The Godfather

The Godfather (1972)

http://www.filmsite.org/godf.html

THE STORY: in brief

The story begins at the wedding of the Godfather's daughter,
Constanza Corleone, where we are introduced to the pivotal characters,
and the story unfolds.

In private the Godfather (Brando), Sonny (James Caan) and his consilgeri Tom
Hagen (Robert Duvall) discuss the possibility of a drug deal with Virgil "the
Turk" Sollozo. The Godfather refuses the deal and is consequently
gunned down by Sollozo's henchman in front of his son Fredo. The Turk
attempts to finish the Godfather in his hospital bed, but his plan is foiled by
the Godfather's youngest son Michael (Al Pacino).

Michael then devise a plan to settle the score with
Sollozo. He and his bodyguard (Captain McClusky) are gunned down by
Michael at a meeting in the Bronx. Michael is then forced to flee to
Sicily, and Sonny takes over the family business.

Screenplay
Michael returns from Sicily years later to take over
the family business after Sonny is murdered

http://www.jgeoff.com/godfather/gf1/transcript/gf1transcript.html

Context

Moviegoers had little reason to expect much from The Godfather
when it was released in 1972. The film was based on a popular though not
best-selling novel, made by a relatively inexperienced director, and performed
by mostly unknown actors, plus one, Marlon Brando, who was considered well past
his prime—all in all, not exactly the classic Hollywood formula for success.

Defying the odds, The Godfather went on to become one of the most popular
movies of all time. It gave birth to two sequels, the first of which is a masterpiece
in its own right, spawned countless clones, launched the film careers of several
significant actors, and changed forever what an audience would expect when it
entered a theater. Francis Ford Coppola, the director of the Godfather trilogy, was
one of many young directors who came to prominence in the 1970s and challenged
the old Hollywood system. His contemporaries included Martin Scorsese, Roman
Polanski, George Lucas, and Stephen Spielberg, among others. This attack on
old Hollywood is announced right at the beginning of The Godfather when the lawyer
Tom Hagen asks studio owner Jack Woltz to cast the singer Johnny Fontane in a
movie. Woltz seems classic L.A.-slick, and we are not surprised when he says
no. But we are surprised when we learn why. We expect that Woltz’s excuse will
be that Johnny is old and washed-up or that he lacks acting talent, but
instead, Woltz says that Johnny is perfect for the part, which is precisely the
reason he doesn’t get it. Woltz blames Johnny for stealing a pretty young
actress from him and refuses to do anything that will help him rehabilitate his
career. In his exchange with Tom, Woltz comes across as materialistic, crass,
bad-tempered, vengeful, and bigoted, but Coppola hints that his greatest crime
is that he isn’t a real artist. He is in film production only for the sex and the money.

Coppola’s criticism of the Hollywood system goes
well beyond this ugly depiction of a Hollywood producer.
The Godfather trilogy criticizes the content and
structure of typical Hollywood films. By the 1970s,
moviegoers were more film literate than those of earlier generations and
demanded more for the price of their tickets. One way to appeal to an audience
of both sophisticated and unsophisticated viewers is through what critic Robert
Ray calls a “corrected” genre film. A corrected genre film has its share of
action sequences that appeal to naïve viewers, but it also includes new
stylistic devices and an irony-laced plot that appeal to a more critical audience.

In Ray’s analysis of Hollywood films, The Godfather is the paradigmatic
corrected genre film. To the naive audience, Michael Corleone seems
like a heroic outsider battling against the corrupt system—in effect the
hero of a Western set in New York City. A more sophisticated audience
sees Michael as duplicitous, immoral, and cruel, and will be repulsed by
him. But many people would argue that The Godfather isn’t corrected
enough. Subsequent gangster films, such as Scarface, Goodfellas,
and Donnie Brasco, as well as the popular TV series The Sopranos,
all try to further “correct” The Godfather by presenting a grittier, less
glamorous view of Mafia life. But this process of criticizing the myth
of the Mafia really began in Coppola’s films. Indeed, the most successful
correction of The Godfather is probably The Godfather Part II.

