Check it out: Michael Corleone is angry, again. He is claiming that we are “back with the Borgias”. What prompts this outburst is a business meeting in Vatican City, in which he realizes that the board of the Vatican bank is planning to swindle him for
Hundreds of millions of dollars. He was hoping that, at least in the vicinity of the Holy See, he would be able to escape the world of everyone backstabbing each other for the sake of money, but, as happens throughout the saga, he finds that the higher he climbs, the greed just gets greater,
And that the Vatican is as corrupt as it was in the infamous days of the Borgias. The board members, however, are unfazed by his accusations. What is the meaning of this remark? Why does he think that Michael should know what this means? Simple. He saw the movie. This
Meeting is supposedly taking place in the late 1970s, meaning, after the first two Godfather films already came out, and exposed the inner workings of the mafia, or, within the universe of the Godfather, the business of Don Corleone and his family. This self-reference attests to
The creators’ awareness of the way that their creation has transcended the silver screen, and became part of Western culture, especially the way we talk, think, and understand business. The work that explored the worlds of capitalism, organized crime, and greed, became part of the fabric that
Makes up this world, a subject of exploration in its own right. A lot has been said about the way ‘The Godfather’ affected the way we perceive the mafia, and moreover, the way the mafia perceives itself. A lot has also been said about the historical, social, cultural, aesthetic, and
Personal dimensions of the creation, and they were all widely examined. In this video, I will attempt to shine a spotlight on it from a different perspective. I want to enter the subconscious of ‘The Godfather’, to the place where money meets human psychology to produce crime, and see what it
Teaches us about the subject. The characters in the saga think that they can liberate themselves from the personal level, and operate in a purely business manner, but we the viewers see that “it’s not business, it’s personal”. Humans, we see, cannot think of money in a purely rational manner,
And it sometimes makes them act in a way that negates business logic, and sometimes negates their own logic. From our outsider’s perspective, we shall try to figure out what are the factors that make them act this way. We must, however, be wary of thinking that we
Possess a purely objective point of view, allowing us to completely understand the characters. We’ve been to that movie already. ‘The Godfather’ belongs to the long tradition of gangster flicks, and one of the conventions of the genre was that the film has to provide an explanation
To the phenomenon of crime. Relying on the time’s leading criminological theories, the gangster flicks tried to show what made the hero stray from the right path, what is it about the human psyche, or the structure of society, or the environment, that needs fixing. In the 1930s,
The explanations tended to be sociological, while after the war they leaned towards psychology, but they all shared the trait of providing a supposedly top-down view: we, the enlightened and rational people, analyze the actions of the irrational people, from our vantage point of
View. The gangster plays a double role: on the one hand, he provides release for the viewer, in that he acts out our socially repressed impulses, and manages to get away with it, at least for a while; on the other hand, he comes to a bitter end, caused by those same impulses, thus affirming
That it is better to live a lawful life. In this way, we use the gangster to momentarily live out our fantasies, but also prove our superiority over him; and furthermore, we are using him to explore the irrational side of Man, so we can understand it and control it. Typically for Modern western
Thinking, the gangster flicks displayed the belief that rational and scientific thought can reach a purely objective and unprejudiced point of view, allowing it to fully understand human behavior. And even if we haven’t reached that point yet, we are still more advanced than the
Gangster – meaning, closer than him to the truth – and therefore we can understand his actions. This intellectual vanity crumbled in the middle of the 20th century, and the belief that we can fully understand human behavior, or that there are perspectives more advanced than others,
Came under growing doubt. This change, inevitably, seeped into cinema, and ‘The Godfather’ already belongs to the era that began with 1967’s ‘Bonnie and Clyde’, where the definitions of good and bad, or rational and irrational, are not that clear cut, and straight culture is wrapped up with the
Criminal world in a complicated relationship. But ‘The Godfather’ goes a step further: in traditional gagster flicks, the gangster was devoid of ethnicity, partly because the Hollywood code forbade ethnic stereotyping, but also because he was supposed to represent the everyman,
Whose actions display the irrational side of all of us. ‘The Godfather’, in contrast, shows its heroes as very rational people, operating based on ancient cultural principles, and regards crime as springing out of these principles, and out of the clash between cultures. The ethnic side, then,
Plays a crucial role here, and every character is portrayed as a product of their culture. We are, then, looking at the psychology of the characters, but unlike psychoanalytical analyses, that tend to regard the characters as driven by their subconscious drives, ‘The Godfather’ saga
Seems to suggest that a person’s cognitive side plays a major part in their psychology. I shall, therefore, analyze the cognitive side of the characters, and show how their worldview leads them to act as they do, and eventually even leads them to act against their own interests and
Beliefs. In other words, unlike psychoanalytical analyses that try to show how the irrational creates the rational, this video will try to show how the rational creates the irrational. I decided to split the video into two parts, so it will actually be two videos. The first video,
That will not be very spoilery, will analyze the different worldviews featured in the Godfather saga. The second part will spoil everything, and will show how these worldviews affect the development of the plot, and maneuver the characters towards their fate.
