Dear Internet,
How in
the world am I supposed to review "The Godfather"? Tell me how in the world I am supposed to
come across one of the most critically acclaimed films in the history of
cinematography in a new and interesting way?
How in the world can I say something original about a film that has been
talked about to the point of doctoral theses have included in the film in
them? How am I supposed to talk about a
film that is so popular that references are made to it in other films that are
so removed from the mob genre? I am not
sure I can, but let us see what 1200 words can do.
If you
want a plot summary, the All Knowing Wiki can serve that purpose well enough,
but there is plenty that even that summary is forced to cut out. A movie that runs two hours and forty minutes
is difficult to fit into a paragraph or two.
If I tried to do this, I would spend the entirety of the entry just
saying what the film is about. Instead,
all I can do is just straight into what I want to touch upon with the clearest
intent of talking about the movie as a whole.
This means that I cannot hold back any plot points and need to discuss
even the ending. I even want to say that
for the next two entries for the other two "Godfather" films this
will be the case.
"The
Godfather" is a tale of the fall of a man.
It is a tragedy through and through.
We follow the life of Michael Corleone, who comes from an infamous mafia
family in New York City. In the
beginning of the film, he is about as far removed from the "family
business" as anyone can get while still being a relative. One of the characters even calls him a
civilian in regards to how the other mob bosses think of him. The best line about his involvement with his
family can be examined by his very own words.
Mike says "That's my family, Kay, that's not me," after
telling about a situation concerning his family blackmailing a man at
gunpoint. By the end of the film he is
the complete opposite. He is the Don,
the leader of his family and one of the kingpins of New York. His morals are warped and twisted to the
point where he no longer holds to the truth he held at the beginning. This is evident by how he talks to Kay about
the "family business." In the
start, he is willing to tell her about the blackmail incident nonchalantly, albeit
with a little push from her part. In the
end, she has to plead to find out if Mike had his brother-in-law killed because
he refuses to tell her anything about his business. At that point, he lies point blank to her
face. In the end he is the Godfather,
through and through.
Now there
are at least three instances of godfather in "The Godfather," and it
is important considering that it is the title of the film. There is the title of Godfather bestowed upon
a certain individual, which is the leader of the family. There is Vito Corleone who is the Godfather
in the beginning of the film. And there
is Michael, who receives the title in the end.
One can also argue about the Catholic use of godfather, which is where
the word and title comes from in the film, but I want to save that for a minute. The three uses of Godfather, the title and
the two holders, present a tumbling experience for the viewer. This stems from the question of "Who is
the title referring to?" The viewer
instantly thinks that the film is about Vito since he is the first major
character presented to the audience in the first scene. It does not take long before Vito is shot and
his direct role in the film is cut to a very small amount. After that, the viewer is lead to believe
that the film is not about Vito but more about his importance to the family. People wonder what is going to happen to him,
whether or not he is dead, who did it, what this means for the family, is there
going to be a gang war, and various other problems spout forth with his
attempted assassination. The film seems
to want to present that the title and role of the Godfather is what is being
displayed and how the vacancy can lead to great turmoil for those in the
underground world of the mafia. However,
the film continues with Vito recovering.
Since he lives but the film already has pushed the center of the story
off of Vito and onto the title of Godfather, the film cannot go back to
revolving around Vito. It is at that
point that the film glimmers at the aspect of Mike being the real focus of the
story but not yet. It is only with Mike
fully assuming the title that it becomes clear that the film is really talking
about him with its title and was detailing his rise to mob boss while falling
down the moral ladder.
That
morality of the characters is perhaps the key to understanding the point of
"The Godfather", and there is no better way than to look at this than
through the film's juxtaposition. The
film is chocked filled with juxtaposition that wishes to show the hypocrisy of
the characters. There is the scene where
Luca Brasi is talking to Vito, swearing his loyalty to the family and a group
of young children who are Vito's grandchildren playfully barge in before being
escorted out. The juxtaposition is of
course the two types of "family" that the film presents, one being
biological family and the other being the one involving guns and killing the competitor. Another hard juxtaposition is the collection
of pin-up pictures filling the walls during the scene where Mike is shown the
gun that he will use to kill the police officer and Sollozzo. In that scene, there is a picture of a bishop
amid the assortment of scantily clad women.
The viewer can see the split of nature of the man, who on one hand has religious
roots but at the same time idealizes the female form. The most obvious side by side scene that
shows the character's hypocrisy is the baptism scene, where Mike is made the
godfather of a child and tells the priest that he renounces Satan while at the
same time has ordered his men to kill the other New York kingpins.
 |
| If the picture of the bishop was not back and center, you might miss it even being there. |
All of
these juxtapositions are not meant to show a dual nature of the
characters. No, that would suggest that
the religious or family values make up for the fact that they are killing
numerous people. While the killings are
not in cold blood since a majority of them are done so in retaliation to
another killing, they are still murders.
It gets worse since the characters wish to make those murders to be in
cold blood. If "in cold blood"
should be rigorously define as "without emotion," then the fact that
the characters are constantly trying to say that it is all in the name of
business instead of being personal is just an escape. They are trying to rationalize their way of
doing things in an effort to try and prevent it from going against the morality
that they have in the other aspects of their lives. But this cannot be since the morals that are
inherent in Catholic doctrine and those that are found in many other religions
do not allow a separate set of rules for "business" than those that
are meant for everyday life. Business is
a part everyday life to begin with. So
no matter what, the characters are trying to escape themselves but are unable
to do so in the end.
"The
Godfather" is a great film filled with complexities that present the
characters and plot in a way that show how individuals in a film can be more
than just stock roles, but I did not need to be the 300th or more person to say
this. I did not cover even a sizable
quantity of what makes this film so great.
From the camera work to the soundtrack to the ability of the actors,
"The Godfather" is a cinema masterpiece. Although I did have quite some time trying to
understand what Vito was swaying half the time.
Perhaps you are going to have to just ignore me for the next two days,
Internet, as I play catch up with the rest of cinema history. In the mean time I will be having fun in my
little own way, but I am getting ahead of myself before actually watching the
remaining two films.
Yours in digital,
BeepBoop
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