Apparently, the ‘moving all day’ also included ‘forgetting to set up a phone line at the new apartment’ which results in ‘no internet access at home’. Therefore, I let myself into work this sunny Saturday afternoon, and now I have multiple T3s all to myself. Booya, or something like that. On the plus side, all of the extra time has let me watch The Godfather over and over and over.
I admit I wanted to get through Citizen Kane and Casablanca to see The Godfather. I don’t necessarily think it’s a better movie than the above two, but I confess I found it a more enjoyable movie. Citizen Kane was an intellectual exercise, almost totally devoid of emotion. Casablanca was the opposite - the plot was simplistic, but the emotion it conveyed was remarkable to behold. The Godfather balances the two.
As an example, the movie opens with the wedding of Don Corleone’s daughter. Outside, people are dancing, eating, celebrating; inside, the Don is receiving guests and agreeing to dispense justice for Bonasera the undertaker. Emotion outside, business-like intellect inside. (On an aside, the lines that Luca Brasi flubbed (“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.”) were accidentally flubbed, as the actor was nervous about being in a scene with Marlon Brando. Coppola liked the nervousness so much, that he added a scene with Brasi rehearshing his lines beforehand)
The two sons (discounting Fredo, who always felt like a third wheel to me) are similarly divided. Sonny is bullheaded with his emotion - note his reactions when his sister Connie was beaten, and how it resulted in his death - whereas Michael rarely if ever shows emotion. (The death of Apollonia, protecting his father in the hospital) The christening of his godson is the ultimate display of his dispassionate nature towards his life - and one of my favorite cinematic sequences of all time. While he’s in the church with his sister, godson, the priest, et al, he eliminates the heads of the Five Families. The cinematography is brilliant.
Probably the thing that sticks with me the most about this movie is the subject matter. In Casablanca, the “good guys” win out, and it’s a general feel-good movie. Michael is an antihero. He returns from the war, a decorated Marine captain, uninvolved with the family. After describing how his father had helped Johnny Fontane, he tells Kay “That’s my family, Kay. It’s not me.” When he’s accosted outside the hospital by Captain McCluskey, another officer says “The kid’s clean, Captain. He’s a war hero. He’s never been busted for the rackets.” At that point, Michael loses all traditional heroic qualities. He arranges to murder Sollozzo and McCluskey, and begins his transformation into the intellectual Don that we see at the end of the movie.
Why do we cheer for Vito, Michael, Tom, and the family? I’ve yet to watch the movie with someone and hear them hoping that they fail or suffer. Everyone wants to see Michael succeed, they want to see the family avenge the deaths of Sonny and Vito. But These Are Not Good People. Do we identify with them? Is it just cheering for someone by default, given that there’s no real alternative presented? (Moe Greene, Barzini, Tattaglia are all just as corrupt, and Jack Woltz only appears momentarily.) One of my friends argued that Kay was the sympathetic character, given that she’s drawn into the family despite her fears and misgivings, encouraged by Michael’s protestation that the family will be totally legitimate in five years. The scene at the end of the movie reinforces the feeling that Kay is a sympathetic character-
Following the dealings of the family is fascinating intellectually, and watching the cold, callous emotions of Michael is also fascinating. My question still remains, though- what is it about The Godfather that draws us in?