Ghost Dog and The Wire both represent the gangster genre,
but produce very different meanings.
The mafia in Ghost Dog seems to be past their prime, irrelevant in that
particular society. They aren’t rich;
the only “nice” piece of property they own is for sale. They also hire outside help to kill. Most typical mafia movies, there are members
of the family who kill their enemies. In
contrast, the gang in The Wire seems to be very much alive and relevant to the
society. They are very much a part of this
fictional community. While Ghost Dog (or
any of the other characters) isn’t particularly afraid of the mafia, the
citizens of West Baltimore are. The one
witness who decided to step forward and tell the truth in the court trial is
murdered by the end of the episode.
Violence seems to be a central theme in both the TV series
and the movie. It seems like the
characters in both worlds are fairly desensitized to violence. Ghost Dog easily kills almost all of the mafia
in the movie. He only leaves Louie and
Louise alive. The kids who are a part of the drug dealing
family don’t seem bothered to beat up the white druggie who ripped them
off. Death also is important in both
shows. In The Wire seems like a bigger
deal. Only those who wronged the drug
dealing family are hurt or killed (Johnny, the witness in the beginning of the
episode). Ghost Dog only retaliated
against the mafia when they killed the pigeons in his coup. To him, killing was easy, but needed to serve
some sort of purpose. He wasn’t told to
kill Louise, so he didn’t.
There are also other similar themes in the wire like how the humanity of the characters are sharply contrasting with their violent actions causing the audience to decide for themselves weather the characters are worth liking.
ReplyDeleteI think another aspect of the violence is social codes. In Ghost Dog, the gangsters as well as Ghost Dog, adhere to certain cultural codes by which they identify. Ghost Dog chooses to live by an Ancient Japanese set of codes, which seem irrelevant on the surface but throughout the movie prove to have continuity with the plot and the messages the movie conveys. In the Wire, the social codes are blurry and are even broken by characters.
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