^[20] The remake stars Nanako Matsushima and South Korean actor Song Seung-heon, along with veteran actress Kirin Kiki.^[21]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Ghost at the Internet Movie Database
• Ghost at the TCM Movie Database
• Ghost at AllRovi
• Ghost at Rotten Tomatoes
• Ghost at Box Office Mojo

In traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to realistic, life-like visions. The deliberate attempt to contact the spirit of a deceased person is known as necromancy, or in spiritism as a séance.

The belief in manifestations of the spirits of the dead is widespread, dating back to animism or ancestor worship in pre-literate cultures. Certain religious practices—funeral rites, exorcisms, and some practices of spiritualism and ritual magic—are specifically designed to appease the spirits of the dead. Ghosts are generally described as solitary essences that haunt particular locations, objects, or people they were associated with in life, though stories of phantom armies, ghost trains, phantom ships, and even ghost animals and quantities have also been recounted.^[2][3]

Terminology[link]

The English word ghost continues Old English gást, from a hypothetical Common Germanic *gaistaz. It is common to West Germanic, but lacking in North and East Germanic (the equivalent word in Gothic is ahma, Old Norse has andi m., önd f.). The pre-Germanic form was *ghoisdo-s, apparently from a root denoting "fury, anger" reflected in Old Norse geisa "to rage". The Germanic word is recorded as masculine only, but likely continues a neuter s-stem. The original meaning of the Germanic word would thus have been an animating principle of the mind, in particular capable of excitation and fury (compare óðr). In Germanic paganism, "Germanic Mercury", and the later Odin, was at the same time the conductor of the dead and the "lord of fury" leading the Wild Hunt.

Besides denoting the human spirit or soul, both of the living and the deceased, the Old English word is used as a synonym of Latin spiritus also in the meaning of "breath" or "blast" from the earliest attestations (9th century). It could also denote any good or evil spirit, i.e. angels and demons; the Anglo-Saxon gospel refers to the demonic possession of Matthew 12:43 as se unclæna gast. Also from the Old English period, the word could denote the spirit of God, viz. the "Holy Ghost". The now prevailing sense of "the soul of a deceased person, spoken of as appearing in a visible form" only emerges in Middle English (14th century). The modern noun does, however, retain a wider field of application, extending on one hand to "soul", "spirit", "vital principle", "mind" or "psyche", the seat of feeling, thought and moral judgement; on the other hand used figuratively of any shadowy outline, fuzzy or unsubstantial image, in optics, photography and cinematography especially a flare, secondary image or spurious signal.^[4]

The synonym spook is a Dutch loanword, akin to Low German spôk (of uncertain etymology); it entered the English language via the United States in the 19th century.^[5][6][7][8] Alternative words in modern usage include spectre (from Latin spectrum), the Scottish wraith (of obscure origin), phantom (via French ultimately from Greek phantasma, compare fantasy) and apparition. The term shade in classical mythology translates Greek σκιά,^[9] or Latin umbra,^[10] in reference to the notion of spirits in the Greek underworld. "Haint" is a synonym for ghost used in regional English of the southern United States,^[11] and the "haint tale" is a common feature of southern oral and literary tradition.^[12] The term poltergeist is a German word, literally a "noisy ghost", for a spirit said to manifest itself by invisibly moving and influencing objects.^[13]

Wraith is a Scottish dialectal word for "ghost", "spectre" or "apparition". It came to be used in Scottish Romanticist literature, and acquired the more general or figurative sense of "portent" or "omen". In 18th- to 19th-century Scottish literature, it was also applied to aquatic spirits. The word has no commonly accepted etymology; OED notes "of obscure origin" only. An association with the verb writhe was the etymology favored by J. R. R. Tolkien.^[14] Tolkien's use of the word in the naming of the creatures known as the Ringwraiths has influenced later usage in fantasy literature. Bogie is an Ulster Scots term for a ghost, and appears in Scottish poet John Mayne's Hallowe'en in 1780.^[15][16]

A revenant is a deceased person returning from the dead to haunt the living, either as a disembodied ghost or alternatively as an animated ("undead") corpse. Also related is the concept of a fetch, the visible ghost or spirit of a person yet alive.

Typology[link]

Anthropological context[link]

A notion of the transcendent, supernatural or numinous, usually involving entities like ghosts, demons or deities, is a cultural universal.^[17] In pre-literate folk religions, these beliefs are often summarized under animism and ancestor worship.^[18]

In many cultures malignant, restless ghosts are distinguished from the more benign spirits involved in ancestor worship.^[19]

Ancestor worship typically involves rites intended to prevent revenants, vengeful spirits of the dead, imagined as starving and envious of the living. Strategies for preventing revenants may either include sacrifice, i.e., giving the dead food and drink to pacify them, or magical banishment of the deceased to force them not to return. Ritual feeding of the dead is performed in traditions like the Chinese Ghost Festival or the Western All Souls' Day. Magical banishment of the dead is present in many of the world's burial customs. The bodies found in many tumuli (kurgan) had been ritually bound before burial,^[20] and the custom of binding the dead persists, for example, in rural Anatolia.^[21]

Nineteenth-century anthropologist James Frazer stated in his classic work, The Golden Bough, that souls were seen as the creature within that animated the body.^[22]

Ghosts and the afterlife[link]

Although the human soul was sometimes symbolically or literally depicted in ancient cultures as a bird or other animal, it appears to have been widely held that the soul was an exact reproduction of the body in every feature, even down to clothing the person wore. This is depicted in artwork from various ancient cultures, including such works as the Egyptian Book of the Dead, which shows deceased people in the afterlife appearing much as they did before death, including the style of dress.

Fear of ghosts[link]

While deceased ancestors are universally regarded as venerable, and often imagined as having a continued presence in some sort of afterlife, the spirit of a deceased person which remains present in the material world (viz. a ghost) is regarded as an unnatural or undesirable state of affairs and the idea of ghosts or revenants is associated with a reaction of fear. This is universally the case in pre-modern folk cultures, but fear of ghost also remains an integral aspect of the modern ghost story, Gothic horror and other horror fiction dealing with the supernatural.

