Best Picture Winner: 1972

The Godfather (1972)

How familiar the events and characters of The Godfather are. I don’t know how many times I have seen this film. But I do realize now that this is my favorite film of all time. How can this be? It asks us to enter a world where a good business deal can mean murder. It wants us to care about the lives of the Corleone family because they are the “good” gangsters who are responding to threats from the “bad” gangsters. The main character’s arc is the transformation of a man who wanted nothing to do with his family’s way of life into a more ruthless head of the family than his father ever was. How are we supposed to feel when, in the film’s final scene, the door closes and a new generation of violence has taken hold? How I absolutely love this film.

New York, 1945: on his only daughter’s wedding day, Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando), as is customary, is granting audiences with those who want a favor from the Godfather, an affectionate term for the head of a mafia family. An undertaker wants revenge for a sexual attack on his daughter. A baker doesn’t want his daughter’s boyfriend, who also works in the bakery, deported. Vito’s own godson, singer Johnny Fontane (Al Martino), wants a part in a movie that will put his career back on track. Vito will grant these wishes in return for the promise of a favor to be named at a later date.

Attending this party is Vito’s youngest son, Michael (Al Pacino), a decorated war hero who is there with his girlfriend Kay (Diane Keaton). He assures her that he has no interest in this life, even though he cares for his family very deeply. But when an unsuccessful assassination attempt is made on his father’s life, Michael is willing to do his part to avenge the family. He fought for his country in World War II. He will now step to the front lines in the burgeoning war between two powerful mafia families. Michael’s actions do more than send a message to his father’s would-be murderers. They put him on a path that leads him to the honored position his father now holds.

While there are plenty out there who would argue the 1974 sequel is the better film, this viewer prefers the 1972 classic. The main reason for this is watching the evolution of the idealistic Michael from a sweet, well-meaning young man into someone who will rule the family with an iron fist. In a heartbreaking scene Vito tells him, “I never wanted any of this for you, Michael.” The Don imagined Michael a senator, governor, or even president. Now Michael is caught up in war, unable to distance himself from it. After a years-long exile in Sicily (the result of Michael’s vengeance) during which Don Vito has made peace with all the families, Michael returns home and takes Kay as his wife, promising he will make the Corleones “completely legitimate” in five years. But by this time he has seen and experienced too much. During his exile, Michael married, only then to witness his bride’s murder as the result of a car bomb meant for him. He enjoys the protection afforded him and also the respect his name commands. Upon his return he is ready to assume the title of Don Corleone, as his father’s health has deteriorated. And we see him lie to Kay’s face, in a way we could not have imagined based on their gentle exchange at the opening wedding scene, about his role in his brother-in-law’s death. It is a fascinating and frightening transformation. But also one that is understandable given the events that occur. At the end of the film, the door has truly closed on the life that Kay had envisioned for herself and Michael.

Rich in character and incident, The Godfather’s attention to plot details, no matter how small they seem, will have payoffs later in the film. In the opening scene for instance, the undertaker must later make Sonny Corleone (James Caan) presentable after he is horrifically gunned down. (“Look how they messed with my boy.”) The baker’s apprentice Vito saves from deportation assists Michael in scaring off those who plan a second attempt on Vito’s life at the hospital. The tensions and fights between Connie Corleone (Talia Shire) and her husband Carlo (Gianni Russo) lay the foundation for how Sonny will be murdered. And the actions in this film will also impact the future installments, such as when brother Fredo (John Cazale) admonishes Michael in front of Moe Green (Alex Rocco), the co-owner of a Nevada casino Michael wants to own outright. Fredo will betray Michael again in The Godfather Part II (1974), with fatal consequences.

Director Francis Ford Coppola visualizes the hypocrisy of the Corleone family (and mafia families in general) by contrasting sacrament against sin. While Connie has just been a part of the sacrament of marriage, her father is giving approval for criminal acts. While Michael is present at the Baptism of his godchild, Connie’s son, Michael’s orders to murder the heads of the rival mafia families are carried out. The sequels would follow the formula established here, whereby the Corleones would accumulate enemies and traitors, all of whom would be murdered during the climax. But none would match the impact that is achieved here by crosscutting between the Baptism and executions.

The sequels would involve the Corleones in even more dramatic confrontations. In Part II, Michael will be subject to a senate investigation. In Part III, the Corleones pursuit of purchasing stock in a company co-owned by the Vatican involve them in the assassination of Pope John Paul I. But the more intimate nature of The Godfather makes it the most emotionally involving of the three films, although such an observation is hardly meant as a negative comment on the other films, especially Part II.

Visually speaking the film is seductive. Gordon Willis’ sumptuous photography is as successful capturing the beauty and splendor of the wedding reception as it is the dark and lonely corridors of the hospital where Don Vito awaits isolated. There is an intimate feel to the private conversations between Michael and his father, or Michael and Kay, or the gathering at the family table where Michael tells Sonny about the former’s plan to avenge the attack on their father. Add to this the costumes, the art direction, the iconic music and The Godfather is as powerful technically as it is emotionally.

I come back to how is it possible to care so much what happens to these people who should be housed in jail cells not luxury homes. The secret, I believe, is introducing Michael as someone who never planned on being a gangster, something the sequels cannot possibly do. It’s easy to sympathize with someone who is torn between their love of their family and what their family chooses as their livelihood. Michael and his siblings were born into this, unlike their father whom, we learn in Part II, essentially chose to pursue a life of crime instead of working low-paying jobs. It’s not hard to understand Michael's outrage at the murder attempt, or his further outrage that police are being paid off to allow for a second attempt. He’s been backed into a corner. If someone doesn’t stand up for his father then Vito will surely be killed. As a strategist he understands he is the most likely one to have the chance to do what he feels is a necessary evil to protect his father and family. But he is answering immorality with immorality. And there is no turning back. How we feel for Michael in these earlier moments. How we loathe him before it is all over.

The Godfather continues to rate very highly on lists such as AFI and Sight and Sound as one of the truly great motion pictures. That the film explores the evolution of evil is beside the point. It starts with a character who is full of optimism and whose future is promising. Then we watch as he takes a u-turn towards the abyss. And we cannot look away.