The Godfather Part 1 - Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
The first words spoken in The Godfather are “I believe in America”. We hear these words before we see the face of the man speaking them. That man is Amerigo Bonasera, an undertaker. Bonasera is an Italian immigrant and he found success in the land of opportunity by doing everything he was told to do. Despite Amerigo’s first words in the film, at the time we meet him he has painfully learned why he should not believe in America. His daughter was assaulted here, and the justice system was set up to protect the boys who did it.
We believe Bonasera is the man he says he is. We watch him refuse the whiskey that’s put in front of him as if doing so will further prove to the audience that he is an upright member of the American community. But in the same moments we learn of his good citizenship we learn he doesn’t want to maintain that because it has stopped serving him. He wants revenge. He wants blood for the violence done to his daughter. And so here we meet the man on the other side of the desk, the criminal Bonasera has always avoided to stay out of trouble. Don Vito understands Bonasera’s position. “You found paradise in America” he says. And then he orders violence done.
Bonasera’s story has very little to do with The Godfather’s narrative. In the opening scene Don Vito foretells a time when Bonasera will have to repay this favor. When that moment finally does come, and Bonasera briefly reenters the film, all he has to do is his profession. He’s not asked to commit a crime. He merely has to make the body of Sonny Corleone look presentable.
Yet Bonasera’s opening monologue brings us into the world of The Godfather. It introduces the film’s themes and we’re about to learn precisely what they are. America can be a rotten place and good, vulnerable people sometimes must do rotten things to survive here. Francis Ford Coppola, the film’s director wanted The Godfather to skewer American capitalism, to show how this country turns human interactions into cold calculations. Vito Corleone introductory shot sees him emerging from darkness, a manifestation of evil. Throughout the film we see the Corleone family kill each other or cause each other’s deaths in the name of business. This behavior isn’t limited to the family either. Instead it’s everywhere. The square-jawed cop in the mob’s pocket, the predatory film executive, the abusive husband, the turncoat mob soldiers. Greed and lust for power turn all the characters into monsters. At the meeting of the Five Families, Barzini cracks a joke about how “we are not Communists” and everyone laughs.
The Godfather’s narrative ends up centering on Michael Corleone’s transformation, showing how a single person can go from good to evil. He begins the film somewhat amused but also repulsed by his background. Soon though he’s lecturing Kay his future wife about how naïve she is to think that “senators and presidents don’t have men killed”. The trouble with The Godfather is Michael is so easy to root for that we almost miss the moment he becomes truly demonic. By the time of the famous baptism/murder montage near the film’s end Michael is a true force of evil. Basically, The Godfather tells in three hours the same kind of corruption of innocence story that Breaking Bad examined across its five seasons.
Yet most people don’t consider the Godfather film that’s trying to break down the American way. In fact it’s quite the opposite. All its characters are presented as eternal archetypes set against the backdrop of a mythic American saga. Aside from the criminal nature of much of the film the values that keep being pushed to the surface are the importance of family and tradition and how with the right work ethic and intelligence you can be an American success story. Think about Fredo Corleone. The character’s name has become a cultural shorthand in the US for someone who constantly screws up. All things considered he's one of the least evil members of the Corleone family. He’s just the least competent. It’s telling that Americans agree the worst character in the Godfather is the one who can’t handle the family business.
The Godfather is a masterclass in cultural mythmaking. Every bit of the film feels iconic and thanks to that so much of the story has found its way into the bones of American culture. Luca Brasi literally accomplishes almost nothing in the film but because of how other characters talk about him (almost like western gunfighters or tall tale characters do) many Americans know his name very well. Marlon Brando still considered by many to be the greatest actor to ever live plays a figure that commands the same type of reverence that the film’s younger actors would have paid Brando himself. The opening scene at the wedding is the perfect introduction to this family and how they interact with one another and how the world of the film works. When Michael goes to Sicily it feels like another century but we still believe every frame. The film never rings false.
At the time of its release, The Godfather acted as tour through recent American history. The film’s story starts in 1945 but that’s only 27 years before it came out. A story set in 1996 doesn’t seem all that exotic, does it? The film spoke to a growing cynicism that was spreading in America. Watching the glory of post World War 2 America, the magic of the 1950’s fall away into the turmoil the country was seeing in the ‘60’s and early 70’s. The idea that maybe the American dream was a false bill of goods.
Shortly before his death, Don Vito Corleone looks at the life he’s built for himself and his family. One of his sons has been horribly murdered. Another is pampered and useless. Another has been forced to take up the violent life that he was supposed to transcend. “I refused to be a fool, dancing on the string held by all those big shots,” the Don says. But in that refusal, he’s simply become a big shot himself. That’s an American tragedy.