Common attributes[link]

Another widespread belief concerning ghosts is that they are composed of a misty, airy, or subtle material. Anthropologists link this idea to early beliefs that ghosts were the person within the person (the person's spirit), most noticeable in ancient cultures as a person's breath, which upon exhaling in colder climates appears visibly as a white mist.^[18] This belief may have also fostered the metaphorical meaning of "breath" in certain languages, such as the Latin spiritus and the Greek pneuma, which by analogy became extended to mean the soul. In the Bible, God is depicted as animating Adam with a breath.

In many traditional accounts, ghosts were often thought to be deceased people looking for vengeance, or imprisoned on earth for bad things they did during life. The appearance of a ghost has often been regarded as an omen or portent of death. Seeing one's own ghostly double or "fetch" is a related omen of death.^[23]

White ladies were reported to appear in many rural areas, and supposed to have died tragically or suffered trauma in life. White Lady legends are found around the world. Common to many of them is the theme of losing or being betrayed by a husband or fiancé. They are often associated with an individual family line or regarded as a harbinger of death similar to a banshee.

Legends of ghost ships have existed since the 18th century; most notable of these is the Flying Dutchman. This theme has been used in literature in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Coleridge.

Locale[link]

A place where ghosts are reported is described as haunted, and often seen as being inhabited by spirits of deceased who may have been former residents or were familiar with the property. Supernatural activity inside homes is said to be mainly associated with violent or tragic events in the building's past such as murder, accidental death, or suicide — sometimes in the recent or ancient past. But not all hauntings are at a place of a violent death, or even on violent grounds. Many cultures and religions believe the essence of a being, such as the 'soul', continues to exist. Some philosophical and religious views argue that the 'spirits' of those who have died have not 'passed over' and are trapped inside the property where their memories and energy are strong.

History[link]

Ancient Near East and Egypt[link]

There are many references to ghosts in Mesopotamian religions - the religions of Sumer, Babylon, Assyria and other early states in Mesopotamia. Traces of these beliefs survive in the later Abrahamic religions that came to dominate the region.^[24] Ghosts were thought to be created at time of death, taking on the memory and personality of the dead person. They traveled to the netherworld, where they were assigned a position, and led an existence similar in some ways to that of the living. Relatives of the dead were expected to make offerings of food and drink to the dead to ease their conditions. If they did not, the ghosts could inflict misfortune and illness on the living. Traditional healing practices ascribed a variety of illnesses to the action of ghosts, while others were caused by gods or demons.^[25]

The Hebrew Bible contains few references to ghosts, associating spiritism with forbidden occult activities cf. Deuteronomy 18:11. The most notable reference is in the First Book of Samuel (I Samuel 28:3-19 KJV), in which a disguised King Saul has the Witch of Endor summon the spirit/ghost of Samuel.

Egyptian Akh glyph - The soul and spirit re-united after death

There was widespread belief in ghosts in ancient Egyptian culture in the sense of the continued existence of the soul and spirit after death, with the ability to assist or harm the living, and the possibility of a second death. Over a period of more than 2,500 years, Egyptian beliefs about the nature of the afterlife evolved constantly. Many of these beliefs were recorded in inscriptions, papyrus scrolls and tomb paintings. The Egyptian Book of the Dead compiles some of the beliefs from different periods of ancient Egyptian history.^[26] In modern times, the fanciful concept of a mummy coming back to life and wreaking vengeance when disturbed has spawned a whole genre of horror stories and films.^[27]

Classical Antiquity[link]

Archaic and Classical Greece[link]

Ghosts appeared in Homer's Odyssey and Iliad, in which they were described as vanishing "as a vapor, gibbering and whining into the earth". Homer’s ghosts had little interaction with the world of the living. Periodically they were called upon to provide advice or prophecy, but they do not appear to be particularly feared. Ghosts in the classical world often appeared in the form of vapor or smoke, but at other times they were described as being substantial, appearing as they had been at the time of death, complete with the wounds that killed them.^[28]

By the 5th century BC, classical Greek ghosts had become haunting, frightening creatures who could work to either good or evil purposes. The spirit of the dead was believed to hover near the resting place of the corpse, and cemeteries were places the living avoided. The dead were to be ritually mourned through public ceremony, sacrifice and libations, or they might return to haunt their families. The ancient Greeks held annual feasts to honor and placate the spirits of the dead, to which the family ghosts were invited, and after which they were “firmly invited to leave until the same time next year”.^[29]

The 5th century BC play Oresteia contains one of the first ghosts to appear in a work of fiction.

Roman Empire and Late Antiquity[link]

The ancient Romans believed a ghost could be used to exact revenge on an enemy by scratching a curse on a piece of lead or pottery and placing it into a grave.^[30]

Plutarch, in the 1st century AD, described the haunting of the baths at Chaeronea by the ghost of a murdered man. The ghost’s loud and frightful groans caused the people of the town to seal up the doors of the building.^[31] Another celebrated account of a haunted house from the ancient classical world is given by Pliny the Younger (c. 50 AD).^[32] Pliny describes the haunting of a house in Athens by a ghost bound in chains. The hauntings ceased when the ghost's shackled skeleton was unearthed, and given a proper reburial.^[33] The writers Plautus and Lucian also wrote stories about haunted houses.

In the New Testament, Jesus has to persuade the Disciples that he is not a ghost following the resurrection, Luke 24:37-39 (note that some versions of the Bible, such as the KJV and NKJV, use the term "spirit"). In a similar vein, Jesus' followers at first believe him to be a ghost (spirit) when they see him walking on water.

One of the first persons to express disbelief in ghosts was Lucian of Samosata in the 2nd century AD. In his tale "The Doubter" (circa 150 AD) he relates how Democritus "the learned man from Abdera in Thrace" lived in a tomb outside the city gates to prove that cemeteries were not haunted by the spirits of the departed. Lucian relates how he persisted in his disbelief despite practical jokes perpetrated by "some young men of Abdera" who dressed up in black robes with skull masks to frighten him.^[34] This account by Lucian notes something about the popular classical expectation of how a ghost should look.

