MovieRetriever's 100 Greatest Movies: #2 The Godfather Trilogy

Mario Puzo has said that one of the reasons he wrote his novel, The Godfather, was to get out of debt. He was aiming for a best-seller, and he achieved his goal. Published in 1969, the novel sold 500,000 copies in hardcover and more than ten million copies in paperback by the time the film version was released.

Paramount Studios bought the film rights to Puzo's sprawling roman a clef, which concerned the history and structure of organized crime in America, in manuscript form. The studio proposed to make the film modestly and update it to the present day to avoid costly period sets and costumes. But when the book became a runaway bestseller, it was decided to make The Godfather an "event movie" with widespread release and higher-than-usual ticket prices. At the insistence of producer Al Ruddy and director Francis Ford Coppola, who got the assignment because of his Italian background and low asking price, the studio was also persuaded to return the script to its period milieu (the late 1940s). With The Godfather, Coppola took a tired cinematic genre, the gangster film, in which all had seemingly been done, and pushed it in an epic new direction. Brutal, bloody, shocking, scary, funny, socially and politically observant, and meticulously performed by everyone from the leads to the bit players, the film offered a panoramic glimpse into the closed society of organized crime – a society ruled by vendetta, where the most sought-after currency, respect, is acquired through fear and intimidation. It's a society where murder is "nothing personal, just business" and casts a shadow over many other levels of American life, as well. Not for nothing has the film been dubbed "the Gone with the Wind of gangster movies." The film was a financial blockbuster. Paramount demanded a sequel, and Coppola demanded and got complete creative autonomy for The Godfather, Part II. The main criticism leveled at The Godfather was that Coppola had made his Mafia characters sympathetic by giving them too-human a face. Coppola's point about the banality of evil, that members of the underworld are not all eye-rolling, saliva-dripping goons, was apparently lost on them. Still, he took the criticism to heart and in the sequel determined to make the point that Michael Corleone, an antihero who kills to hold his family together through the Mafia wars of the 1940s in the first film, is a Machiavellian figure whose soul is clearly lost by the final reel of the second film.

Coppola saw the sequel not as a way of simply cashing in on the success of the first film but of expanding its elements into a much broader and richer tapestry. The film chronicles the business of organized crime in the United States from 1900 to the 1960s, weaving facts with fiction in the manner of its predecessor. Drawing upon previously unused material in Puzo's book, it flashes back and forth in time to contrast the characters of Michael Corleone and his father, Vito, to reveal that what drives Michael is not what drove his father – that Michael is a more bitter and ruthless character, whereas Vito was a product of his old country ways and viewed the world as a place where only the strong survive.

The Godfather, Part II was a rarity – a sequel that not only deepened our understanding of the first film but bettered it artistically. It was also a huge financial success, but, at twice the budget of its predecessor, not quite the blockbuster the original had been. But since the film ended in the 1960s with Michael Corleone very much alive, Paramount was savvy enough to realize the mine had not yet been fully exploited. It wanted another sequel. Coppola wasn't interested, however, and shelved the idea for almost twenty years.

The Godfather, Part III takes up the saga of Michael Corleone in 1979, as the now guilt-ridden sixty-year-old don is receiving the order of San Sebastian, the highest honor the Catholic Church can bestow upon a layman. In between coping with Mafia plotters, crooked Vatican officials, and cutthroat European businessmen, Michael faces trouble on the homefront, as well. His son has rejected the family business to become an opera singer, while his daughter is carrying on a tempestuous affair with her first cousin (the illegitimate son of Michael's dead brother, Sonny). All these intrigues come to a head during the film's vigorous final thirty minutes, when Michael bloodily settles many scores – this time, he hopes, for good. But his beloved daughter takes an assassin's bullet meant for him and the aging gangster collapses with grief, his daughter and dreams of redemption gone. He dies of a heart attack years later, a white-haired Lear-like figure, alone in his palazzo.

The Godfather, Part III is not without its virtues. Its rich, warm photography, sumptuous production design and operatic style are all remarkably consistent with the first two films in the series. But its flaws are not insignificant. Considering its whopping $55 million budget (more than four times that of Part II), its failure to provide a conclusion to the Corleone saga in keeping with the epic vision of the first two films is a big disappointment. Coppola intended the film to be contemplative, but the effect it produces is ennui. Compared to the first two films, Part III is dull – and its similarly intricate plot is not as gripping as those of the earlier films. In fact, it is downright hard to follow at times.

But the film's biggest flaw is the change undergone by the lead characters, especially Michael, who is simply not the same man we saw at the close of The Godfather, Part II – a fact that becomes strikingly apparent if the two films are viewed consecutively. Monsters may get old and tired, but the outlook that made them monsters does not vanish. Guilt and the need for redemption are simply not a part of the emotionally dead, cold-eyed character Michael had become at the close of The Godfather, Part II.

The Godfather

Release Date: 1972
Rating: R

Starring: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Richard Castellano, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Sterling Hayden, Talia Shire, and John Cazale
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Writers: Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo

The Godfather, Part II

Release Date: 1974
Rating: R

Starring: Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Robert DeNiro, John Cazale, Talia Shire, Lee Strasberg, Michael V. Gazzo, and Troy Donahue
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Writers: Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo

The Godfather, Part III

Release Date: 1990
Rating: R

Starring: Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, Andy Garcia, Eli Wallach, Joe Mantegna, George Hamilton, Bridget Fonda, Sofia Coppola, Raf Vallone, Franc D'Ambrosio, Donal Donnelly, Richard Bright, Helmut Berger, Don Novello, and John Savage
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Writers: Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo

Source Citation: McCarty, John. "The Godfather Trilogy." International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers. Ed. Sara Pendergast and Tom Pendergast. 4th ed. Vol. 1: Films. Detroit: St. James Press, 2000. 463-467

**********

Check out the complete list of
MovieRetriever's 100 Greatest Movies here!

**********

Sign up for a My MovieRetriever account today,
post a comment, and let us know what YOU think.

**********

View the original article here