Consider the Source: The Ghost

Roman Polanski’s Switzerland arrest on Sep. 26, 2009, has reignited the furious debate over the filmmaker’s art vs. his 1977 sexual assault case. The furor has nearly eclipsed the reception of his latest film, The Ghost Writer, which Polanski co-scripted with Robert Harris, author of the original 2007 novel, The Ghost.

In The Ghost, a professional ghostwriter takes on the job of completing the memoirs of an English Prime Minister recently voted out of office when the previous writer dies – under mysterious circumstances! Harris has denied that The Ghost’s ex-PM “Adam Lang” is meant to be a literal portrait of Tony Blair, despite unmistakable parallels. Harris supported Blair in the late 1990s, apparently socialized with him on at least one occasion and became increasingly disillusioned with him, particularly following Great Britain’s support of the United States in waging the Iraq War. Where Stephen Frears’ The Queen offers an admiring portrayal of Blair, The Ghost better represents the public anger towards Blair in his last years in office. One character remarks, “Name me one decision that Adam Lang took as Prime Minister that wasn’t in the interest of the United States of America.”