In the 5th century AD, the Christian priest Constantius of Lyon recorded an instance of the recurring theme of the improperly buried dead who come back to haunt the living, and who can only cease their haunting when their bones have been discovered and properly reburied.^[35]

Middle Ages[link]

Ghosts reported in medieval Europe tended to fall into two categories: the souls of the dead, or demons. The souls of the dead returned for a specific purpose. Demonic ghosts were those which existed only to torment or tempt the living. The living could tell them apart by demanding their purpose in the name of Jesus Christ. The soul of a dead person would divulge their mission, while a demonic ghost would be banished at the sound of the Holy Name.^[36]

Most ghosts were souls assigned to Purgatory, condemned for a specific period to atone for their transgressions in life. Their penance was generally related to their sin. For example, the ghost of a man who had been abusive to his servants was condemned to tear off and swallow bits of his own tongue; the ghost of another man, who had neglected to leave his cloak to the poor, was condemned to wear the cloak, now "heavy as a church tower". These ghosts appeared to the living to ask for prayers to end their suffering. Other dead souls returned to urge the living to confess their sins before their own deaths.^[37]

Medieval European ghosts were more substantial than ghosts described in the Victorian age, and there are accounts of ghosts being wrestled with and physically restrained until a priest could arrive to hear its confession. Some were less solid, and could move through walls. Often they were described as paler and sadder versions of the person they had been while alive, and dressed in tattered gray rags. The vast majority of reported sightings were male.^[38]

There were some reported cases of ghostly armies, fighting battles at night in the forest, or in the remains of an Iron Age hillfort, as at Wandlebury, near Cambridge, England. Living knights were sometimes challenged to single combat by phantom knights, which vanished when defeated.^[39]

From the medieval period an apparition of a ghost is recorded from 1211, at the time of the Albigensian Crusade.^[40] Gervase of Tilbury, Marshal of Arles, wrote that the image of Guilhem, a boy recently murdered in the forest, appeared in his cousin's home in Beaucaire, near Avignon. This series of "visits" lasted all of the summer. Through his cousin, who spoke for him, the boy allegedly held conversations with anyone who wished, until the local priest requested to speak to the boy directly, leading to an extended disquisition on theology. The boy narrated the trauma of death and the unhappiness of his fellow souls in Purgatory, and reported that God was most pleased with the ongoing Crusade against the Cathar heretics, launched three years earlier. The time of the Albigensian Crusade in southern France was marked by intense and prolonged warfare, this constant bloodshed and dislocation of populations being the context for these reported visits by the murdered boy.

Haunted houses are featured in the 9th century Arabian Nights (such as the tale of Ali the Cairene and the Haunted House in Baghdad).^[41]

European Renaissance to Romanticism[link]

"Hamlet and his father's ghost" by Henry Fuseli (1780s drawing). The ghost is wearing stylized plate armour in 17th century style, including a morion type helmet and tassets. Depicting ghosts as wearing armour, to suggest a sense of antiquity, was common in Elizabethan theater.

Renaissance magic took a revived interest in the occult, including necromancy. In the era of the Reformation and Counter Reformation, there was frequently a backlash against unwholesome interest in the dark arts, typified by writers such as Thomas Erastus.^[42] The Swiss Reformed pastor Ludwig Lavater supplied one of the most frequently reprinted books of the period with his Of Ghosts and Spirits Walking By Night.^[43]

The Child ballad "Sweet William's Ghost" (1868) recounts the story of a ghost returning to beg a woman to free him from his promise to marry her, as he obviously cannot being dead. Her refusal would mean his damnation. This reflects a popular British belief that the dead haunted their lovers if they took up with a new love without some formal release.^[44] "The Unquiet Grave" expresses a belief even more widespread, found in various locations over Europe: ghosts can stem from the excessive grief of the living, whose mourning interferes with the dead's peaceful rest.^[45] In many folktales from around the world, the hero arranges for the burial of a dead man. Soon after, he gains a companion who aids him and, in the end, the hero's companion reveals that he is in fact the dead man.^[46] Instances of this include the Italian fairy tale "Fair Brow" and the Swedish "The Bird 'Grip'".

Modern period of western culture[link]

Spiritualist movement[link]

By 1853, when the popular song Spirit Rappings was published, Spiritualism was an object of intense curiosity.

Spiritualism is a monotheistic belief system or religion, postulating a belief in God, but with a distinguishing feature of belief that spirits of the dead residing in the spirit world can be contacted by "mediums", who can then provide information about the afterlife.^[47]

Spiritualism developed in the United States and reached its peak growth in membership from the 1840s to the 1920s, especially in English-language countries,^[48][49] By 1897, it was said to have more than eight million followers in the United States and Europe,^[50] mostly drawn from the middle and upper classes, while the corresponding movement in continental Europe and Latin America is known as Spiritism.

The religion flourished for a half century without canonical texts or formal organization, attaining cohesion by periodicals, tours by trance lecturers, camp meetings, and the missionary activities of accomplished mediums. Many prominent Spiritualists were women. Most followers supported causes such as the abolition of slavery and women's suffrage.^[48] By the late 1880s, credibility of the informal movement weakened, due to accusations of fraud among mediums, and formal Spiritualist organizations began to appear.^[48] Spiritualism is currently practiced primarily through various denominational Spiritualist Churches in the United States and United Kingdom.

Spiritism[link]

Spiritism, or French spiritualism, is based on the five books of the Spiritist Codification written by French educator Hypolite Léon Denizard Rivail under the pseudonym Allan Kardec reporting séances in which he observed a series of phenomena that he attributed to incorporeal intelligence (spirits). His assumption of spirit communication was validated by many contemporaries, among them many scientists and philosophers who attended séances and studied the phenomena. His work was later extended by writers like Leon Denis, Arthur Conan Doyle, Camille Flammarion, Ernesto Bozzano, Chico Xavier, Divaldo Pereira Franco, Waldo Vieira, Johannes Greber^[51] and others.

