THE GODFATHER (1972)
A defining film in the history of cinema,
The Godfather introduced a legendary filmmaker and several acting greats in the
telling of an Italian American dynasty undone by the tragic circumstances of
their criminal exploits.
Of the many themes which The Godfather
touches upon, it is that of “family” which resonates the most. The film is
based upon the novel by Mario Puzo (who co-wrote the screenplay) and many
sub-plots were minimised or thrown away by director/co-writer Francis Ford
Coppola, himself an Italian American and family man. He knew that the only way
to make Puzo’s sprawling novel work on screen was to focus on the familial
relationships within this crime story, whether it be father to son, brother to
brother, or husband to wife. In this world blood is not only thicker than
water, it is holy.
Coppola opens the films with an interesting
shot of a pitch black screen giving way to a desperate figure, an undertaker
pleading to Mafioso patriarch Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) to revenge the
savage beating of his daughter. It is the wedding day of the lone Corleone
daughter Connie (Talia Shire), and no Sicilian can refuse a request, which Don Vito takes on with reason, while
also subtlety enforcing his position as a man to be respected and feared.
Brando’s casting was a coup for Coppola,
for three reasons. First, it exhibited the brilliance and innovation of
Brando’s thespian prowess, creating a wholly new mafia figure within a world of
stereotype. Second, it re-established Brando’s standing as a major player after
years of being labelled “box-office poison”. And third, it points to Brando’s
influence as “godfather” to a generation of actors, many which play his
children in this film.
Plot wise, The Godfather begins with the
attempted assassination of Don Vito from a rival crime family unhappy with his
refusal to enter the narcotics trade. With the Don temporarily out of the
picture, it is up to his sons to run the Corleone clan. There is hot tempered
Sonny (James Caan), meek mild Fredo (John Cazale), adopted son of Irish
ancestry Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall), and the fiercely independent Michael (Al
Pacino).
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"Give him an offer he can't refuse."
One of the most iconic scenes in cinema : The severed horse head.
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It would be Michael who comes through as
successor, and as a result The Godfather is as much Pacino’s film as it is
Brando’s, introducing himself with a revelation of a performance.
Pacino was at first in the firing line from
studio heads at Paramount for what they felt was miscasting on Coppola’s part.
Their minds were swiftly changed after viewing a pivotal point in the movie
known as “the Sollozzo scene”, which displayed Michael’s true murderous,
Machiavellian nature in his disposal of his father’s would be killer and
corrupt police official.
This is followed by Michael’s self exile to
Sicily, which sells the romantic nature of The Godfather, with the visuals of
lush country side Italy coupled with Nino Rota’s hypnotically melodic score.
Yet there is a darkness which protrudes
form this romance. This is a film about the mafia after all, and death at its
most sinister and intimate is featured throughout.
Thus underlines the tragedy of The
Godfather, with the sins of the father bestowed upon his children, who if not
met by deaths hand will be plunged into hellfire for their actions, especially
that of Michael’s. Coppola expertly stages this fact in a sequence which
features the death of the Corleone’s enemies, while Michael stands as spiritual
godfather to his sister’s child within a Catholic church.
In the end Michael and his family stand
tall, yet there is a void in their victory. Coppola has not only made the
greatest crime movie of all time, he has also portrayed how the Mafioso policy
of “an eye for an eye” has delivered this family unto eternal darkness.
-- Contributed by Pranjal Batra
