The Modern Urban Ancient Mafia Movie

What I found most interesting between the two pieces, The Wire, and Ghost Dog, was the use of music. Though it never really stood out in the episode of The Wire, aside from the music in the strip club and in the cars, I felt that the music had a very interesting place in both pieces. I don't know how familiar everyone else is with the Wu-Tang Clan, but it was apparent from the title sequence of the movie that the music would be very heavily influenced by this style of music. (RZA produced the whole soundtrack, and was the samurai in camouflage towards the end)

In terms of relativity to the narrative of Ghost Dog, I felt the 90's gangster rap, specifically the east coast beats of the Wu, were very descriptive of the movie itself. There was a large discrepancy between what we were watching and the music that was being played and I think that added to the message that this, Ghost Dog, was not your typical Italian mafia family gangster movie. It added an element of modern, urban street culture to it. (Ghost Dog's persona) It is also not often that the members of the italian family like rappers like Flava Flav (Specifically referencing the shower scene, right before he his shot through the plumbing). This element of rap, an element of the modern urban culture, helps lend itself to a widening audience.

With Ghost Dog, I felt this musical choice added an element that contrasted the typical Italian mafia story. To that extent, the addition of the ancient Japanese texts adds a third contrasting element to the narrative. The ancient texts, obviously guide Ghost Dog in his day-to-day lifestyle. But I think they do more for the narrative as a whole. In most mafia movies the hitman is simply asked to kill someone because their boss says so, and mainly because they will get paid. In this movie, with the use of the flashback to when Ghost Dog was saved by Louie, it is obvious that money is not the thing driving Ghost Dog to make the hits. It is because he operates on ancient paradigms that commit him to his ruler, Louie. This added element to the movie makes it very interesting and one of the reasons I really enjoyed the film.

All of these combined are meant to elicit a sense of confusion, at first, but in the end I think Jarmusch did a great job of bringing it all together. A lot of people though it was just aimless killing going on the whole time but i felt the narrative was quite clear and understandable. It is a classic mafia movie with added elements used to modernize, but also historicize the tale being told.