Spiritism has adherents in many countries throughout the world, including Spain, United States, Canada,^[52] Japan, Germany, France, England, Argentina, Portugal and especially Brazil, which has the largest proportion and greatest number of followers.^[53]

Scientific skepticism[link]

The physician John Ferriar wrote An essay towards a theory of apparitions in 1813 in which he argued that sightings of ghosts were the result of optical illusions. Later the French physician Alexandre Jacques François Brière de Boismont published On Hallucinations: Or, the Rational History of Apparitions, Dreams, Ecstasy, Magnetism, and Somnambulism in 1845 in which he claimed sightings of ghosts were the result of hallucinations.^[54][55]

Joe Nickell of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, wrote that there was no credible scientific evidence that any location was inhabited by spirits of the dead.^[56] Limitations of human perception and ordinary physical explanations can account for ghost sightings; for example, air pressure changes in a home causing doors to slam, or lights from a passing car reflected through a window at night. Pareidolia, an innate tendency to recognize patterns in random perceptions, is what some skeptics believe causes people to believe that they have 'seen ghosts'.^[57] Reports of ghosts "seen out of the corner of the eye" may be accounted for by the sensitivity of human peripheral vision. According to Nickell, peripheral vision can easily mislead, especially late at night when the brain is tired and more likely to misinterpret sights and sounds."^[58]

Some researchers, such as Michael Persinger of Laurentian University, Canada, have speculated that changes in geomagnetic fields (created, e.g., by tectonic stresses in the Earth's crust or solar activity) could stimulate the brain's temporal lobes and produce many of the experiences associated with hauntings.^[59] Sound is thought to be another cause of supposed sightings. Richard Lord and Richard Wiseman have concluded that infrasound can cause humans to experience bizarre feelings in a room, such as anxiety, extreme sorrow, a feeling of being watched, or even the chills.^[60] Carbon monoxide poisoning, which can cause changes in perception of the visual and auditory systems,^[61] was speculated upon as a possible explanation for haunted houses as early as 1921.

Alternative explanations[link]

In the early days of the Society for Psychical Research many researchers investigated reportings of ghosts and apparitions and were seeking a scientific explanation for such phenomena. Some of the psychical researchers had rejected that ghosts were spirits of the deceased and instead claimed ghosts and apparitions were not real entities but were hallucinations caused by a telepathic mechanism. Frank Podmore was a main advocate of the telepathic theory of ghosts, he discussed this theory in his book Telepathic Hallucinations (1909). Other researchers disagreed with the telepathy theory and instead advocated the widely known spirit theory of ghosts, the belief that ghosts are discarnate spirits which was most popular amongst spiritualists.^[62]

The psychical researcher Thomson Jay Hudson also developed his own theory about ghosts which involved telepathy however Hudson did not claim ghosts are hallucinations. Instead he claimed ghosts and apparitions are memories or thoughtforms from the mind of the subject materialising or "projecting" themselves externally. Hudson also explained that where more than one person had visualised the same ghost then it can be explained by telepathic communication.^[63] The paranormal writer Paul Roland in his book The Complete Book of Ghosts (2007) argues that ghosts are the "manifestation of people still living, proving that out-of-body experiences are not as rare or as impossible as some people might think".^[64]

Ernest Holmes suggested two explanations for ghosts, that they are spirits of the deceased or a form of thought that can materialize itself then gradually fade away. Holmes wrote that further investigation was needed to prove which explanation is correct.^[65]

According to (Willin, 2005) Peter Underwood favours the "electronic impulse wave theory" which claims brain waves become more active in higher stress rates and that at a certain level will produce a ghost which is a "telepathic image that is capable of being picked up by someone else" and will fade away when people are not experiencing it.^[66] The parapsychologist George N. M. Tyrrell argued that apparitions and ghosts were telepathic hallucinations which emanate from the subconscious mind.^[67]

Jeff Danelek in The Case for Ghosts: An Objective Look at the Paranormal (2006) wrote that another explanation of ghosts is the Stone Tape theory which claims that ghosts are collections of energy that can become stored in physical matter which can be released resulting in a display of recorded activity. According to this hypothesis, ghosts are not spirits but simply non-interactive recordings similar to a movie.^[68][69] The parapsychologist William G. Roll agreed with the Stone Tape theory, he claimed that a person's mind can create an apparition from "psychic traces" left from the past.^[70]

Paul Devereux claims that many ghost sightings can be explained by "earthlights", clouds of plasma being charged by strong electromagnetic fields occurring in areas of seismic activity, he claims that that such natural phenenoma "can respond to witness movement and thought". He explores these ideas in his book Haunted Land (2003).^[71][72]

The spirit theory of ghosts in recent years has been termed the survival hypothesis and is advocated by some psychical researchers over the other alternative explanations.^[73]

By religion[link]

Judæo-Christian[link]

This section may be unbalanced towards certain viewpoints. Please improve the article by adding information on neglected viewpoints, or discuss the issue on the talk page. (April 2012)

The Hebrew Torah and the Bible contain few references to ghosts, associating spiritism with forbidden occult activities cf. Deuteronomy 18:11. The most notable reference is in the First Book of Samuel (I Samuel 28:3-19 KJV), in which a disguised King Saul has the Witch of Endor summon the spirit/ghost of Samuel.

In the New Testament, Jesus has to persuade the Disciples that He is not a ghost following the resurrection, Luke 24:37-39 (note that some versions of the Bible, such as the KJV and NKJV, use the term "spirit"). In a similar vein, Jesus' followers at first believe Him to be a ghost (spirit) when they see him walking on water.^[74]

As such, much of the Christian Church considers ghosts as beings who while tied to earth, no longer live on the material plain.^[75] Furthermore, some Christian denominations teach that ghosts are beings who linger in an interim state before continuing their journey to heaven.^{[75][76][77][78]} On occasion, God would allow the souls in this state to return to earth to warn the living of the need for repentance.^[79] Nevertheless, Jews and Christians are taught that it is sinful to attempt to conjure or control spirits in accordance with Deuteronomy XVIII: 9–12.^[80][81]

Accepting, but moving beyond this position, some ghosts are actually said to be demons in disguise,^[82] who the Church teaches, in accordance with I Timothy 4:1, that they "come to deceive people and draw them away from God and into bondage."^[83] As a result, attempts to contact the dead may lead to unwanted contact with a demon or an unclean spirit, as was said to occur in the case of Robbie Mannheim, a fourteen year old Maryland youth.^[84]

Islam[link]

The Koran discusses spirits known as jinn.^[85]

Buddhism[link]

In Buddhism, there are a number of planes of existence a person intwo which a person can be reborn, one of which is the realm of hungry ghosts.

