|
The Godfather (1972)
The superb, three-part gangster saga was inaugurated with this
film from Italian-American director Francis Ford Coppola, The
Godfather (1972). The first two parts of the lush saga are among
the most celebrated, landmark films of all time. Many film
reviewers consider the second part equal or superior to the
original, although the first part was a tremendous critical and
commercial success - and the highest grossing film of its time.
The film contributed to a resurgence in the American film
industry, after a decade of competition from cinema abroad.
One of the original "Movie Brats" who had not had a hit after
seven films, director Coppola collaborated on the epic film's
screenplay with Mario Puzo who had written a best-selling novel
of the same name about a Mafia dynasty (the Corleones). The
Godfather catapulted Francis Ford Coppola to directorial
superstardom, and popularized the following euphemistic phrase
(of brutal coercion): "I'm gonna make him an offer he can't
refuse."
The almost three hour, R-rated saga film (for violence and
graphic language) won three Oscars: Best Picture, Best Actor
(Marlon Brando refused to accept the award) and Best Adapted
Screenplay (Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola). The other
seven nominations included three for Best Supporting Actor
(James Caan, Robert Duvall, and Al Pacino), Best Director, Best
Sound, Best Film Editing, and Best Costume Design.
Gangster films are one of the oldest of film genres (starring
Edward G. Robinson, James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart), emerging
as an influential force in the early 1930s (e.g., Little Caesar
(1930), Public Enemy (1931), and Scarface (1932)). This gangster
film re-invented the gangster genre, elevating the classic
Hollywood gangster film to a higher level by portraying the
gangster figure as a tragic hero. [With the disappearance of the
Production Code, retribution for the gangster's crimes was not
an automatic requirement.] The film is characterized by superb
acting and deep character studies, beautiful photography and
choreography, authentic recreation of the period, a bittersweet
romantic sub-plot, a rich score by Nino Rota, and
superbly-staged portrayals of gangster violence. Its grim, dark
passages and bright exterior scenes are all part of the
beautiful cinematography by Gordon Willis.
Coppola's Godfather Trilogy
The Godfather (1972)
175 minutes Ten Academy Awards nominations and the winner of 3
Oscars: Best Picture, Best Actor (Marlon Brando), and Best
Adapted Screenplay Oscars; the top-grossing film of the year,
and a $134 million box-office hit; set in the mid to late 1940s
NYC with Marlon Brando as Don Vito Corleone, head of the crime
family
The Godfather, Part II (1974)
187 minutes
Eleven Academy Awards nominations, and the winner of 6 Oscars:
Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Robert
DeNiro as the young Don Corleone), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best
Art Direction, and Best Score Oscars; $57 million in box-office
business; both a sequel-continuation and a pre-quel to the 1972
film; now Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) serves as the family's
don in Part II, interspersed with the tale of his father Don
Vito's (Robert DeNiro) rise to power in New York's Little Italy
The Godfather, Part III (1990) With seven Academy Awards
nominations (including the first for cinematographer Gordon
Willis in this trilogy) and zero Oscars, but $66 million in
box-office business; set 20 years after the end of the 1974 film
The Godfather is an insightful sociological study of violence,
power, honor and obligation, corruption, justice and crime in
America. Part I of The Godfather Trilogy centers on the Corleone
crime "family" in the boroughs of New York City in the mid
1940s, dominated at first by aging godfather/patriarch "Don"
Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando in a tremendous, award-winning
acting portrayal that revived his career). A turn-of-the-century
Silician immigrant, he is the head of one of the five
Italian-American "families" that operates a crime syndicate. The
'honorable' crime "family," working outside the system due to
exclusion by social prejudice, serves as a metaphor for the way
business (the pursuit of the American dream) is conducted in
capitalistic, profit-making corporations and governmental
circles.
