Reviewed by Brett Schummer
May 4/14
Original Score 5/5
May 4/14
Original Score 5/5
With a powerhouse performance by Brando and Coppola's golden-aged eye behind the lens, The Godfather is Coppola's shadowy masterpiece.
I believe in America
The first five minutes tells it all. Moviegoers across the world will instantly recognize it as one of the most memorable intros ever. This is a film you could watch fifty times and still pick out something new. This is the masterwork of one of America's greatest filmmakers.
The Godfather follows the interlockings of a Mafioso driven family and their falterings between flesh and business. The head honcho of the family is Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando), a grizzled man knowledgeable on the workings his profession. His four sons Michael (Al Pacino), Sonny (James Caan), Fredo (John Cazale), and the adopted Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall), serve as the executive managers within his business. The family and business are both broad in this film, and both twist with similarly disturbing turns along the path of this nearly three our film.
Despite it's length, the film easily paces by. Coppola juggles the its many characters with apparent ease, and makes every part, including the little grimy bits, pleasant.
Vito Corleone is almost a God like figure in the film. Everyone in the film worships him and comes to him to fulfill their desires. The allusion goes further when the Godfather gets shot. The Godfather's disciples lose faith in the Godfather and he is "killed." This causes Michael, who plays the role of a Jesus figure, to take over to return faith to his disciples. He is frequently doubted, but essentially gains the trust of his followers by performing "miracles" (crimes) under the guidance of his father. At the end of the film when The Godfather advices Michael of his planned assassination, Tessio plays the role of Judas. Michael's father explains to Michael that one of his disciples, Tessio, will betray Michael. This is the same as Judas betraying Jesus.
The idea of The Godfather being a biblical allusion and religious is furthered by the visuals of the film. The colour palette of the film is reminiscent to that of a Renaissance painting. The shots nearly all have Low-Key lighting and framed portraits. I specifically noticed how similar the works of Renaissance artists such as Caravaggio are to the scenes in the Godfather.
The Godfather follows the interlockings of a Mafioso driven family and their falterings between flesh and business. The head honcho of the family is Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando), a grizzled man knowledgeable on the workings his profession. His four sons Michael (Al Pacino), Sonny (James Caan), Fredo (John Cazale), and the adopted Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall), serve as the executive managers within his business. The family and business are both broad in this film, and both twist with similarly disturbing turns along the path of this nearly three our film.
Despite it's length, the film easily paces by. Coppola juggles the its many characters with apparent ease, and makes every part, including the little grimy bits, pleasant.
Vito Corleone is almost a God like figure in the film. Everyone in the film worships him and comes to him to fulfill their desires. The allusion goes further when the Godfather gets shot. The Godfather's disciples lose faith in the Godfather and he is "killed." This causes Michael, who plays the role of a Jesus figure, to take over to return faith to his disciples. He is frequently doubted, but essentially gains the trust of his followers by performing "miracles" (crimes) under the guidance of his father. At the end of the film when The Godfather advices Michael of his planned assassination, Tessio plays the role of Judas. Michael's father explains to Michael that one of his disciples, Tessio, will betray Michael. This is the same as Judas betraying Jesus.
The idea of The Godfather being a biblical allusion and religious is furthered by the visuals of the film. The colour palette of the film is reminiscent to that of a Renaissance painting. The shots nearly all have Low-Key lighting and framed portraits. I specifically noticed how similar the works of Renaissance artists such as Caravaggio are to the scenes in the Godfather.
Aside from the religious aspects of the cinematography, most of the shots contain painting like qualities. Many of the scenes from The Godfather look as though they could easily appear in an office building. What I mean by that is, they look like oil paintings an artist did of someone like a founder of a company that you might see framed in an enormous lobby. This sort of portrait framing always reflects certain statuses and tensions within the room. The shot on the left, taken from the film, makes the crime families look like political figures in a painting. I specifically liked this shot because it seems like Coppola is comparing these gloomy gangsters to men of politics. The metaphor gets really interesting when one of the men in the scene goes on a rather racist tangent. I'll leave you to fill in the blanks.