By culture[link]

European folklore[link]

Belief in ghosts in European folklore is characterized by the recurring fear of "returning" or revenant deceased who may harm the living. This includes the Scandinavian gjenganger, the Romanian strigoi, the Serbian vampir, the Greek vrykolakas, etc. British folklore is particularly notable for its numerous haunted locations.

Belief in the soul and an afterlife remained near universal until the emergence of atheism in the 18th century. In the 19th century, spiritism resurrected "belief in ghosts" as the object of systematic inquiry, and popular opinion in Western culture remains divided.^[86]

South and Southeast Asia[link]

India[link]

A bhoot or bhut (भूत, ભૂત, or بهوت) is a supernatural creature, usually the ghost of a deceased person, in the popular culture, literature and some ancient texts of the Indian subcontinent. Interpretations of how bhoots come into existence vary by region and community, but they are usually considered to be perturbed and restless due to some factor that prevents them from moving on (to transmigration, non-being, nirvana, or heaven or hell, depending on tradition). This could be a violent death, unsettled matters in their lives, or simply the failure of their survivors to perform proper funerals.^[87]

In Central and Northern India, Shaman spirit guides play a central role.^{[citation needed]}. It duly happens when in the night someone sleeps and decorates something on the wall and they say that if one sees the spirit the next thing in the morning he will become a spirit to and that to a skondho kata which means a spirit without a head and the soul of the body will remain the dark with the dark lord from the spirits who reside in the body of every human in Central and Northern India. It is also believed that if someone calls you from behind never turn back and see because the spirit may catch the human to make it a spirit. Other types of spirits in Hindu Mythology include Baital, an evil spirit who haunts cemeteries and takes demonic possession of corpses, and Pishacha, a type of flesh-eating demon.

Austronesia[link]

Spirit of the Dead Watching by Paul Gauguin

There are many Malay ghost myths, remnants of old animist beliefs that have been shaped by later Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim influences in the modern states of Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. Some ghost concepts such as the female vampires Pontianak and Penanggalan are shared throughout the region. Ghosts are a popular theme in modern Malaysian and Indonesian films. There are also many references to Ghosts in Filipino culture, ranging from ancient legendary creatures such as the Manananggal and Tiyanak to more modern urban legends and horror films. The beliefs, legends and stories are as diverse as the people of the Philippines.

There was widespread belief in ghosts in Polynesian culture, some of which persists today. After death, a person's ghost normally traveled to the sky world or the underworld, but some could stay on earth. In many Polynesian legends, ghosts were often actively involved in the affairs of the living. Ghosts might also cause sickness or even invade the body of ordinary people, to be driven out through strong medicines.^[88]

East and Central Asia[link]

China[link]

An image of Zhong Kui, the vanquisher of ghosts and evil beings, painted sometime before 1304 A.D. by Gong Kai.

There are many references to ghosts in Chinese culture. Even Confucius said, "Respect ghosts and gods, but keep away from them."^[89]

The ghosts take many forms, depending on how the person died, and are often harmful. Many Chinese ghost beliefs have been accepted by neighboring cultures, notably Japan and south-east Asia. Ghost beliefs are closely associated with traditional Chinese religion based on ancestor worship, many of which were incorporated in Taoism. Later beliefs were influenced by Buddhism, and in turn influenced and created uniquely Chinese Buddhist beliefs.

Many Chinese today believe it possible to contact the spirits of their ancestors through a medium, and that ancestors can help descendants if properly respected and rewarded. The annual ghost festival is celebrated by Chinese around the world. On this day, ghosts and spirits, including those of the deceased ancestors, come out from the lower realm. Ghosts are described in classical Chinese texts as well as modern literature and films.

A recent article in the China Post stated that nearly eighty seven percent of Chinese office workers believe in ghosts, and some fifty two percent of workers will wear hand art, necklaces, crosses, or even place a crystal ball on their desks to keep ghosts at bay, according to the poll.

Japan[link]

Maruyama Ōkyo's "The Ghost of Oyuki"

Yūrei (幽霊^?) are figures in Japanese folklore, analogous to Western legends of ghosts. The name consists of two kanji, 幽 (yū), meaning "faint" or "dim" and 霊 (rei), meaning "soul" or "spirit". Alternative names include 亡霊 (Bōrei) meaning ruined or departed spirit, 死霊 (Shiryō) meaning dead spirit, or the more encompassing 妖怪 (Yōkai) or お化け (Obake).

Like their Chinese and Western counterparts, they are thought to be spirits kept from a peaceful afterlife.

Tibet[link]

There is widespread belief in ghosts in Tibetan culture. Ghosts are explicitly recognized in the Tibetan Buddhist religion as they were in Indian Buddhism,^[90] occupying a distinct but overlapping world to the human one, and feature in many traditional legends. When a human dies, after a period of uncertainty they may enter the ghost world. A hungry ghost (Tibetan: yidag, yi-dvags; Sanskrit: preta, प्रेत) has a tiny throat and huge stomach, and so can never be satisfied. Ghosts may be killed with a ritual dagger or caught in a spirit trap and burnt, thus releasing them to be reborn. Ghosts may also be exorcised, and an annual festival is held throughout Tibet for this purpose. Some say that Dorje Shugden, the ghost of a powerful 17th-century monk, is a deity, but the Dalai Lama asserts that he is an evil spirit, which has caused a split in the Tibetan exile community.

Americas[link]

Mexico[link]

Catrinas, one of the most popular figures of the Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico

There is extensive and varied belief in ghosts in Mexican culture. The modern state of Mexico before the Spanish conquest was inhabited by diverse peoples such as the Maya and Aztec, and their beliefs have survived and evolved, combined with the beliefs of the Spanish colonists. The Day of the Dead incorporates pre-Columbian beliefs with Christian elements. Mexican literature and films include many stories of ghosts interacting with the living.

United States[link]

According to the Gallup Poll News Service, belief in haunted houses, ghosts, communication with the dead, and witches had an especially steep increase over the 1990s.^[91] A 2005 Gallup poll found that about 32 percent of Americans believe in ghosts.^[92]

Depiction in the arts[link]

Ghosts are prominent in the popular cultures of various nations. The ghost story is ubiquitous across all cultures from oral folktales to works of literature.