This epic story traces the history of their close-knit Mafia
family and organization over a ten year period (although the
specific words "Mafia" and "Cosa Nostra" are not found in the
film's script - they were replaced with "the family"). The
presiding, dominant Corleone patriarch, who is threatened by the
rise of modern criminal activities - the drug trade, is
ultimately succeeded by his decent youngest son Michael (Al
Pacino), a US Marine Corps officer who becomes even more
ruthless to persist. Family loyalty and blood ties are
juxtaposed with brutal and vengeful blood-letting and the
inevitable downfall of the family. Romanticized scenes of the
domestic home life of members of the family - a family wedding,
shopping, a baptism, kitchen cooking, etc., are intertwined with
scenes of horrific violence and murder contracts - a total of 23
deaths litter the film. Over 50 scenes involved food and drink.
As the film opens, it is the last Saturday in August, 1945 - the
Japanese have just surrendered. In the opening scene of the
film, the camera (very slowly) pulls back from the face of a man
who is in Corleone's dark home office, where the Don regally and
ruthlessly holds court. He carries on with the crime family
business during his daughter's wedding reception, that is being
held in the bright, sunshiny outdoor veranda of his Long Island
compound. According to Corleone's overseer and surrogate son Tom
Hagen (Robert Duvall): "It's part of the wedding. No Sicilian
can refuse any request on his daughter's wedding day." It is the
custom of the father of the bride to grant favors and promises
to all petitioners and supplicants who pay homage.
Seated in front of the Don's desk is an undertaker named Amerigo
Bonasera (Salvatore Corsitto), speaking in a heavy accent [Vito
Corleone's wife is god-mother to Bonasera's daughter]. Bonasera
desperately pleads for a favor - proper vengeful "justice"
(rather than American justice) for the threatened near-rape and
brutal beating suffered by his daughter (whom he raised "in the
American fashion") by her non-Italian boyfriend and his friend.
The two brutes had received a court date and only a suspended
sentence:
I believe in America. America has made my fortune. And I raised
my daughter in the American fashion. I gave her freedom, but - I
taught her never to dishonor her family. She found a boyfriend,
not an Italian...Two months ago, he took her for a drive, with
another boyfriend. They made her drink whiskey. And then they
tried to take advantage of her. She resisted. She kept her
honor. So they beat her like an animal...She was the light of my
life - my beautiful girl. Now she will never be beautiful
again...I-I went to the police like a good American. These two
boys were brought to trial. The judge sentenced them to three
years in prison - suspended sentence. Suspended sentence! They
went free that very day! I stood in the courtroom like a fool.
And those two bastards, they smiled at me. Then I said to my
wife, 'for justice, we must go to Don Corleone.'
In the underlit office (masterfully photographed), American
justice has failed. Ostensibly, the Don is a gentle, restrained,
62 year old aging man, sitting behind his study's desk. His face
has a bulldog appearance with padded cheeks, and he speaks with
a high-pitched, hoarse, raspy, gutteral mumbling accent. On his
lap is a cat whose head he lovingly and gently strokes. Although
he moves stiffly, he wields enormous lethal power as he
determines the dispensation of real justice - who will be
punished and who will be favored. He is upset that the funeral
director Bonasera hasn't asked for a favor earlier, although he
now asks for murderous revenge (instead of justice). The Don
promises justice - and then asks for a return favor as a friend:
Corleone: Why did you go to the police? Why didn't you come to
me first?
Bonasera: What do you want of me? Tell me anything, but do what
I beg you to do.
Corleone: What is that? (Bonasera whispers his request in the
Don's ear.) That I cannot do.
Bonasera: I will give you anything you ask.
Corleone: We've known each other many years, but this is the
first time you ever came to me for counsel or for help. I can't
remember the last time that you invited me to your house for a
cup of coffee, even though my wife is godmother to your only
child. But let's be frank here. You never wanted my friendship.
And uh, you were afraid to be in my debt.
Bonasera: I didn't want to get into trouble.
Corleone: I understand. You found paradise in America, you had a
good trade, you made a good living. The police protected you and
there were courts of law. And you didn't need a friend like me.
But uh, now you come to me and you say - 'Don Corleone, give me
justice.' But you don't ask with respect. You don't offer
friendship. You don't even think to call me Godfather. Instead,
you come into my house on the day my daughter is to be married,
and you, uh, ask me to do murder for money.
Bonasera: I ask you for justice.