While on cinematography, I've pointed out the influence of Welles' doorframe shots from Citizen Kane in other films, but it's even noticeable in The Godfather. In the famous last shot of the film, Michael proceeds to conduct business as "Don Corleone" after Kay leaves the room. Like Citizen Kane, this shot shows an emotion disconnect between the two characters, and what happens behind closed doors.
This film, among the others we've tackled in this course, is amidst the most discussed films ever. My personal favourite reading of this film that I came up with, while viewing it for the second time, was the idea of the film characters serving as an allegory for Freudian psychology. Sigmund Freud came up with the idea that in the subconscious mind, there are three dominating features, the id, the ego, and the superego. Now the id serves as the primal urges of the subconscious, the ego mediates the conscious and unconscious mind, and the superego acts as the self critical, decision making part of the mind (this is a quick, fragmented summary of Freud's ideas).
Now how does all this come into The Godfather? Good question, thanks for asking. Take Vito Corleone. He is the head of the family. Sonny, Michael, and Tom act as extensions of him and his business. If Vito Corleone is the main focus, Sonny, Michael, and Tom are the extensions of his subconscious. Sonny is the id. He acts quickly and without reflection. He is about instant gratification, and satisfying his desires. He shows this throughout the film in different forms of satisfaction. Michael is the ego. He is the middle between Sonny and Tom. He is the closest to Vito's true outer personality, and melds the fury of Sonny with Tom's level-headed decision making. This makes him the clear ego personification. Finally, Tom is the superego. He is the highest decision maker. He constantly comes into direct conflict with Sonny's unrestrained undertakings, and takes the most passive, and usually morally grounded, choices. He keeps his cool and is even a lawyer, making him a superego type.
I think these character relations helps to strength the conflicts and goals for each of the characters described. It also makes it easier for the audience to clearly differentiate the values and motives of these characters and distinctively separate the three.
If for some reason you don't already believe me that this is a great film, just look to what it's done for the Crime genre. A good deal of Martin Scorsese's work owes a lot to this film. Just look at Goodfellas, Casino, The Departed, even films like Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, and Mean Streets, although you could argue this to be part of the New Hollywood style, there's no denying the influence here. Aside from Scorsese, other top-notch directors in this genre like Brian de Palma and Quentin Tarantino owe a lot to this film. For these reasons, The Godfather has managed to be as important to the film community as it is to box office goers for the last 42 years. That is why this art house bridging film remains a five out of five masterpiece.
Now how does all this come into The Godfather? Good question, thanks for asking. Take Vito Corleone. He is the head of the family. Sonny, Michael, and Tom act as extensions of him and his business. If Vito Corleone is the main focus, Sonny, Michael, and Tom are the extensions of his subconscious. Sonny is the id. He acts quickly and without reflection. He is about instant gratification, and satisfying his desires. He shows this throughout the film in different forms of satisfaction. Michael is the ego. He is the middle between Sonny and Tom. He is the closest to Vito's true outer personality, and melds the fury of Sonny with Tom's level-headed decision making. This makes him the clear ego personification. Finally, Tom is the superego. He is the highest decision maker. He constantly comes into direct conflict with Sonny's unrestrained undertakings, and takes the most passive, and usually morally grounded, choices. He keeps his cool and is even a lawyer, making him a superego type.
I think these character relations helps to strength the conflicts and goals for each of the characters described. It also makes it easier for the audience to clearly differentiate the values and motives of these characters and distinctively separate the three.
If for some reason you don't already believe me that this is a great film, just look to what it's done for the Crime genre. A good deal of Martin Scorsese's work owes a lot to this film. Just look at Goodfellas, Casino, The Departed, even films like Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, and Mean Streets, although you could argue this to be part of the New Hollywood style, there's no denying the influence here. Aside from Scorsese, other top-notch directors in this genre like Brian de Palma and Quentin Tarantino owe a lot to this film. For these reasons, The Godfather has managed to be as important to the film community as it is to box office goers for the last 42 years. That is why this art house bridging film remains a five out of five masterpiece.