Renaissance to Romanticism (1500 to 1840)[link]

19th century etching by John Leech of the Ghost of Christmas Present as depicted in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol

One of the more recognizable ghosts in English literature is the shade of Hamlet's murdered father in Shakespeare’s The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. In Hamlet, it is the ghost who demands that Prince Hamlet investigate his "murder most foul" and seek revenge upon his usurping uncle, King Claudius. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the murdered Banquo returns as a ghost to the dismay of the title character.

John Dee and Edward Kelley invoking the spirit of a deceased person (engraving from the Astrology by Ebenezer Sibly, 1806).

In English Renaissance theater, ghosts were often depicted in the garb of the living and even in armor, as with the ghost of Hamlet’s father. Armor, being out-of-date by the time of the Renaissance, gave the stage ghost a sense of antiquity.^[93] But the sheeted ghost began to gain ground on stage in the 19th century because an armored ghost could not satisfactorily convey the requisite spookiness: it clanked and creaked, and had to be moved about by complicated pulley systems or elevators. These clanking ghosts being hoisted about the stage became objects of ridicule as they became clichéd stage elements. Ann Jones and Peter Stallybrass, in Renaissance Clothing and the Materials of Memory, point out, "In fact, it is as laughter increasingly threatens the Ghost that he starts to be staged not in armor but in some form of 'spirit drapery'." An interesting observation by Jones and Stallybrass is that

...at the historical point at which ghosts themselves become increasingly implausible, at least to an educated elite, to believe in them at all it seems to be necessary to assert their immateriality, their invisibility. ... The drapery of ghosts must now, indeed, be as spiritual as the ghosts themselves. This is a striking departure both from the ghosts of the Renaissance stage and from the Greek and Roman theatrical ghosts upon which that stage drew. The most prominent feature of Renaissance ghosts is precisely their gross materiality. They appear to us conspicuously clothed.

Ghosts figured prominently in traditional British ballads of the 16th and 17th centuries, particularly the “Border Ballads” of the turbulent border country between England and Scotland. Ballads of this type include The Unquiet Grave, The Wife of Usher's Well, and Sweet William's Ghost, which feature the recurring theme of returning dead lovers or children. In the ballad King Henry, a particularly ravenous ghost devours the king’s horse and hounds before forcing the king into bed. The king then awakens to find the ghost transformed into a beautiful woman.^[94]

One of the key early appearances by ghosts in a gothic tale was The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole in 1764.^[95]

Washington Irving's short story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1820), based on an earlier German folktale, features a Headless Horseman. It has been adapted for film and television many times, such as Sleepy Hollow, a successful 1999 feature film.^[96]

Victorian/Edwardian (1840 to 1920)[link]

The ghost of a pirate, from Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates (1903).

The "classic" ghost story arose during the Victorian period, and included authors such as M. R. James, Sheridan Le Fanu, Violet Hunt, and Henry James. Classic ghost stories were influenced by the gothic fiction tradition, and contain elements of folklore and psychology. M. R. James summed up the essential elements of a ghost story as, “Malevolence and terror, the glare of evil faces, ‘the stony grin of unearthly malice', pursuing forms in darkness, and 'long-drawn, distant screams', are all in place, and so is a modicum of blood, shed with deliberation and carefully husbanded...”^[97]

Famous literary apparitions from this period are the ghosts of A Christmas Carol, in which Ebenezer Scrooge is helped to see the error of his ways by the ghost of his former colleague Jacob Marley, and the ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Yet to Come.

Oscar Wilde's comedy The Canterville Ghost has been adapted for film and television on several occasions. Henry James's The Turn of the Screw has also appeared in a number of adaptations, notably the film The Innocents and Benjamin Britten's opera The Turn of the Screw.

Oscar Telgmann's opera Leo, the Royal Cadet (1885) includes Judge's Song about a ghost at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario.^[98]

Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things is a 1904 collection of Japanese ghost stories collected by Lafcadio Hearn, and later made into a film.

In the United States, prior to and during the First World War, folklorists Olive Dame Campbell and Cecil Sharp collected ballads from the people of the Appalachian Mountains, which included ghostly themes such as The Wife of Usher's Well, The Suffolk Miracle, The Unquiet Grave, and The Cruel Ship's Carpenter. The theme of these ballads was often the return of a dead lover. These songs were variants of traditional British ballads handed down by generations of mountaineers descended from the people of the Anglo-Scottish border region.^[99]

Modern Era (1920 to 1970)[link]

Professional parapsychologists and “ghosts hunters”, such as Harry Price, active in the 1920s and 1930s, and Peter Underwood, active in the 1940s and 1950s, published accounts of their experiences with ostensibly true ghost stories such as Price's The Most Haunted House in England, and Underwood's Ghosts of Borley (both recounting experiences at Borley Rectory).

Children’s benevolent ghost stories became popular, such as Casper the Friendly Ghost, created in the 1930s and appearing in comics, animated cartoons, and eventually a 1995 feature film.

Noël Coward's play Blithe Spirit, later made into a film, places a more humorous slant on the phenomenon of haunting of individuals and specific locations.

With the advent of motion pictures and television, screen depictions of ghosts became common, and spanned a variety of genres; the works of Shakespeare, Dickens and Wilde have all been made into cinematic versions. Novel-length tales have been difficult to adapt to cinema, although that of The Haunting of Hill House to The Haunting in 1963 is an exception.^[95]

Sentimental depictions during this period were more popular in cinema than horror, and include the 1947 film The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, which was later adapted to television with a successful 1968-70 TV series.^[95] Genuine psychological horror films from this period include 1944's The Uninvited, and 1945's Dead of Night.

