The Godfather turns 52: When the gangster genre turned political
Since its release, The Godfather has gone on to be regarded as one of the greatest and most influential films ever made. Its cultural and aesthetic significance also ensured that it was selected for preservation in the US National Film Registry in 1990
Fifty-two years ago on this day, Don Coppola and Don Puzo made us an offer that we could not refuse.
Since its release, The Godfather has gone on to be regarded as one of the greatest and most influential films ever made. Its cultural and aesthetic significance also ensured that it was selected for preservation in the US National Film Registry in 1990.
But The Godfather wasn't just a movie. Soon into its release, it would morph into a political statement, a lifestyle and even a blueprint.
It also birthed the gangster genre as we now know it.
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The movie, which broke blockbuster records during release in 1972, was nominated for seven Golden Globe awards, and almost secured a Grammy for the best original score (you have all heard it!), won the best film in the Academy Awards and even created one of the most memorable moments in Oscar history.
The key to what made The Godfather what it was wasn't just Al Pacino. It had a lot to do with Marlon Brando essaying the role of Vito Corleone, the godfather.
Marlon Brando, who was given the Best Actor award for his portrayal of Don Corleone, refused to accept the award.
On his behalf, he sent Sacheen Little Feather, a Native American woman, who spoke the now immortal lines: "Marlon Brando very regretfully cannot accept this award because of the treatment of American Indians in this country to-day on the television, on reruns and recent happenings at Wounded Knee."
Just a month ago, Native Americans had laid siege to Wounded Knee, a tiny prairie township in South Dakota. This was the location for the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890, when American soldiers had shot and killed 3,000 Lakota people in the deadliest mass shooting in American history.
Marlon Brando had often spoken up for Native American community. True to his Don Corleone character, Brando stuck to his ideals and principles.
What is notable is, faced with the ugly truth of American imperialism, the glitterati – the who's who of American culture – met the message with a barrage of boos.
Sacheen's face, already marked with nervousness, turned. An applause, however, soon followed.
Brando, who by then did not need an Oscar, had made an important statement beyond the screen.
And also back on the screen.
Nothing personal, just business
Early on in the movie, Don Corleone is approached by Virgil "The Turk" Sollozzo, who wants the don to broker a drug deal for him.
"Don Corleone, I need a man who has powerful friends. I need a million dollars in cash. I need, Don Corleone, those politicians you carry in your pocket, like so many nickels and dimes," Virgil says.
Although Corleone appreciates the compliment, he politely refuses the couple of millions dollar deal, since drugs "is a dirty business."
While this is just Brando living up to a certain standard, the movie itself is also rife with political messaging.
Consider the opening scene.
Bonasera stands before Don Corleone on the day of his daughter's wedding.
"I believe in America. America has made my fortune. And I raised my daughter in the American fashion. I gave her freedom, but -- I taught her never to dishonour her family," he says.
He then goes on to recount how his daughter's boyfriend, with his friends, tried to get her drunk and take advantage of her. After she refused, she was beaten "like an animal."
Bonasera asks Don Corleone for justice.
At this point, Marlon Brando creates another stand-out improvisation by picking up a stray cat which had strolled into the scene.
In the high definition version of the movie, one can actually hear the cat purr as Brando delivers a slew of memorable lines.
Among those, he says, "You found paradise in America, had a good trade, made a good living. The police protected you; and there were courts of law. And you didn't need a friend of me."
In one scene, The Godfather lays bare the impermanence of the so-called American dream.
Don Corleone then offers to help Bonasera, "as a friend". The scene then cuts to the flashy wedding, where movie stars and celebrities all congregate.
'Blood is a big expense'
In 2024, this movie seems like any other gangster movie littered with the gaudiness and braggadocio that should come along with it.
But in 1972, the messaging was entirely different. Before The Godfather, American gangster movies never strayed from the obvious whites and greys.
Crime, the underbelly of the American world, was restricted to the underclass only. It wasn't a get rich quick depiction soaked in money and glamour. In fact, if there was money to be had, there would also come a price to pay.
The Godfather, however, focused more on how crime COULD and DID pay. This glorification of crime, and the complementary violence, would go on to be panned down, but it certainly set a standard.
It also spoke loudly about how the American dream, each character was pursuing, was steeped in crony capitalism – in one scene Don Emilio Barzini, from a rival family, says "Don Corleone had all the judges and the politicians in New York and he must share them."
And this didn't escape anyone at the time of its release.
Speaking about the movie in 2014, Coppola described it as a metaphor for America.
But this metaphor for America, or the greater world, wasn't just down to economics.
If there's sex, there will be sexism. The Godfather was no different in this regard.
'I hope that their first child, be a masculine child'
It wasn't even the time of the movie or the movie's setting.
In upholding traditional values, the issue of sexism was hard to avoid for both Copolla and Puzo. But hard to avoid didn't mean it was impossible.
The love interest of Micheal Corleone (Al Pacino) was Kay Adams (Diane Keyton). Throughout the movie and following sequels, Diane was portrayed as starstruck, only a passenger to the proceedings.
Her lack of any franchise was glaring. Kay was asked by Micheal to never "ask me about my business".
Apollonia Vitelli (Simonetta Stefanelli), who Micheal goes on to marry, also appears weak and without any path of her own. Most of the women depicted are regarded as weak and much more inferior.
No female character is developed further than the one-dimensional strokes given by Mario Puzo in his book.
Don Corleone, despite these failings inherently present, tries to paint a picture of a perfect family man who loves his family.
And that's about it.
'Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.'
Where The Godfather excels and others falter is capturing a novel in movie form. And it's not just a novel – it's one that spans half-a-decade.
And while Mario Puzo's novel had more space for intricately built backstories for every character - minor and major - the movie had to eschew it to make a more compact viewing experience.
Which makes any fan of the movie to peruse the book.
In how Mario Puzo tells a story lies even more political messaging.
The Godfather, stripped of the excess, is still an immigrant's story and the problems of succession.
It is a story of balancing modern, adopted cultural sensitivities with traditional ones.
It's about love, family and betrayal.
And these are all elements Mario Puzo has always excelled in.
In what Puzo considered his magnum opus, The Fortunate Pilgrim, the author dove into an immigrant mother's struggle for recognition and respect in America.
The cultural wars are embedded in the novel.
In The Sicilian, arguably Mario Puzo's greatest work, the same cultural warfare themes repeat, albeit on a smaller scale.
In a way, nothing Puzo touched was ever insular. But neither was it ever on the nose.
In the end, as we celebrate The Godfather, the occasion also calls for a remembrance of all the events that preceded it, followed it and shaped cinematic history as we know it.
