(note: I am creating three new Learning Modules this summer for my Film History class at Georgia State University, on Films of the Seventies, Eighties, and Nineties). I’ve picked five films that I think were the most important films in each of these decades)
FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA AND THE GODFATHER SAGA
This film represented the emergence of a group of new directors in the 1970’s —-others in this new wave included major figures like George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. One of the many benefits to society of the 1960’s Civil Rights Movement was that other racial and ethnic groups also started to feel a renewed sense of pride in their heritage. Francis Ford Coppola was of Italian heritage, and brought that knowledge and experience to the rich visual scenes created in this film.
The Godfather provides a fascinating glimpse into the immigrant experience of the millions of Italian-Americans, many of whom came to American between 1890 and 1920, and settled in cities like New York and Boston. They brought their culture and customs with them, including being both deeply religious and often very violent. It was customary for many Italians to depend on a “Godfather” for favors, protection, and justice, particularly in a political and justice system like the one they found in America that often did not dispense equal justice to immigrants and minorities. In order to get the favors needed from politicians and others, someone like the “Godfather” would “make them an offer that they can’t refuse”, to quote one of the most famous lines from this film.
In one of his greatest roles, Marlon Brando plays Vito Corleone. His performance is wonderfully understated; he talks like he has mothballs in his mouth. Vito is the “Don” or “Head” of the Corleone Crime Family in New York, which has been involved in gambling and prostitution. The tension in the film centers around an interloper named Solazzo, who wants to introduce the drug trade to the activities of the criminal underground. There is dissension among the different crime families about this, and a war breaks out. Vito himself is gunned down in the street by Solazzo’s thugs and barely survives his injuries.
Vito has several sons. “Sonny” (James Caan) is the heir apparent, but is a real hothead with a bad temper. “Tom Hayden” (Robert DuVall) is the adopted son, a very cool headed lawyer who becomes the family “consigliere”, but who will never be seen as an equal to the other brothers because he is not a blood relative. “Fredo” is the oldest brother, but he is weak—a playboy, not really serious, and not seen as a future leader. And then there’s Michael (Al Pacino), the youngest son, who has served his adopted country in World War 2 (fighting against his native homeland of Italy!) and is regarded as a war hero. Michael is the son that Vito has tried to keep out of the family business, and Vito hopes he will become a Congressman or Senator. His girlfriend Kay (Diane Keaton), is both non-Italian and a real outsider to all of the activities that this family is involved in.
Things change after the assassination attempt on Vito. Michael agrees to attend a meeting with Solazzo and the crooked Police Captain McCluskey in order to negotiate a truce, but ends up murdering both of them and then fleeing to Sicily to avoid prosecution.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppjyB2MpxBU
The Killing of Solazzo and McCluskey
While there, he ends up marrying a young Sicilian woman named Appolonia, but Vito’s enemies track him down and end up blowing up a car with this young woman inside.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWAJPB_5rSs
The Death of Appolonia
Upset by this and the other violence between the families, Vito brings all of them together to arrange a truce, and promises not to stand in the way of the other families getting involved in the drug trade. Michael is now able to return from Sicily; he marries Kay, but there is additional dramatic tension in their personal relationship; she does not come from the same cultural background that would have ingrained in her more of an acceptance of what her husband now does for a living.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voNs3aHZmQM
I’m Working for My Father Now, Kay
This is another one of those films with a wonderfully double-edged title—because we come to realize as the film goes on that the title of “The Godfather” also applies to Michael. Much of this dramatic energy/impetus of the film is in the transformation of Michael from the genial war hero to the ruthless new head of this Crime Family, who ends up murdering all of his enemies in the end of the film. The most famous scene in the film is cross-cut between the baptism of Michael’s niece and the murder of all of the Corleone family enemies; the sound of the organ music at the church and the intonation of priest continue under the intercut scenes of the murders.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CDlBLvc3YE
The Baptism Murders
Film: History, Culture, and Change 