Hustler Classic Reviews: “The Godfather”

Vanderbilt Hustler Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather (1972) depicts the bloody power struggles within the Italian mafia in 1940s New York. When the revered yet aging Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) is gunned down, his youngest son Michael (Al Pacino) comes to reluctantly take his father’s place as the ‘godfather,’ that is, the head of the powerful gang. Like any good classic film, The Godfather has lodged itself in the backdrop of my memory, but not so much for its plot or its phenomenal acting, but for the shadowy lighting, the suits, the unexpected bursts of blood—all of which exude an air of dark glamor. However, there’s more to the film than a gloss of sophistication; otherwise, it wouldn’t have become the iconic work that it is today. Indeed, the film triumphs by virtue of its powerful subtleties; each scene contains minute details that, like the interweaved strands of a fabric, invisibly contribute to the pleasing whole.
Before teasing out the individual strands, one must get an idea of the fabric in its entirety. One of the main tropes of The Godfather is Michael Corleone’s development from a pure, low-key Dartmouth student just released from the Marines, to a ruthless Don. However, rather than being transformed by external factors, Michael appears to have had the brutality and cunning in him all along, albeit in a dormant side of himself. As the movie progresses, this latent side slowly amplifies and unfurls, until he becomes hardly recognizable.
                                        Source: Alfan Productions and Paramount Pictures
Now for the strands. The Godfather is brilliant in part because it manages to encapsulate Michael’s entire transformation in a two-minute scene. Early on the film, Clemenza (Richard Castellano), a member of Vito’s gang, gives Michael a gun for his first murder. The scene opens with a zoomed-in shot of the gun. “Cold as they ...


Read more