The real tragedy of Ghost Dog's character

First of all, I just caught this movie on cable and watched it the second time. The first viewing was in an art house cinema in Berkeley more than a decade ago. What a blast from the past I must say.

This movie belongs to a rare kind of movies where every scene, character, and music track fit well together and just click along from the beginning to the end. Also, there are no issues with the plot holes. Every occurrence, every scene in the movie seems to have a simple logical explanation. Anyways, back to my main point..

For me, the most memorable thing about this movie is the tragedy of Ghost Dog, a man trying to live the life of a Samurai in a dilapidated city in the Rust Belt. Clearly, he is absurdly out of place in the world he happens to live in. The movie features most comical portrayal of an American mobster to ever come out of Hollywood. The mobster "organization" or quasi-family are just a bunch of fat, old, broke losers, who don't seem to realize that a day job at a corner diner would have probably earned them a better living. They have trouble paying rent for their 'headquarters', which they rent from a Chinese food restaurant owner. Two of their bosses live in houses with a "for sale" sign. They ride in outdated cars and watch outdated cartoons. They're clearly stuck in the past. On the other hand, Ghost Dog is a character of much higher moral and professional standards than the mob he works for. And yet he takes his duties with great pride and dignity. I think that's both a real tragedy and a comedy of his character. In other words, it's a tragicomedy. That's my view of the movie.


I think the poster who made the connection between Don Quixote and Ghost Dog linked below also kind of nailed the main theme of this movie, but with less words than I did.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0165798/board/thread/164638774