In addition to spawning numerous “corrected” gangster films, The Godfather’s legacy also
includes its amazing cast, with actors such as Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Diane
Keaton, James Caan, and Robert Duvall, who have taken their places among the
most successful performers of The true genius of the Godfather films is that they are
historically and socially specific genre films and, at the same time,
monumental epics exploring universal themes. Their depiction of the experiences
of Sicilian-Americans in the twentieth century speaks to the experience of all
American immigrant communities. As exciting and suspenseful as any Hollywood
action flick, they are also dramas with as much pathos and emotional weight as
any film can have. Today the Godfather
films are classic reference points in American culture, but they startled
audiences when they were released because they combined styles and genres in a
completely new way.

That the films look so familiar to us now is the ultimate proof of their
tremendous influence.the past thirty years. No less significant is The Godfather’s rehabilitation of
the late, incomparable Marlon Brando. Francis Ford Coppola, the director and
brains of the entire operation, would himself become a Hollywood fixture, going
on to direct classics such as The
Conversation and Apocalypse
Now. Certain filmic elements, such as the use of montage in The Godfather or of underexposure
in the cinematography of The Godfather
Part II, have proven highly influential in the decades since.
Lastly, it should be pointed out that the Godfather
films took part in the larger social discourse of their times. In 1972 and 1974,
when The Godfather and The Godfather Part II were
released, respectively, America was experiencing much turmoil and change.
Coming on the heels of the turbulent 1960s,
while the Vietnam War and the culture wars raged, the Godfather films took part in the
New Left critique, exposing the hypocrisy of institutions of power. The Godfather highlights police
corruption and the questionable morality of politicians who send their citizens
abroad to fight wars. Political corruption is a major theme of The Godfather Part II. The Godfather Part III brings to
light the tensions between the worldly and spiritual concerns of the Catholic
Church.


Film Statistics

Approximate shooting time:
6 months

How many Oscars won: 3

Actual budget: $6.2 Million

Grossed in 365 theaters in the first week:
$8 Million

Estimated worldwide gross: $150 Million

Length: 2 hours, 56 minutes

Awards

Winner:

Best Picture - Al Ruddy, Producer

Best Screenplay Adaptation from other Material - Francis Ford Coppola, Mario
Puzo

Best Actor - Marlon Brando

Film Trivia

The film is based upon the novel 'The Godfather' by Mario
Puzo. Puzo based the book on the old Sicilian Mafia. It is
essentially about a family, and not crime. There are no specifics of any
Organized crime, where as the family troubles are paramount.
The movie is authentic to the part of the book that deals with the
father and his three sons.

Brando wanted to make Don Corleone look "like a
bulldog", so he stuffed his cheeks with cotton wool for the screen test.
For actual filming, he wore an appliance made by a dentist.

The horses head sequence is perhaps the movies most famous
and controversial scene. People were outraged at the sight of a
decapitated horse despite several other brutal murders in the film.

Editing

Motion pictures can be edited in two basic ways.
Continuous action presents events in the
sequence they occur. Time may lapse between scenes, but the story unfolds
chronologically, so that the beginning, middle, and end of the film are also
the beginning, middle, and end of the story that the film tells. Parallel action
cuts back and forth between scenes
or narratives. Sometimes parallel action is used to depict events that occur
simultaneously, other times to relate multiple narratives, cutting back and
forth between them. The primary difference between the first two Godfather
films is that The Godfather employs mostly continuous action,
whereas Part II uses parallel action. From
the opening at Connie’s wedding to the final scene in which Michael
arrives at Las Vegas, the scenes of The Godfather
are related in chronological order. The major storylines of the film—the
transfer of power from Vito to Michael and Michael’s development from
youngest son to Godfather—are tales
of development, linear in structure. As a result, the characters’ actions speak
largely for themselves. We see Michael develop from someone who is unable to
say “I love you” to Kay into someone who can. We see Vito change from a
powerful Godfather into a playful old grandfather.

