MovieChat Forums > Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (2000) Discussion > Stupid question, but...

Stupid question, but...

posted 14 years ago by BouncyCastle
1 reply | jump to latest

I don't quite understand why the mafia wanted Ghost Dog dead. He carried out the job he was supposed to- kill the guy sleeping with the boss's daughter. The daughter witnessed the hit, but otherwise Ghost Dog did a perfect job and was untraceable. What's the problem? Why kill Ghost Dog?

Am I missing something, or is the point of the movie that mobsters are complete morons who watch cartoons all day?

"If this wasn't my son's wedding day, I'd knock your teeth out, you anti-Dentite bastard."

[–] KidSixXx 13 years ago

Handsome Frank was a made guy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Made_man

Check out what it says in the Priveleges section of the Wikipedia article.

Vargo had Handsome Frank whacked purely for personal reasons instead of professional ones. Frank was sleeping with Vargo's daughter and Vargo couldn't stand it.

Frank added insult to injury by flaunting his status as a made guy because he knew he could act with near impunity. If Vargo tried anything, the rest of the Mob would come down on his crew.

Vargo had Louie bring in Ghost Dog to kill Handsome Frank because of Ghost Dog's ability to perform contracts with the utmost discretion and because Ghost Dog was an outsider that couldn't be traced back to Vargo's crew.

Unfortunately for Ghost Dog, he had the bad luck to have the hit on Handsome Frank witnessed by Vargo's daughter. Vargo then tried to use the situation to his favor and tried to get in the good graces of the Mob by "avenging" Frank's death and silencing one of the two people that knew the truth of who really had Handsome Frank murdered.

I suspect that part of the reason Vargo ordered Ghost Dog killed was the exposure of his daughter to murder as well as her being a witness to the execution.