Genre
The Godfather conforms to the key generic conventions of the gangster film: the tragic narrative, the pursuit of the American dream, the morality tale message, and the documentary style, which are important features of the film. However, what makes The G a significant contribution to the genre, and to cinema as a whole, is the originality of its approach.
The tragic narrative in The G takes on the dimensions of classical tragedy. The director, Francis Ford Coppola, suggested as much when he said that it was a “romance about a king with three sons”(modern King Lear). Don Corleone’s is similar to Lear’s in that he has three offspring to whom he can pass on his mantle of “Godfather”, but not all are worthy. The eldest, Fredo, is a womanizing drunk and incompetent buffoon who when his father is shot before his eyes, merely collaps in tears on the curbside. Sonny, the cond son, is strong, masculine, and good-natured, but he is too emotional and impetuous, and is killed as a result. The only viable candidate for the role of “Godfather” id Michael, but he has reno诸葛弩
unce the criminal side of the family—and so Don Corleone’s tragedy is that he must pass on his “crown” to an unwilling heir. Michael’s story is, in turn, equally tragic:whole world around He is a great man with great potential, but through his love for his father he compromis his principles and ends up losing everything important in life—love, intimacy, friendship, peace of mind, and ultimately (in The Godfather III) his family as well. At it’s core, the tragedy of the gangster embodies the most basic paradox of success—a paradox centered on the fact that success always arous the hatred that is its undoing. “Success is always the establishment of an individual pre-eminence that must be impod on others, in whom it automatically arou hatred. The gangster is doomed becau he is under an obligation to succeed.”
The motive for all this is the pursuit of the “American Dream”—a belief that the poorest man can, with hard work and persistence, ri to the presidency. Don Corleone was pursuing this dream when he came to America from Sicily; he failed becau he remained esntially a criminal. Michael pursues the dream on behalf of his dead father and hopes to make the family organization completely legal. He, too, fails as one crime le
ads to another, and he finds it impossible to extricate himlf.
This feeds into the “morality tale” message of The G, which could be simplified as, “However well intentioned you may be, and however much material benefit it brings, crime will entrap you and destroy the things that are valuable to you.” What makes The G so interesting and original, though, is that this “moral” is complicated by the main character, who are never purely evil, but are instead prented as full human beings with ambitions, affections, weakness, and idiosyncrasies.
Character
The Character of the Gangster
The Revolution in Characterization in The Godfatherqualification |
Classic Gangster Characterllvm | The Gangster Character in The G |
Without culture, without manners, without leisure | Don C and Michael are both cloly attached to the culture of Sicily |
Lonely and melancholy | The loneliness of Don C and M is alleviated by their cloness to each other |
Expansive and noisy | Don C and M are both quiet, thoughtful, and introspective |
Violent and may lo control at any time | Don C and M are defined by their capacity for lf-control |
Trying to “get ahead” and is therefore never satisfied | parents Don C and M look forward to a day when their organization will become legal and they can get out of crime. |
No need of love (associating with loo women and prostitutes) | flight Don C and M are family men; Don C believes that only men who pay attention to their families can be “real men” |
Material posssions are central to his being—they define him—and are ostentatiously displayedreality是什么意思 | Don C and M both reject ostentation; their identities are defined not by posssions but by responsibilities. |
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Although Coppola has claimed that he wanted to analyze the wickedness of the Corleone family as a whole and of Michael in particular, audiences have consistently warmed to the tragedy and thwarted nobility of a man who sacrifices everything—including his own principles—in defen of his family. As David Thomson writes, “Michael is Satan, but he impress as a wounded angel; the lf-destructive criminality turns into the lf-abu of a lapd saint.”无氟冰箱
Method Acting in The Godfather
Marlon Brando’s performance as Don Corleone is a classic example of Method acting in action. Brando met with real members of the Mafia in order to find out their distinctive speech patterns and modeled Don Corleone’s 皇家马德里队歌gravelly voice on a recording of one of them. He deliberately lo weight to play the part of the forty-six year old Don in the first scene, and would stay “in character” for long periods when on t, walking around mumbling to himlf as an old man like Don Corleone might. He even refud to memorize his lines, preferring instead to leave cue cards pasted all over the t. When C
oppola confronted him about it, Brando defended himlf in true Method style, “Real people don’t know what they’re going to stay. Their words often come as a surpri. That’s the way it should be in a movie.”
It is an exemplary Method Acting performance and contributes to the Don’s aura of gravity and understated power. Brando express with great naturalness the Don’s smallest and most natural actions (stroking a cat, scratching his face, feeding the fish, peeling fruit); he captures the hesitations, paus, mumblings, and unfinished lines that are the hallmarks of an old man’s speech. Brando’s Don Corleone is a living, breathing, fully believable Godfather—a man with the power to dispo of human life, but also a man with idiosyncrasies like anyone el.
Style
Continuity Editing and Montage
Most of the film obrves the principles of continuity editing to convey a n of realism.
stacking
However, the “baptism” quence at the end suddenly abandons that technique and adopts instead the technique of dialectical montage: The film alternates rapidly between shots of Michael’s godson being baptized and shots of Michael’s enemies being executed. The discontinuity between the images is dialectical, in the n that it demands the audience generate a “higher level” understanding of the way they relate to each other.