On the few occasions when The Godfather does employ parallel structure, it
does so for very specific reasons. The first time is toward the beginning of
the movie: as Tom,
Sonny,
and Vito debate doing business with Sollozzo,
we see brief flashes of scenes that show a meeting being arranged. In this
case, the parallel structure captures Sollozzo’s double dealing, as well as
Vito’s discomfort about the deal. It should not come as a surprise that Vito
rejects Sollozzo’s offer at the meeting, nor that shortly afterward Sollozzo
tries to have Vito killed. The movie also uses parallel action to relate the
Mafia war that directly follows Michael’s murder of Sollozzo. Cutting back and
forth between shots that depict gangsters going about their daily lives and
images of newspaper headlines that chronicle the violent Mafia war they are
waging, the editing highlights the disruptive effect of violence on the lives
of mafiosi. The most famous use of parallel action is in the baptism scene at
the movie’s end, which introduces us to Michael’s duplicity and the double life
he will lead as head of the family.

While The Godfather consists of a single narrative whose
chronological exposition is interrupted a few times to highlight important
moments, Part II alternates between two
separate stories. Rather than being used sparsely and strategically, as in The Godfather, parallel action defines the entire
structure of Part II. The Godfather opens with a scene that culminates
in an initially disrespectful suppliant kissing Don
Vito’s hand in a humble show of respect. Part II
begins with a parallel shot of Michael, now Godfather, having his hand kissed
by a suppliant. But then the movie cuts to an image of the rocky Sicilian
countryside. Subtitles state, “The Godfather was born Vito Andolini, in the
town of Corleone
in Sicily.” With this opening, Part II
announces that it will not simply move forward like The Godfather, but back and forth. It also
establishes that the film’s parallel structure will function crucially, as the
display of respect shown to Michael is immediately undermined by the narrator
who calls Vito, not Michael, Godfather. Not only will the movie compare the two
men, but it will complicate the transfer of power enacted in The Godfather. This opening scene shift suggests
that Michael has failed to escape his father’s mythical shadow.

These questions of
succession highlight the problem that Part II
faces as the sequel to the tremendously popular, critically acclaimed The Godfather. The challenge for Part II was establishing its own ground. One way
that the film resolves this dilemma is by acting as not only a sequel, but also
a prequel. By cutting back and forth between a continuation of the narrative of
Michael’s life, the sequel to his story in The
Godfather, and the story of Vito’s youth, the prequel to his story in The Godfather, it solves the problem of succession
by complicating it. Part II is both the son
of The Godfather and its father.

As he sits in his Tahoe boathouse in 1959, Michael recalls December 7,
1941, Pearl Harbor Day and his father’s birthday.
All Vito’s children, Connie, Sonny, Fredo, Tom, and Michael, sit around the
dining room table waiting for their father to come home so they can surprise
him with a birthday cake. The bombing of Pearl Harbor comes up in their
discussion, and Michael announces that he has enlisted to join the army. His
brothers are furious. A debate ensues, but it is interrupted by the return of
Vito. All the family members run to greet him, except for Michael,

THE BAPTISM SCENE SLIDE SHOW!

Here are 73 frames from this incredible scene from The Godfather, with
short descriptions of each.


http://www.jgeoff.com/godfather/baptism/bapti01.html

Montage

Montage, a rapid
succession of images that links different scenes, is the most dramatic form of
parallel editing. It is used many times in the Godfather
trilogy, most famously in the baptism scene at the end of The Godfather. As Connie and Carlo’s
son is baptized, the film cuts to images showing the murders of the heads of
the five Mafia families, murders that Michael has ordered. The use of montage
implies that the murders and the baptism occur simultaneously, and the
juxtaposition of the calm, peaceful, and religious church ceremony and the
frantic, violent murders gives each unexpected new meaning. The irony between
these vastly different scenes is striking. During the baptism ceremony, the
godparents must respond to questions such as “Do you reject the glamour of
evil?” and “Do you reject Satan and all his works?” by saying “I do.” Michael’s
sincere “I do’s” cement his position as godfather to Connie’s baby, but the
murders he ordered form a ceremony of their own from which Michael emerges as a
Godfather of an entirely different sort.