Post-modern (1970-present)[link]

The 1970s saw screen depictions of ghosts diverge into distinct genres of the romantic and horror. A common theme in the romantic genre from this period is the ghost as a benign guide or messenger, often with unfinished business, such as 1989's Field of Dreams, the 1990 film Ghost, and the 1993 comedy Heart and Souls.^[100] In the horror genre, 1980's The Fog, and the A Nightmare on Elm Street series of films from the 1980s and 1990s are notable examples of the trend for the merging of ghost stories with scenes of physical violence.^[95]

Popularised in such films as the 1984 comedy Ghostbusters, ghost hunting became a hobby for many who formed ghost hunting societies to explore reportedly haunted places. The ghost hunting theme has been featured in reality television series, such as Ghost Adventures, Ghost Hunters, Ghost Hunters International, Ghost Lab, Most Haunted and A Haunting. It is also represented in children's television by such programs as The Ghost Hunter and Ghost Trackers. Ghost hunting also gave rise to multiple guidebooks to haunted locations, and ghost hunting "how-to" manuals.

The 1990s saw a return to classic "gothic" ghosts, whose dangers were more psychological than physical. Examples of films from this period include 1999's The Sixth Sense, The Others, and HBO's 2001-2005 series Six Feet Under.

Asian cinema has also produced horror films about ghosts, such as the 1998 Japanese film Ringu (remade in the US as The Ring in 2002), and the Pang brothers' 2002 film The Eye.^[101] Indian ghost movies are popular not just in India, but in the Middle East, Africa, South East Asia and other parts of the world. Some Indian ghost movies such as the comedy / horror film Chandramukhi have been commercial successes, dubbed into several languages.^[102] Generally the films are based on the experiences of modern people who are unexpectedly exposed to ghosts. They usually draw on traditional Indian literature or folklore, but in some cases are remakes of western films, such as Anjaane, based on Alejandro Amenábar's ghost story The Others.^[103]

In fictional television programming, ghosts have been explored in series such as Supernatural, Ghost Whisperer and Medium. In animated fictional television programming, ghosts have served as the central element in series such as Casper, Danny Phantom, and Scooby-Doo. Various other television shows have depicted ghosts as well.

See also[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ghosts

• Unclean spirit
• Demonic possession
• Afterlife
• Ghost hunting
• Haunted house
• Fear of ghosts

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Fairly, John & Welfare, Simon, Arthur C. Clarke's World of Strange Powers, Putnam: New York, 1985.
• Felton, D., Haunted Greece and Rome: Ghost Stories From Classical Antiquity, University of Texas Press, 1999.
• Finucane, R. C., Appearances of the Dead: A Cultural History of Ghosts, Prometheus Books, 1984.
• Johnston, Sarah Iles, Restless Dead: Encounters Between the Living and the Dead in Ancient Greece, University of California Press, 1999.
• Hole, Christina, Haunted England, Batsford: London, 1950. At Google Books
• MacKenzie, Andrew, Apparitions and Ghosts, Arthur Barker, 1971.
• Moreman, Christopher, Beyond the Threshold: Afterlife Beliefs and Experiences in World Religions, Rowman & Littlefield, 2008.
• Newman, Kim, ed. BFI Companion to Horror, Cassell: London, 1996.

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Ghosts

Look up ghost in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• "Ghost Theory" of 18th century German theologian Johan Ernst Schubert and a list of vernacular house spirits and ghosts
• Historical Ghost Stories
• Ghost accounts from a haunted castle in Wales
• Differences between ghosts and spirits: Haunting Review

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The year 1990 in film involved some significant events.

Events[link]

• CGI technique is expanded with motion capture for CGI characters, used in Total Recall (1990).
• The first digitally-manipulated matte painting is used, in Die Hard 2.
• The use of real-time computer graphics or "digital puppetry" to create a character in a motion picture is performed, in RoboCop 2.
• Future film stars Chris Rock and Adam Sandler join SNL.
• February 4 - Actor Tom Cruise and actress Mimi Rogers divorce.
• November 16 - Disney's first ever animated sequel, The Rescuers Down Under, is released.
• December 24 - Tom Cruise and actress Nicole Kidman marry.
• Universal Pictures celebrates its 75th anniversary with a new logo.

Top grossing films (worldwide)[link]

Link: [1]

Awards[link]

Academy Awards:

Best Picture: Dances with Wolves - Tig Productions, Majestic Films International

Best Director: Kevin Costner - Dances With Wolves

Best Actor: Jeremy Irons - Reversal of Fortune

Best Actress: Kathy Bates - Misery

Best Supporting Actor: Joe Pesci - Goodfellas

Best Supporting Actress: Whoopi Goldberg - Ghost

Best Foreign Language Film: Journey of Hope (Reise der Hoffnung), directed by Xavier Koller, Switzerland

Golden Globe Awards:

Drama:

Best Picture: Dances With Wolves

Best Actor: Jeremy Irons - Reversal of Fortune

Best Actress: Kathy Bates - Misery

Musical or comedy:

Best Picture: Green Card

Best Actor: Gérard Depardieu - Green Card

Best Actress: Julia Roberts - Pretty Woman

Other

Best Director: Kevin Costner - Dances with Wolves

Best Foreign Language Film: Cyrano de Bergerac, France

Palme d'Or (Cannes Film Festival):

Wild at Heart, directed by David Lynch, United States

Golden Lion (Venice Film Festival):

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, directed by Tom Stoppard, U.K. / U.S.A.

Golden Bear (Berlin Film Festival):

Music Box, directed by Costa Gavras, United States

Larks on a String (Skrivánci na niti), directed by Jiri Menzel, Czechoslovakia

Films released in 1990[link]

U.S.A. unless stated

A-D[link]

A

• Abraham's Gold, starring Hanna Schygulla - (Germany)
• The Adventures of Ford Fairlane, directed by Renny Harlin, starring Andrew Dice Clay, Wayne Newton and Priscilla Presley
• Afghan Breakdown (Afganskiy Izlom) - (U.S.S.R.)
• After Dark, My Sweet, starring Jason Patric, Rachel Ward, Bruce Dern
• Agneepath (The Path of Fire) - (India)
• Air America, directed by Roger Spottiswoode, starring Mel Gibson and Robert Downey, Jr.
• Alice, directed by Woody Allen, starring Mia Farrow, Alec Baldwin, Joe Mantegna, and William Hurt
• Almost an Angel, starring Paul Hogan
• The Ambulance
• American Ninja 4: The Annihilation
• Anjali - (India)
• Another 48 Hrs., starring Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte
• Arachnophobia, starring Jeff Daniels, Harley Jane Kozak, John Goodman and Julian Sands
• Avalon, directed by Barry Levinson, starring Aidan Quinn, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Elizabeth Perkins, Kevin Pollak
• Awakenings, directed by Penny Marshall, starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro

