The Family That Slays Together Stays Together

 This is my entry in the Familyathon blogathon hosted by  18 Cinema Lane

 

 

 

 

 

A few years ago I reviewed the sequel to The Godfather, The Godfather Part II for another blogathon. I had intended to get back to the primary film at some point, and I might have if the crisis of  COVID hadn't thrown me into a 2 year funk of apathy about doing this blog.

The Family is the primary focus of The Godfather. After all, it is the one oft repeated focus in the movie "never go against the family". The family, of course is ostensibly, the Mafia, but the real family is the Corleone family. (And if you've seen my review for Part II, you know that the Don came from Sicily and was given the last name by the immigration in error; he was originally from the town of Corleone in Sicily. His original name was Andolini.)

How you deal with issues in the family when dealing with outsiders to the family is a main story line.  You stick together through thick and thin, and you defend the honor of your family against anyone who might come in to try to break up the family.

 

 

 

 The Godfather (1972):

The beginning of the movie is a scene of the wedding of Don Corleone's (Marlon Brando) daughter, Connie (Talia Shire) to Carlo Rizzi (Gianni Russo). 

 

 

 

One of the things about Sicilians that is brought to the fore is that Don Corleone is meeting with various people because no Sicilian can deny a request at his daughter's marriage.  So we get an undertaker asking for revenge for the honor of his daughter who had been gang raped,  The culprits had been let go with basically a slap on the wrists.  The undertaker wants them dead in the name of "justice",  but, as the Don rightly points out, that is not "justice" because the daughter lived.  So the undertaker settles for some people to show up and beat the crap out of the culprits.

 

Also a baker asks for Corleone's help in keeping an employee from being deported because, after all, the baker's daughter is in love with him and would be devastated by the loss. 

 

Finally, a godson, Johnny Fontane (Al Martino) who was a great singer but is on bad times and is struggling in Hollywood. (What exactly is his problem with his career as a singer is curious, because he sings a song for the wedding party and does pretty well.)  Anyway, he wants a part in a movie, but the director hates his guts and refuses to give him the part.

 

 

"I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse" is a classic line that everyone has probably heard and that is from this movie.  Of course, Corleone manages to help the baker's employee stay and sends some associates to extract a semblance of justice from the rapists, but one of the key scenes involves how the director is convinced to let Fontane have the coveted part. (This is one of the most iconic scenes in the movie, but heads up, don't eat anything before watching it...)

 

 

The main focus of the film is a controversy between Corleone and the rest of the Five Families (the Mafia, which it is never called in the film.  This was a concession Coppola made with the Mob to have their cooperation and not cause problems during production.) Because Corleone is a holdover from a more conservative era, he is causing some distress in the world of organized crime.  Prostitution? OK. Gambling? Sure. But drugs? That is not exactly Corleone's favorite. He is absolutely sure that his contacts in the legal world (senators, police, etc) would not be as friendly if The Family got into dealing drugs.  So when a sub-general in the underworld, Solozzo (Al Lettieri) approaches the Don about backing him, Corleone refuses, even though Solozzo tells him that some of the other Five Families are willing to get in on the ground floor.

The Don's oldest son, Sonny (James Caan) is not so reluctant and expresses an interest in front of Solozzo, which distresses the Don.  After Solozzo leaves, he slaps Sonny's face and tells him to "never let anyone outside the family know what you are thinking." Sonny is a hot head.  He also loves his sister and there are a few scenes where he defends her against her abusive husband.

In direct contrast to Sonny are the Don's other two sons. Fredo (John Cazale) is a wimp who won't stand up for himself.  In addition, there is Michael (Al Pacino), a WWII veteran who doesn't really want to get involved with the family business.  Micheal is engaged to Kay (Diane Keaton), a wholly naive but determined woman.

The conflict with Solozzo comes to a head when an attempt on the Don's life is made.  He is gunned down in the city street, but survives.  While at the hospital a transformation occurs with Michael.  He saves his father from an additional assassination attempt and garners an enemy in the form of a corrupt police captain.  The whole thing comes to a head when Michael agrees to kill both Solozzo and the captain at a meeting and is forced into hiding in Sicily.

Here we find that the battle between the other families and the Corleone's is rampaging, resulting in the death of many figures in the underworld.  Meanwhile, while in Sicily, and supposedly safe from the goings on in New York, Sonny falls in love and marries a Sicilian girl.  But the world of New York ends up visiting him in Sicily and an attempt is made on his life.  He survives, but his poor young wife does not.

Meanwhile, life  in New York has gotten pretty uncomfortable.  There is a war of the families trying to establish a control over the city and its vices.  Many of the deaths that occurred during the war were of higher ups in the echelon, although there were a lot of subordinates and probably more than a few bystanders. 

One of the key scenes in the movie involves the hotheaded Sonny.  He gets a call that his sister has been beaten up once again by her abusive husband, and Sonny, in a fit of rage, storms out of the family compound, despite the efforts of Tom and a couple of others to stop him.  Unfortunately for Sonny, the whole thing was a setup and he is killed in a trap by opposing mobsters at a tollbooth.

Michael returns to New York and has been transformed.  He takes over the family operations while his father retires from the criminal activity. And Michael steps into the role with gusto.  Anyone who stands in his way is dispatched.  

Michael doesn't garner many friends, and eventually even alienates his sister, since her husband Carlo was part of the plot that led Sonny into his untimely demise at the previously mentioned tollbooth. Carlo and several others close to the family are dispatched in typical mobster fashion.  The end result is the Corleone family is now established as the premiere family in the Five Families echelon.

The Godfather was a big hit with the public as well as the Oscars. It garnered 10 nominations at the event, although it only walked away with three.  (My opinion is it got rooked for Best Supporting Actor.  Both Caan and Pacino were up for it, but lost to Joel Grey for his role in Cabaret.)   

Family values of the sort used by The Family might seem a little harsh given what The Family does for business, but you can't deny the basic line that you stick together through thick and thin despite the slings and arrows.

Time to fire up the old Plymouth and head home.  I think I'll bypass the tollbooths, though.

Quiggy