The duality
highlighted by this particular montage captures the nature of Michael’s new
life. As Godfather, he will be in charge of two very different families. But at
the same time that the montage signals Michael’s full accession to the title of
Godfather, it also shows how he will differ from his father. By carrying out
such violence during his nephew’s baptism, just as he is declaring his belief
in God and denouncing Satan, Michael desecrates the service and brings violence
into the sphere of family. Michael’s duplicity, his ability to lie, and his
ruthlessness are all highlighted by this dramatic sequence of images. But also
apparent is his willingness to allow violence into the home, something Vito
would have prevented. This distinction between father and son is picked up
dramatically in Part II.

Perspective

The Godfather opens with a shot of Bonasera,
a suppliant to Don
Vito Corleone. Because we look at Bonasera from Vito’s point of view, Vito
himself is hidden to us. Only later does the camera pull back, revealing the
back of Vito’s head and shoulders, then changing angles to show his face. As
the movie proceeds, most action is revealed from a more universal, third-person
perspective, and Vito becomes a character like any other. But from the opening
shot, we know that the story is Vito’s and that his is the only perspective
that matters. Gradually, as Michael becomes an increasingly important
character, we see more and more through his eyes, and at a certain point, the
story becomes his. This transfer of perspective occurs during the scene at the
Bronx Italian restaurant where Michael kills Sollozzo and Captain
McCluskey. This action represents Michael’s Mafia initiation and prepares
him to eventually succeed his father as the next Don Corleone.
Therefore the change in perspective that occurs in this scene anticipates the
later transfer of family power from Vito to Michael.

s the Bronx
restaurant scene begins, we look at Sollozzo from over Michael’s shoulder. The
camera stands behind him. We are looking from Michael’s vantage, but not from
his eyes. As the scene progresses, we move closer to Sollozzo. When Michael’s
shoulders disappear from the screen, we are seeing Sollozzo through Michael’s
eyes, just as we saw Bonasera through Vito’s eyes in the film’s opening scene.
Another key to the change in perspective is in the use of subtitles. When
Sollozzo and Michael speak in Italian, there are no subtitles. Until this
point, the dialogue in Italian has been translated, because Vito was born in
Sicily and is fluent. Michael, on the other hand, can barely understand or
speak the language. Toward the end of Sollozzo’s un-subtitled speech in
Italian, Michael tries to respond in Italian, but he is unable and has to
resort to English. After killing Sollozzo and McCluskey, Michael goes to Sicily
and learns Italian. For this reason, all subsequent Italian dialogue in the
trilogy, even when we are seeing things from Michael’s perspective, is
subtitled.

As Michael retrieves
the gun in the bathroom, we enter his head more fully. We hear a din from an
elevated subway car passing by. The sound is much louder than that of a
flushing toilet, and it is clearly not part of any objective reality. Instead
we are in Michael’s head, hearing the sound of his anxiety. When Michael
returns to the dining area, subtle sounds—a fork clanking against a plate, soft
footsteps—are amplified, as Michael’s senses are on high alert. Sollozzo again
tries to talk in Italian, still without subtitles, but soon the din returns,
drowning out the words. The sound of the passing subway car grows and grows,
its grating, scratching sound becoming increasingly deafening. At no other
moment are we more in Michael’s head. Then Michael stands and fires, first
shooting Sollozzo, then turning to McCluskey and firing twice. During the
shooting and in the first moments afterward, the perspective returns to that of
a removed third-person. Once again, we look on Michael and the rest of the
restaurant from afar, then the dinner table draped with collapsed, bloody
bodies. But the transfer of perspective has occurred. We have entered Michael’s
head, and now the story is his.

Key Facts

setting (time) · The
action spans the twentieth century. The Godfather
takes places in the years after World War II.



setting (place) · The action takes place in America and
Italy. Most of the action in America is set in the New York metropolitan region
and Nevada (Lake Tahoe, Las Vegas, and Carson City), but there are also scenes
in Los Angeles and Miami.


protagonist · Vito Corleone and Michael Corleone

major conflict · The
major conflict in the film concerns the competing pulls of family and the
business of organized crime.

rising action · The
desire to bring prosperity and safety to his family pushes Vito and later
Michael into a life of crime, but their chosen field of work, organized crime,
often directly disturbs the peace and harmony of family life.

climax · The
murder of the heads of the five families during the baptism of Connie’s son and
the murder of Connie’s husband, Carlo.

falling action · Michael’s response to the climax shows an
increasing sense of guilt, although on the surface, he seems untroubled by his
actions as he coldly denies killing Carlo.

themes · “It’s business, not personal”; the different worlds
of men and women; the conflict between respect and legitimacy

motifs · Return to
Sicily; family gatherings; corruption is everywhere

symbols · Windows;
doors; chairs


Windows divide the outer,
public world from the inner realm of the home. As a boundary, the window is
fragile and permeable, and too often windows become an easy entry point for
bullets. A shot of a fluttering curtain, a sign of the outer world invading the
private space of the home, often anticipates an eruption of violence.

