It’s been 50 years since the Corleone family graced the silver screen in a gripping epic of the ages. Yet the film still retains its mafia themed prowess and reigns over a sea of Italian gangster films just like Don Vito Corleone did – with an iron fist. Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather is a stellar film adaptation of the book written by pulp magazine editor Mario Puzo, which tells the tale of an elderly Don who bequeaths his clandestine empire to his golden child. Besides its double-digit Oscar nominations and three Academy Award wins including best picture, this film-noir changed the landscape of cinema forever by making the audience an offer they couldn’t refuse.
Apart from the film’s carefully constructed plot laced with deceit, grotesque violence and revenge, and the grainy, warm-toned cinematography, the 70s crime-drama also strengthened the ‘Hollywood Renaissance’, commonly known as the ‘American New Wave’. According to Michalis Kokonis’ paper on ‘Hollywood’s Major Crisis and the American Film “Renaissance”’, the ‘New Wave’ lasted from the 60s to the 80s and pioneered a new generation of talented, independent filmmakers who subsequently spearheaded a new breed of movies, sporting a “radical and fresh outlook”. These films ripped apart the fallacy of the ‘American dream’, during a tumultuous time of the Hippie counterculture movement. They showed people the ills of the country through a camera lens.
Similarly, The Godfather, which made its debut in 1972, reflected the same. It gave the audience a panoramic view of the tough life of an immigrant through Don Vito Corleone’s pursuits (Marlon Brando), in what was thought to be an idyllic America. In the first movie, the audience is greeted with Bonasera (Salvatore Corsitto), a law-abiding citizen who had no ties to the mob. He visits Vito in the hopes that he will correct the failings of the police department which let the men that assaulted his daughter walk free. This is symbolic of law-abiding immigrants that are pushed into a life of crime or are forced to seek out alternative measures due to racism in institutions and pervasive unequal treatment during the 70s. This is a fatal hit to the image of the ‘American dream’, which according to Oxford Languages, is “the ethos by which equality of opportunity is available to any American, allowing the highest aspirations and goals to be achieved.” The film calls out the fact that equal opportunities are in fact not available to all. It also poses the question – is the dream that so many immigrants come to America for, really available to everyone?
Additionally, in the first two movies, you see the young patriarch, Vito’s descent into crime solely to help his neighbours and himself escape a mafioso threat. This could almost make his crimes justifiable as he does so for the “greater good” – another American ideal that has time and again been held in high stead and dramatised by cinema. It can be argued that Vito too toed the line of the ‘American Dream’ because of this and even achieved his “highest aspirations” by having a family alongside a booming business. But this is not viewed as the typical white-picket-fence fantasy seen as pure and good even though principally it aligns with the ‘American dream’. We even see this very dream being shattered further by the never-ending cycle of crime when Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) becomes the godfather and takes over the family business.
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Other than questioning the rhetoric of the dream, the film also popularised this trope – that of the ageing heir, who must hand over their dynasty to a reluctant child. Michael, an army man, renounces his father’s business when speaking with his demure girlfriend Kay Adams (Diane Keaton), but as the film progresses, circumstances arise where Michael must step up and take over. In a scene where father and son discuss the impending threat of a tussle for power, Vito tells Michael he never envisaged the gangster life for his favourite son but rather wanted him to be “Senator Corleone”. This trope of the hesitant heir being forced to wield power they never intended to have, is still used in cinema today. It is evident in films like The King, where Henry V of England is forced to bear the crown, despite his lack of interest, after the death of his brother and ailing father. In Aquaman, Arthur Curry initially has zero interest in being King of Atlantis with his mother presumed dead but has to rise above his self-interest. It can even be seen in TV series like The Crown where Queen Elizabeth succeeds to the throne after her father’s death and the Abdication by her uncle, Edward VIII.
The Godfather also ushered in a new age of Italian gangster films in which leading mafioso roles were given to those of Italian descent, like Al Pacino in Donnie Brasco and Robert De Niro in Once Upon a Time in America. Since it was also one of the few films directed by an Italian, about Italians, and even based on a book written by an Italian, the movie did not include the stereotypical exaggerated funny accents and avoided portraying the kingpins as loud and obnoxious individuals. This was another stereotype propagated by films in the 60s like The Secret of Santa Vittoria (1969) and What Did You Do In The War, Daddy? (1966). The Godfather reinvented the typical gangster by reflecting a softer side to the Sicilian mafia, where family was prized above all and omertà was a way of life. This better side to the underworld was also highlighted in Vito when he refused to enter the drug business, and Michael with his many attempts to legitimise the business.
The film gave the audience three things: it opened their eyes to the fact that the ‘American Dream’ was not inherently equal, it revealed in a riveting tale that there was more to Italians than the stereotypes, and finally, it gave them Al Pacino. As I mentioned before, it made audiences an offer they just couldn’t refuse.
For a movie with lesser-known names in leading roles at the time, The Godfather achieved an incredible feat, as can be seen by its accolades. It also killed it at the box office and is still doing so 50 years later, on the precipice of its golden jubilee by scoring the ‘Top Weekend Box Office Average’ in February, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Coppola’s creation paved the way for future mobster themed films which took a page out of The Godfather, some of them being A Bronx Tale and Goodfellas. The film has lived up to its title, by becoming the godfather of every Italian mobster film, and the yardstick which they are measured against but have never measured up to.