CAT OF THE DAY 082: GHOST (1990)
This supernatural love story reverses the standard romantic formula by starting with the lovers together, but then driving them apart with the biggest wedge of all – death. Patrick Swayze is fatally shot in a mugging. Post-Patrick, Demi Moore is left sharing her potter’s wheel with her pussycat.
Aha, but Swayze is still around. The best scenes in the film, for me, are when he’s learning the practical limitations of being a ghost. He can’t communicate with Demi to warn her that she is in danger, nor can he move inanimate objects, but he can be seen by her cat, which comes in handy when he needs to chase away a dangerous thug. In other words a) startle cat and b) make startled cat jump in direction of thug.
Cats often give the impression they can see things we can’t. Feline or canine sensitivity to the supernatural is a recurring element in films; see also CAT OF THE DAY 056 and CAT OF THE DAY 049. But in Ghost, the familiar set-up of an animal being aware of something the humans can’t see is cunningly reversed – now, at last, we’re seeing this scene from the ghost’s point of view.
CATS ON FILM 