Doors separate women from
men. Most of the doors we see are interior doors within houses. They separate
one room from another, and they divide the home between the male domain of
business and the female realm of family. Whenever men have business to discuss,
they close the door to the study and shut the women out. Front doors, entryways
to houses, are rarely seen, but when they are, they are even more solid
boundaries against female freedom.

Chairs are the symbol of isolation. The most obvious function of a chair
is that of a throne. The Godfather sits in a chair as suppliants pay their
respects and kiss his hand. Remaining seated while others stand is a way of
asserting power. Chairs are also places of contemplation.

Foreshadowing

The fish delivered to the Corleones in The Godfather, which carry the message “Luca Brasi
sleeps with the fishes,” foreshadow Fredo’s murder while he’s fishing.

Vito’s statement at Connie and Carlo’s
wedding that the family should give Carlo a job, but never discuss the family
business with him, anticipates Carlo’s eventual treachery.

On a few occasions the sight of an open
window with wind blowing on the curtains foreshadows upcoming danger. Sonny’s
insistence that Michael leave the family compound with bodyguards, even though
Michael is a “civilian” at the time, signals to us that Sonny is in grave
danger when he leaves the compound unaccompanied a few scenes later.

HISTORY OF THE MAFIA

http://www.wallwin.org.uk/godfather/mafia.html

http://www.ganglandnews.com/

Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather Film Analysis

http://assets.cambridge.org/052155/084X/sample/052155084Xwsn01.pdf

Questions

1. Which of Vito’s children was adopted?

(A) Connie

(B) Fredo

(C) Michael

(D) Tom

2. What business does Sollozzo want to involve Vito in?

(A) Gambling

(B) Prostitution

(C) Narcotics

(D) Construction

3. Who is Vito’s oldest son?

(A) Fredo

(B) Michael

(C) Sonny

(D) Tom

4. What does Vito demand in order for the peace between the
five families to hold?

(A) That no one engage in drug trafficking

(B) That he be allowed to avenge Sonny’s death

(C) That he not have to share his political influence

(D) That Michael go unharmed

5. Who is the mastermind behind the attempt on Vito’s life?

(A) Sollozzo

(B) Barzini

(C) Tattaglia

(D) Tessio

6. Who is sent ahead to Vegas?

(A) Carlo

(B) Fredo

(C) Sonny

(D) Tom

7. What does Michael have done during and shortly after the
baptism of his godson?

(A) The killing of Barzini

(B) The killing of Moe Green

(C) The murder of Tattaglia

(D) All of the above

8. At the end of The Godfather, who is determined to be the
traitor?

(A) Luca Brasi

(B) Clemenza

(C) Neri

(D) Tessio

9. What was Vito’s last name when he was born?

(A) Andolini

(B) Clemenza

(C) Corleone

(D) Fanucci

10. Whom does Don Ciccio have killed?

(A) Vito’s father

(B) Vito’s mother

(C) Vito’s brother

(D) All of the above

11. Who accuses Michael of giving “loyalty to a Jew before
your own blood”?

(A) Clemenza

(B) Fredo

(C) Ola

(D) Pentangeli

12. What are the first four words in the film?

13. What time was Bruno Tattaglia hit?

14. What was Woltz' stablehand's name?

15. What does Sonny write on the kitchen cabinet during
Sollozzo's call?

16. Who taught Fredo the gambling business?

17. Who is Apollonia's father?

18. Which of Sollozzo's men drives him, Michael, and McClusky
to the restaurant?

19. Why was Sollozzo called "the Turk?" Two
reasons: