The Godfather

Title: The Godfather (1972)

Writers: Mario Puzo & Francis Ford Coppola (Screenplay) Mario Puzo (Novel)

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

Actors/Actresses:

Marlon Brando (Don Vito Corleone)

Al Pacino (Michael Corleone)

James Caan (Sonny Corleone)

Richard S. Castellano (Peter Clemenza)

Robert Duvall (Tom Hagen)

Diane Keaton (Kay Adams-Corleone)

Sterling Hayden (Captain MKcCluskey)

Richard Conte (Emilio Barzini)

Story:

The Godfather is about the Corleone Italian Mafia family. The head of the Corleone family is Don Vito Corleone and his sons are Sonny, Freddy, and Michael. It is about the trials and tribulations following the Corleone family when new and younger gangsters attempt to step on the Corleone family’s toes by selling drugs. When rivals try to kill the godfather, it becomes  an all out war. Don Vito tries to reason with his rivals. One of the godfather’s sons; Sonny, is killed and his other son Michael kills the family’s main enemy even though he was attempting to get away from the family’s criminal activity. At the end of the movie, the godfather; Don Vito dies and his son Michael becomes the head of the family and begins getting revenge on any enemies of his family.

Plot:

The Godfather begins at the Don’s daughter, Connie Corleone’s wedding where the godfather listens to the plea of a man that is looking for revenge for a brutal attack on his daughter. This man comes to the godfather with his plea due to the lack of help from the justice system. The godfather agrees to take revenge against the attacker in exchange for this man’s loyalty.  The Don built his empire with situations similar to this with the promised loyalty from others. The Don was asked for protection and money for Virgil “The Turk” Sollozzo to begin selling drugs in New York City in exchange for 30% of the profit he brings in. The Don refused on moral grounds even though his oldest son Sonny and the consigliere Tom Hagen thought it would be a good idea. When the godfather refused to help Sollozzo, he goes after the Corleones by kidnapping Tom Hagen and shooting Don Corleone five times in attempts to kill him. With the Don recovering he gives Sonny control over family decisions and Sollozzo tells Tom to convince Sonny to accept the deal he offered but Sonny was too mad about the murder attempt on his father that he wouldn’t so he attempts to get the Don’s youngest son to agree. Up until this point, Michael Corleone has remained neutral and has stayed out of any family business, but the recent actions towards his father brought Michael to be completely involved in every aspect of his family’s business. Michael agrees to meet with Sollozzo along with the crooked cop; Captain McClusky. Prior to the meeting, Michael fully plans to murder both men by pre-arranging a gun to be planted in the restaurant bathroom ceiling.

Michael flees to Sicily to avoid the war that is going to come from the five families and any charges from law enforcement. While in Sicily, Michael gets married to a woman named Apollonia, but she eventually is killed from a car bomb that was meant for Michael.

When Michael returns home, his brother Sonny is killed and his father, The Don, makes a truce with the Dons of the other five families. Michael marries Kay and begins to take over the family business. The Don has a conversation with Michael giving him advice and sharing his wisdom. The Don also tells Michael how he never thought he would be the one to replace him. The Don dies and Michael immediately orders hits on numerous people including family members that betrayed the family, enemies, and whoever got in the family’s way.

Chronology:

The Godfather was presented chronologically which allowed the audience to follow the plot smoothly without confusion. Each member of the Corleone Crime Family had certain positions in the family which was understood by the audience due to their actions on screen.

The characters were introduced in the very beginning but the only character that really developed into something that originally he wasn’t was Michael. Initially Michael said to his girlfriend “that’s my family, Kay. That’s not me”. That statement pertained to Michael not wanting to be in the middle of the crimes and illegal activity that his family was apart of. When Michael’s father; Don Vito was shot, Michael immediately gets involved with the ways of organized crime by ordering hits, murder, extortion, and being an overall gangster.

The way The Godfather story is foreshadowed in some scenes does have the audience knowing that some type of revenge and payback is coming just not knowing what exactly is going to happen. For example, when Don Corleone sends Tom Hagen to visit Jack Woltz to “give him an offer he can’t refuse” and Jack did refuse, the audience immediately knew something bad was going to come from this but didn’t expect the head of Jack’s very expensive horse to be in his bed. So the audience expected a repercussion, just didn’t know what to expect.

If The Godfather film was presented to the audience in another way I am unsure there would have been two more movies after this one. For example, if the director would have skipped Michael telling Kay that he is not who his family is than the character development would be gone because then Michael would be portrayed as a gangster immediately instead of becoming one when his father was shot five times.

Resources:

Movieclips. (2011, November 22). The Godfather (5/9) movie clip – Michael loses Appolonia (1972) HD [Video file]. Retrieved from http://youtu.be/SWAJPB_5rSs

Movieclips. (2011, November 22). The Horse Head – The Godfather (1/9) movie CLIP (1972) HD [Video file] Retrieved from http://youtu.be/VC1_tdnZq1A?list=PL4DD9B97A46400466

Movieclips. (2011, November 22). The Godfather (3/9) Movie CLIP – Killing Sollozzo and McCluskey (1972) HD [Video file] Retrieved from http://youtu.be/ppjyB2MpxBU?list=PL4DD9B97A46400466

The Godfather [Image format] (2014). Retrieved September 9, 2014, from: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068646/