Moviegoers had little reason to expect much from The
Godfather when it was released in 1972.
The film was based on a popular though not best-selling novel, made
by a relatively inexperienced director, and performed by mostly
unknown actors, plus one, Marlon Brando, who was considered well
past his prime—all in all, not exactly the classic Hollywood formula
for success. Defying the odds, The Godfather went
on to become one of the most popular movies of all time. It gave
birth to two sequels, the first of which is a masterpiece in its
own right, spawned countless clones, launched the film careers of
several significant actors, and changed forever what an audience
would expect when it entered a theater.
Francis Ford Coppola, the director of the Godfather trilogy,
was one of many young directors who came to prominence in the 1970s and
challenged the old Hollywood system. His contemporaries included
Martin Scorsese, Roman Polanski, George Lucas, and Stephen Spielberg,
among others. This attack on old Hollywood is announced right at
the beginning of The Godfather when the lawyer Tom
Hagen asks studio owner Jack Woltz to cast the singer Johnny Fontane
in a movie. Woltz seems classic L.A.-slick, and we are not surprised
when he says no. But we are surprised when we learn why. We expect
that Woltz’s excuse will be that Johnny is old and washed-up or
that he lacks acting talent, but instead, Woltz says that Johnny
is perfect for the part, which is precisely the reason he doesn’t
get it. Woltz blames Johnny for stealing a pretty young actress
from him and refuses to do anything that will help him rehabilitate
his career. In his exchange with Tom, Woltz comes across as materialistic,
crass, bad-tempered, vengeful, and bigoted, but Coppola hints that
his greatest crime is that he isn’t a real artist. He is in film
production only for the sex and the money. Whether he makes a good
film is barely a concern.
Coppola’s criticism of the Hollywood system goes well
beyond this ugly depiction of a Hollywood producer. The Godfather trilogy criticizes
the content and structure of typical Hollywood films. By the 1970s,
moviegoers were more film literate than those of earlier generations
and demanded more for the price of their tickets. One way to appeal
to an audience of both sophisticated and unsophisticated viewers
is through what critic Robert Ray calls a “corrected” genre film.
A corrected genre film has its share of action sequences that appeal
to naïve viewers, but it also includes new stylistic devices and
an irony-laced plot that appeal to a more critical audience. In Ray’s
analysis of Hollywood films, The Godfather is the
paradigmatic corrected genre film. To the naive audience, Michael
Corleone seems like a heroic outsider battling against the corrupt
system—in effect the hero of a Western set in New York City. A more
sophisticated audience sees Michael as duplicitous, immoral, and
cruel, and will be repulsed by him. But many people would argue
that The Godfather isn’t corrected enough. Subsequent
gangster films, such as Scarface, Goodfellas,
and Donnie Brasco, as well as the popular TV series The
Sopranos, all try to further “correct” The Godfather by
presenting a grittier, less glamorous view of Mafia life. But this process
of criticizing the myth of the Mafia really began in Coppola’s films.
Indeed, the most successful correction of The Godfather is
probably The Godfather Part II. (The analysis section
will explore this argument in greater depth.)
In addition to spawning numerous “corrected” gangster
films, The Godfather’s legacy also includes its
amazing cast, with actors such as Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Diane
Keaton, James Caan, and Robert Duvall, who have taken their places
among the most successful performers of the past thirty years. No
less significant is The Godfather’s rehabilitation
of the late, incomparable Marlon Brando. Francis Ford Coppola, the
director and brains of the entire operation, would himself become
a Hollywood fixture, going on to direct classics such as The
Conversation and Apocalypse Now. Certain
filmic elements, such as the use of montage in The Godfather or of
underexposure in the cinematography of The Godfather Part
II, have proven highly influential in the decades since.
Lastly, it should be pointed out that the Godfather films
took part in the larger social discourse of their times. In 1972 and 1974,
when The Godfather and The Godfather Part
II were released, respectively, America was experiencing
much turmoil and change. Coming on the heels of the turbulent 1960s,
while the Vietnam War and the culture wars raged, the Godfather films
took part in the New Left critique, exposing the hypocrisy of institutions
of power. The Godfather highlights police corruption
and the questionable morality of politicians who send their citizens
abroad to fight wars. Political corruption is a major theme of The
Godfather Part II. The Godfather Part III brings
to light the tensions between the worldly and spiritual concerns
of the Catholic Church.
The true genius of the Godfather films
is that they are historically and socially specific genre films
and, at the same time, monumental epics exploring universal themes.
Their depiction of the experiences of Sicilian-Americans in the
twentieth century speaks to the experience of all American immigrant
communities. As exciting and suspenseful as any Hollywood action
flick, they are also dramas with as much pathos and emotional weight
as any film can have. Today the Godfather films
are classic reference points in American culture, but they startled
audiences when they were released because they combined styles and
genres in a completely new way. That the films look so familiar
to us now is the ultimate proof of their tremendous influence.
