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The Godfather: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|''"I believe in America."''}}
'''''The Godfather''''' is a series of three films about a fictional [[The Mafia|Mafia]] crime family, the Corleone Family. The first movie came out in 1972, and was based upon [[Mario Puzo]]'s [[The Godfather (novel)|novel of the same name]]. It was followed by '''''The Godfather Part II''''' in 1974 and '''''The Godfather Part III''''' in 1990. [[Francis Ford Coppola]] directed the films and scripted them with Puzo. The first two films are widely considered to be among the greatest films of all time.
The plot of the first movie begins in 1945 with Michael Corleone ([[Al Pacino]]), the youngest son of the [[The Don|Don]] of the Family, Vito Corleone ([[Marlon Brando]]), returning from [[World War
The assassination attempt on the Don fails to kill him but puts him in the hospital and Michael, who has never been interested or involved in the Family business before, thwarts a second attempt while visiting his father at the hospital. At a truce meeting Michael kills both the captain from the other family and a police captain that was involved in the second attempt at his father before going into hiding, and Sonny, furious at the attempts at his father's life, declares an all out [[Mob War]].
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* [[Family Values Villain]]: Literally. Vito, subverted by Michael. The contrast between the two on this subject is a major theme in ''Part II''.
* [[Feudal Overlord]]: The resemblance with this is striking. As the Mafia is, in a way, an underground version of the pre-modern social system, it makes sense.
**It is not unknown for businesses to replicate the old patron-client relationship with a [[Family Business|dynasty at the head]] and a paternal relationship with workers from a local community. It is not thought of much as an American thing though in fact there are examples. Sometimes these kinds of arrangements are perfectly honest and do not involve the sort of enterprises that [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|we don't actually see the Corleones doing.]]
* [[The Fifties]]: Michael's half of ''Part II''. Also, the latter half of ''Part I''.
* [[Five-Bad Band]]: The father and sons at the head of the Corleone Family form a neat model of this trope:
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* [[Genre Savvy]]: Luca Brasi wears a bullet proof vest when he goes to meet with The Turk. {{spoiler|It does not help against a knife through the hand and a garrote, but give a mook credit for trying.}}
* [[Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!]]: The Don pulls this on Johnny Fontane when Fontane is complaining about Woltz keeping him from getting a part in his movie.
* [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]]: What we mostly see is the attraction of a paternalistic faux-feudal honor culture, and at worse skullduggery and violence between people who at least know the score and participate of their free will. Only seldom do we get the idea that the Corleones are, kind of, you know [[The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything|criminals.]]
* [[Glory Days]]: The nostalgic final conversation between Frankie "Five Angels" and Tom. The scene also shows an underneath comradeship and [[It Has Been an Honor|Frank thanks Tom for everything he has done]] as a farewell.
{{quote|'''Frank''' : Those were the great old days, you know... And we was like the Roman Empire... The Corleone family was like the Roman Empire.
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* [[Not Using the Zed Word]]: The word "Mafia" was deliberately never spoken in the first film, nor is the "official" name of the organization, ''La Cosa Nostra'' ("This thing of ours" or, simply "Our Thing"). Each term is mentioned exactly once in Part II, both by Michael Corleone when he faces the senate hearing, and he says them to immediately refute any connection between himself and any such organizations.
** Twice. In the same scene, Senator Geary refers to "these hearings on the Mafia. . . "
** As for the first movie: it was produced at a time when [https://web.archive.org/web/20120307074712/http://wiki.lspace.org/wiki/Silicon_Anti-Defamation_League a Mafia AstroTurf organization] was attempting to convince people that there was, in fact, no such thing as the Mafia. Accordingly, the word was never used in that movie. By the time of ''Godfather II'', people had figured out the con, so it was once more politically correct to use the term (though in the novel at least, it's made clear that, strictly speaking, Don Vito and his lieutenants are ''not'' members of the Mafia: the Corleone family are upstarts rather than "official" mafiosi).
* [[Obfuscating Stupidity]]: Michael, specially in ''Part I''; he deliberately projects the image of a weak boss and even his capos start to doubt his leadership. [[Not-So-Harmless Villain]] ensues.
* [[An Offer You Can't Refuse]]: The [[Trope Namer]], it's right up there on the poster.
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{{reflist}}
{{Academy Award Best Picture}}
{{Golden Globe Award Best Motion Picture Drama}}
{{AFI's 100 Years 100 Heroes and Villains}}
{{Best in Film: The Greatest Movies of Our Time}}
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