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ino (Michael Corleone), James Caan (Sonny), Diane Keaton (Kay Adams).
Sterling Hayden (Captain McClusky)
Synopsis
The Second World War has ended. Don Vito Corleone is in his office receiving mem-
bers of the New York Italian community anxious to enlist his help. With him is Tom
Hagen, whom the Corleone family adopted as a child and who is the Don s lawyer
and confidant. Music comes from the garden, where the wedding celebrations of the
Don s daughter, Connie, to small-time bookie, Carlo, are taking place. The crooner
Johnny Fontane arrives to entertain guests. Among them is Michael, the youngest of
Don s three sons, who has distanced himself from the family s criminal activities and
is home after army service. He recounts to schoolteacher Kay Adams how Johnny
was turned down for a lead role in a film because of his philandering. The Don was
disgusted by such behaviour, but as Johnny s godfather he felt bound to pressure the
producer, Jack Woltz, who awoke one morning to find the severed head of his prize
racehorse in his bed as a warning.
The extent of the Don s criminal empire is revealed at a business meeting. To
avoid upsetting his political contacts, he refuses to protect Sollozzo The Turk in
his drug-dealing activities. The Don survives an assassination attempt when his
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118 " Movie Greats
bodyguard Paulie is off sick. The Don s middle son, Fredo, is driving, but proves
ineffective at handling the situation. The oldest son, the hot-headed Sonny, has Pau-
lie killed for neglecting his duty. Sollozzo is revealed as the instigator of the murder
attempt.
When Michael discovers from a newspaper headline what has happened, his
sense of family loyalty is rekindled. On visiting his father in hospital, he discovers
that the guards have been withdrawn on police orders. He pre-empts another attempt
on the Don s life, shoots Sollozzo and the policeman shielding him and escapes to
Sicily. There he marries a local girl, but before they can move to a safer location, she
is blown up by a bomb intended for him. In New York the feuding continues, with
Sonny being killed in an ambush. The Don tries to halt the internecine war by call-
ing a meeting of family heads. A truce is agreed, the price being that the Don has to
accept the trade in narcotics which the families will control.
Michael returns to New York and seeks out Kay, who accepts his proposal of mar-
riage. The Don cedes the business to Michael, who determines to make it legitimate
and move operations to Las Vegas. The ailing Don warns his son that whoever comes
to arrange a business meeting with the other families will betray him.
The predicted invitation comes at the Don s funeral. Michael is set on revenge. He
is godfather to Connie and Carlo s child, and the killing of his opponents takes place
during the christening. Carlo is garrotted when he admits his treachery. Michael s
course is set.
Cultural Context
Paramount took an option on Mario Puzo s novel before it became a best-seller.
The project was thrust upon a reluctant and untried Francis Ford Coppola after Elia
Kazan, Arthur Penn, Peter Yates and Fred Zinnemann turned it down, the most fre-
quently cited reason being that the story glorified the Mafia.1 Paramount made a
shrewd investment: the rights cost US$50,000 and box-office takings amounted
to US$86 million by December 1977, making The Godfather the company s most
profitable film till that date.2 It remains the top-rated film among IMDb voters.3
Critics were initially less enthusiastic. Among the doubters were Judith Crist, who
dismissed the film as immoral, Stanley Kauffmann, who complained of its implicit
endorsement of Mafia methods and excessive length, and Arthur Schlesinger Jr, who
wrote in Vogue that The Godfather had swelled into an overblown, pretentious, slow
and ultimately tedious three-hour quasi-epic .4 John Russell Taylor of The Times
displayed less strong feelings: It is exactly the kind of holding, not too demand-
ing entertainment you would love to drop into by chance and see at your local. 5
A. D. Murphy of Variety was equally tepid, finding the film overlong and occasion-
ally confusing. His conclusion was that While never so placid as to be boring, it is
The Godfather (US, 1972) " 119
never so gripping as to be superior screen drama. 6 Vincent Canby of the New York
Times was more enthusiastic:
Taking a best-selling novel of more drive than genius (Mario Puzo s The Godfather),
about a subject of something less than common experience (the Mafia), involving an
isolated part of one very particular ethnic group (first-generation and second-generation
Italian-Americans), Francis Ford Coppola has made one of the most brutal and moving
chronicles of American life designed within the limits of popular entertainment.7
In 1992, The Godfather joined the Sight and Sound list of the best films, since when it
has retained its popularity with professionals and public alike. In 2006, it came second
among the top screenplays chosen by the Writers Guild of America, being beaten
only by Casablanca.8 Desson Howe of the Washington Post is representative of cur-
rent critical opinion: With Puzo, [Coppola] forged an epic tragedy about America,
capitalism, family greed, treachery and love. He showed us with almost Shakespear-
ian gravitas the errors of hasty vengeance and the wisdom of assured leadership. He
gave us a great American picture, full of incredible images and lasting moments. 9
Subjective Impression
The film opens with a man seeking justice for his daughter after her attackers have
received a suspended sentence. The camera draws back from his face to reveal the
back of the seated man he is addressing. When the shot switches to the visitor s view-
point, we see the face of the seated man, who is stroking his cat like a James Bond
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