Corleone: That is not justice. Your daughter is still alive.
Bonasera: Let them suffer then, as she suffers. How much shall I
pay you?
Corleone (after standing and turning his back): Bonasera,
Bonasera. What have I ever done to make you treat me so
disrespectfully? If you'd come to me in friendship, then this
scum that ruined your daughter would be suffering this very day.
And if by chance an honest man like yourself should make
enemies, then they would become my enemies. And then they would
fear you.
Bonasera: Be my friend - - Godfather. (The Don shrugs. Bonasera
bows toward the Don and kisses the Don's hand.)
Corleone: Good. (The Don puts his hand on Bonasera's shoulder.)
Someday, and that day may never come, I'll call upon you to do a
service for me. But uh, until that day - accept this justice as
a gift on my daughter's wedding day.
Bonasera: Grazie, Godfather.
Corleone: Prego.
In return for Bonasera's friendship, loyalty, and "service" some
day, Don Corleone arranges with his lawyer ("consigliere" - a
counselor or advisor that is "very important to the family") and
non-Italian ("not a Sicilian"), "adopted" right-hand man Tom
Hagen to have loyal, reliable hit man Clemenza (Richard
Castellano) deal firmly with the young rapists.
The opening wedding sequence brilliantly introduces all the
film's major characters. [This scene was influenced by the
concluding, hour-long banquet scene in the French-Italian
classic film The Leopard (1963) from director Luchino Visconti.]
Don Corleone's newlywed daughter Connie (Talia Shire) is
celebrating her marriage to small-time bookie Carlo Rizzi
(Gianni Russo) with a lavish reception outdoors - it has all of
the traditional Italian-American rituals including Mazurka
music, a family portrait, dancing, wine, lasagna, and the
cutting of the cake.
[The wedding portrait includes 53 year old Vito Corleone and his
48 year old wife Carmella (Morgana King), heir apparent,
twenty-nine year old eldest son "Sonny" Santino (James Caan) and
his wife Sandra (Julie Gregg) and their eight year old twin
daughters (Francesca and Kathryn) and five year old son Frank,
twenty-six year old unmarried son Fredo (John Cazale), eighteen
year old daughter Connie and bridegroom Carlo Rizzi, and
twenty-nine year old Tom Hagen and his twenty-five year old wife
Theresa and their two young boys (Frank and Andrew).]
Worried about not having one of his sons in the family portrait,
the Don asks eldest son Sonny about his younger son: "Where's
Michael?...We're not taking the picture without Michael."
[Michael (Al Pacino), the twenty-five year old Americanized
youngest son - Ivy League and Dartmouth-educated, uninvolved
with his father's activities, has just returned as a
highly-decorated (he was awarded the Navy Cross) Marine captain
from World War II.]
While Sonny flirts with other women and is told to "watch
(him)self" by his wife Sandra, one of Vito's men, Salvatore
Tessio (Abe Vigoda), dances with a little girl on his feet
during the festivities. Connie collects gifts for her bridal
purse (totalling $20,000 to $30,000 "in small bills - cash"
according to Paulie Gatto (John Martino), Corleone's chauffeur).
A rival gang leader named Barzini, one of the guests at the
wedding, tears up a roll of film that one of his men grabs from
a photographer. Out in the parking area, FBI agents have been
taking down license plate numbers - hot-tempered Sonny angrily
confronts the agents:
Hey, get outta here, it's a private party, go on! What is it?
Hey, it's my sister's wedding. (He spits after being shown a
badge, turns, and walks away.) Goddamn FBI, don't respect
nothin.'
Sonny also smashes the camera of another photographer taking
unauthorized photographs.
More business is conducted back in the black interior of
Corleone's office - a pastry shop owner named Nazorine (Vito
Scotti) requests help with immigration difficulties for an
employee named Enzo, who is a suitor and potential husband for
his daughter. Michael, who has broken with tradition, arrives
with his non-Italian, eighteen year old WASP girlfriend Kay
Adams (Diane Keaton), and they begin to dance during the
festivities.