B

• Back to the Future Part III, starring Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Mary Steenburgen
• Bad Influence, directed by Curtis Hanson, starring Rob Lowe and James Spader
• Betsy's Wedding, directed by Alan Alda, starring Alda, Molly Ringwald, Madeline Kahn, Joe Pesci, Anthony LaPaglia, Ally Sheedy, Joey Bishop
• Bird on a Wire, starring Mel Gibson and Goldie Hawn
• Black Republic (Geudeuldo uri-cheoreom), directed by Park Kwang-su - (South Korea)
• Black Snow (Ben ming nian) - (China)
• Blue Steel, starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Ron Silver
• Boiling Point (3-4 x jûgatsu), directed by Takeshi Kitano, starring Beat Takeshi - (Japan)
• The Bonfire of the Vanities, directed by Brian De Palma, starring Tom Hanks, Bruce Willis, Melanie Griffith, Morgan Freeman and Kim Cattrall
• Bride of Re-Animator
• Bullet in the Head (Die xue jie tou), directed by John Woo, starring Tony Leung and Jacky Cheung - (Hong Kong)

C

• Cadence, starring Charlie Sheen and Martin Sheen
• Cadillac Man, starring Robin Williams, Tim Robbins, Annabella Sciorra, Lori Petty, Fran Drescher
• Captain America
• Childhood Days (Shōnen jidai) - (Japan) - Japan Academy Prize for Picture of the Year
• Child's Play 2, starring Alex Vincent, Jenny Agutter, Gerrit Graham and Christine Elise
• China Cry
• The Chosen One (Ishanou) - (India)
• Class of 1999
• Close-Up (Nema-ye Nazdik) - (Iran)
• Coins in the Fountain, starring Loni Anderson
• Come See the Paradise, directed by Alan Parker, starring Dennis Quaid and Tamlyn Tomita
• The Comfort of Strangers, directed by Paul Schrader, starring Christopher Walken, Natasha Richardson and Rupert Everett - (U.K.)
• Crash and Burn
• Crazy People, starring Dudley Moore, Daryl Hannah, J.T. Walsh, Paul Reiser
• Cry-Baby, directed by John Waters, starring Johnny Depp, Amy Locane, Polly Bergen, Ricki Lake, Traci Lords, Iggy Pop and Susan Tyrrell
• Cyrano de Bergerac, starring Gérard Depardieu - (France) - Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film

D

• Dances with Wolves, directed by and starring Kevin Costner - Academy and Golden Globe (drama) Awards for Best Picture
• Darkman, starring Liam Neeson, Frances McDormand and Larry Drake
• Days of Being Wild (A Fei jingjyuhn), directed by Wong Kar-wai, starring Leslie Cheung, Maggie Cheung and Andy Lau - (Hong Kong)
• Days of Thunder, directed by Tony Scott, starring Tom Cruise, Robert Duvall, Nicole Kidman, Randy Quaid and Cary Elwes
• Death Warrant, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme
• Dei tau lung (Dragon Fighter) - (Hong Kong)
• Delta Force 2: The Colombian Connection
• Denial
• Desperate Hours, starring Anthony Hopkins, Mickey Rourke, Mimi Rogers, Lindsay Crouse, Kelly Lynch
• Dick Tracy, starring Warren Beatty, Madonna, Glenne Headly, Al Pacino
• Die Hard 2, starring Bruce Willis
• Downtown, starring Anthony Edwards and Forest Whitaker
• Dreams (Yume), directed by Akira Kurosawa - (Japan)
• DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp

E-K[link]

E

• Edward Scissorhands, directed by Tim Burton, starring Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder, Dianne Wiest, Alan Arkin, Anthony Michael Hall and Vincent Price
• The End of Innocence, directed by and starring Dyan Cannon
• Ernest Goes to Jail, starring Jim Varney
• Escape from the 'Liberty' Cinema (Ucieczka z kina "Wolność") - (Poland)
• Europa Europa (aka Hitlerjunge Salomon) - (Germany/Poland) - Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film (for 1991)
• Everybody's Fine (Stanno tutti bene), starring Marcello Mastroianni, Michèle Morgan - (Italy)
• The Exorcist III, starring George C. Scott

F

• Fantasia (restored version)
• La Femme Nikita, directed by Luc Besson - (France/Italy)
• The Field, starring Richard Harris, John Hurt, Tom Berenger - (Ireland/U.K.)
• Fire Birds, starring Nicolas Cage, Tommy Lee Jones and Sean Young
• The First Power, starring Lou Diamond Phillips
• Flashback, starring Kiefer Sutherland and Dennis Hopper
• Flatliners, directed by Joel Schumacher, starring Kiefer Sutherland, Julia Roberts, Kevin Bacon, William Baldwin and Oliver Platt
• The Fourth War, starring Roy Schneider and Jürgen Prochnow
• Frankenstein Unbound, directed by Roger Corman, starring John Hurt
• The Freshman, starring Marlon Brando and Matthew Broderick
• Funny About Love directed by Leonard Nimoy, starring Gene Wilder, Christine Lahti, Mary Stuart Masterson

G

• Ghayal - (India)
• Ghost, starring Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore, Whoopi Goldberg
• The Godfather Part III, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, starring Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, Andy García, Joe Mantegna, Eli Wallach, Sofia Coppola
• Goodfellas, directed by Martin Scorsese, starring Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco, Paul Sorvino
• Graffiti Bridge, directed by and starring Prince
• Green Card, starring Gérard Depardieu and Andie MacDowell - Golden Globe Award for Best Picture (Musical or Comedy)
• Gremlins 2: The New Batch, starring Zach Galligan and Phoebe Cates
• The Grifters, directed by Stephen Frears, starring Anjelica Huston, John Cusack, Annette Bening
• The Guardian, starring Jenny Seagrove, Dwier Brown and Carey Lowell