Heaven-Can-Wait Fantasies
Named after the most famous of its movies, this subgenre concerns the adventures of a person who has died and, either in spirit form or by physically coming back, attempts to resolve unfinished issues in his or her life. Here Comes Mr. Jordan was one of the earliest examples of this style, and it was subsequently remade into Heaven Can Wait starring Warren Beatty as a football player who is prematurely whisked away to heaven before his due date. Perhaps one of the most interesting riffs on the theme occurred in A Matter of Life and Death, the brilliant film by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger about a man who jumps from a plane during WWII and is unsure whether he has survived or not. An angel begins to appear to him to tell him he has to go to heaven, but he refuses, and a battle ensues for his soul. An immensely popular version of the story (Ghost) starred Patrick Swayze as a ghost who acts through a medium and tries to effect the life of the love he has left behind.
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