A giant, brutish thug named Luca Brasi (Lenny Montana), one of
Corleone's most trusted enforcers or lieutenants, practices the
tribute he will deliver in his audience with the Don. Then,
after being admitted into the study, Don Corleone listens to the
rehearsed words of congratulations from the loyal and valued,
but simple-minded hit man:
Don Corleone, I am honored and grateful that you have invited me
to your daugh---ter's wedding...on the day of your daughter's
wedding. And I hope that their first child be a masculine child.
I pledge my ever-ending loyalty. (He hands Don Corleone a
cash-filled envelope.) For your daughter's bridal purse.
Shouts of joy are heard from the outdoors party at the arrival
of Hollywood singing idol Johnny Fontane (nightclub and
recording star Al Martino), the Don's godson. [Some have
interpreted the Fontane character as being Frank Sinatra.] Kay
is curious to know how Fontane was helped in his singing career
by Michael's father, so Michael explains how his father
persuasively conducted business in a past incident. He offered
Fontane's bandleader $10,000 for the singer's contract, but
actually ended up paying only $1,000. After one of the film's
most famous lines, Michael reveals his ambitions to escape his
family's Mafia ties:
Michael (as Johnny croons "I Have But One Heart"): Well, when
Johnny was first starting out, he was signed to this personal
service contract with a big band leader. And as his career got
better and better, he wanted to get out of it. Now, Johnny is my
father's godson. And my father went to see this band leader, and
he offered him $10,000 to let Johnny go. But the band leader
said no. So the next day, my father went to see him, only this
time with Luca Brasi. And within an hour, he signed a release,
for a certified check for $1,000.
Kay: How'd he do that?
Michael: My father made him [the bandleader] an offer he
couldn't refuse.
Kay: What was that?
Michael: Luca Brasi held a gun to his head, and my father
assured him that either his brains - or his signature - would be
on the contract...That's a true story...That's my family, Kay.
It's not me.
Michael introduces his shy, weak-charactered brother Fredo to
his girlfriend Kay. The Don asks Hagen to look for his son
Sonny. Hagen calls out "Sonny? Sonny?" at the bottom of the
stairs inside the house and soon realizes that hedonistic Sonny
is having stand-up sex against a doorway in the upstairs bedroom
with mistress Lucy Mancini (Jeannie Linero).
Cream puff Johnny Fontane appears in Vito Corleone's office,
seeking another favor. This time, he is being denied a part in a
picture by the head of a Hollywood studio, producer Jack Woltz
(John Marley). Fontane wants desperately to be in the film, but
is wimpish about what to do to get the part: "It puts me right
back up on top again."
Johnny: A month ago, he bought the movie rights to this book. A
best seller - and the main character, it's a guy just like me,
I, uh, I wouldn't even have to act, just be myself. Oh
godfather, I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do.
Corleone: You can act like a man. (The Don slaps Johnny in the
face.) What's the matter with you? Is this how you turned out? A
Hollywood finochio [a demeaning Italian word meaning homosexual]
that, uh, cries like a woman? (He imitates Johnny's whining.)
'What can I do? What can I do?' What is that nonsense?
Ridiculous. You spend time with your family? (The Don glances
toward Sonny and speaks more to him than Johnny.)
Johnny: Sure I do.
Corleone: Good. 'Cause a man who doesn't spend time with his
family can never be a real man. (To Johnny) Come here...You look
terrible. I want you to eat. I want you to rest a while. And in
a month from now, this Hollywood bigshot's gonna give you what
you want.
Johnny: (protesting) It's too late, they start shooting in a
week.
Corleone: I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse. Now, you
just go outside and enjoy yourself, and uh, forget about all
this nonsense. I want you, I want you to leave it all to me.
The Don instructs advance man Hagen to immediately fly to
Hollywood, California: "I want you to talk to this movie
bigshot, and settle this business for Johnny." Don Corleone goes
out to the wedding festivities, joins everyone in a family
portrait on the yard, and has the traditional and stately first
dance with his newlywed daughter Connie.
dedicated server host
rate web host
web host ratings
web host reseller
Insurance |
ecommerce in Australia
miva ecommerce
car insurance
cheap tickets |
|