‘The Godfather’ is based on a bestseller written by Mario Puzo, and published in 1969. Puzo was a serious author, who published several novels by then, but did not find success, and his dire financial situation convinced him to compromise his art, and try writing
A more commercial book. As an Italian-American, he decided to explore the world of the mafia, and the result was ‘The Godfather’, the first book to shed some light on the dark world of American organized crime. The characters and plot are fictional, but the heroes’ code of conduct is based in reality,
And the stories are based on true events, turning the story of the Corleone family into a symbol of the history of the mafia in America. The novel was a massive hit, and Paramount studio was quick to buy the rights to it, but transferring these explosive themes to the screen wasn’t going to
Be easy. The project was offered to several known directors, but after they all backed away from a story that shows mobsters in a positive light, the studio decided to gamble and give it to a young, mostly unknown, Italian-American director named Francis Ford Coppola. This wasn’t easy either:
Coppola, like other directors who came out of sixties counter-culture, despised the Hollywood studio system, and aspired to create independent, personal films. The idea of working with a big studio, and on yet another film in the worn-out genre of gangster flicks,
Didn’t exactly enchant him. But he desperately needed cash to save his independent production company, so he agreed to take it on. Even so, he had no intentions of giving up on his artistic aspirations. His stated goal was to turn the film into a metaphor for capitalist society,
And, together with Puzo, he adapted the script accordingly. Furthermore, they turned it into a story of Italian immigration to America, based on their personal and family experiences. Following a production riddled with confrontations between the director and the studio, the movie finally saw
Light in 1972, becoming an overnight sensation, an Oscar guzzler, and one of the highest grossing films in cinema history. Paramount immediately hired Puzo and Coppola to create a sequel, and this time, the two could fully manifest their artistic ambitions, turning the story into
A modern Shakespearean tragedy. ‘The Godfather part 2’ was released in 1974 to rave reviews, and the overall impact of both films elevated the Godfather saga to a level much higher than any other gangster movie, the level of one of cinema’s greatest masterpieces.
In 1977, Coppola re-edited the two movies into a television mini-series, where the scenes are rearranged in chronological order, telling a linear story. It also contains some scenes that were edited out of the films, and I shall use some of them in my analysis.
Coppola capitalized on the success to go his independent way, becoming the most prominent American director of the seventies. But in the eighties, his luck changed, leading him to bankruptcy. Lucky for us, because this compelled him to team up with everyone once again,
Creating the third part of the saga, released in 1990. This offering got mixed reviews, but I regard it as a worthy finale. There were even talks of another sequel, but they ended with Puzo’s passing, in 1999. Let us, then, turn our gaze to the silver screen…
In a scene from ‘Godfather 2’, Don Michael Corleone arrives in Miami to visit his business partner, the cunning Jewish mobster Hyman Roth. The conversation takes place in Roth’s home, with his wife in the other room, and the old man is imparting some life lessons to his young partner.
Words of wisdom, indeed, and Michael’s reaction is to get up and close the door, because he wants to cut the bullshit and start talking seriously. They discuss their business, and Michael concludes: Which completely contradicts what he said a moment before, when the door was open. And this,
In a nutshell, is the picture that ‘The Godfather’ portrays of the way we treat money: on the one hand, it is the most important thing, that we all pursue; on the other hand, when we are in public, in an “open doors” situation, we play down its importance and belittle it. American culture,
According to ‘The Godfather’, is a fake culture, where everyone is taking part in a hypocritical discourse, portraying itself as a culture driven by noble values, while all of its citizens are actually driven by greed. Why this hypocrisy? Why is it so important to us
To conceal the truth, when it comes to money? Michael has an answer. When a young man comes to him and asks for his blessing to marry his niece, he inquires about his financial situation. Michael, then, sees it as a conspiracy by the rich, to keep their fortune. But this is a
Superficial answer. ‘The Godfather’ portrays a much more complicated picture, and the attempt to break it down to its parts / will serve as the starting point to our discussion. Before we get to that, I should clarify the psychological perception which, I believe,
The creators are espousing. Let’s go back to the beginning of the story, when Michael is only the Don’s son, a young man who wants to integrate in American society. He has an affair with a Yankee called Kaye, and the two seem very much in love, conducting an American-style relationship. At
One point, however, he has to flee the country, abandon Kaye, and find shelter in Sicily. There, in the Mediterranean island, we see him integrating in his ancestors’ culture, and even falling in love with a local girl named Apollonia. But what’s interesting is the way this happens:
One glance is enough for him to fall madly in love, and a few hours later he already asks her father for her hand. This is what the locals call lightning strike, a concept that doesn’t exist in American culture, but is rooted deep in Italian culture. It’s not just “love at first sight”,
But finding the one you were destined to be with, by some cosmic process. The Michael that we see in America, a rational and restrained guy who finds it hard to express his love to Kaye, would not be
Able to fall in love in this way, but here it is a different Michael. The manner in which he courts, acts, and makes love with Apollonia is also very different from the manner he does those things with Kaye, and some interpreters claim that this is the “real”, authentic Michael. But the way I
Understand ‘The Godfather’, there is no place to talk about authenticity: a person’s psyche is determined by their cultural world, and even something as deep as love is determined by it. This shall be the basis for my analysis. My working hypothesis will be that every
Person or culture have a worldview arranging their world, and their psychology, behavior and language are determined by this worldview, and change when it changes. If we wish to find out what creates the doublespeak about money, then, we must first dissect ‘The Godfather’ into the
Different worldviews that appear in it, and then see how they determine the attitude towards money, and the discourse around it. Don Corleone’s world oscillates between America and Sicily, existing mainly at the point of merger between these two cultures, and we shall examine each
Of them in detail. Our analysis shall be quite rudimentary, and present only some of the most basic principles and values of these worldviews, but it will suffice for our discussion. Our introduction to the Sicilian culture comes through the town of Corleone, Vito’s birthplace.
In this culture, the highest value is family, and everything revolves around it. A good family life is the recipe for happiness, and the aspiration is therefore to create inner harmony within it, and protect it from outside dangers. Every member of the family is committed to it,
And must obey the head of the family. The head of the family, on his part, must be “strong for his family”, meaning, take the tough decisions that would ensure its welfare, security, happiness, and good name. This is true of every family, and more so for a mafia family, whose head, the Don,
Is also the strongest man in the area, and has every other family in it under his protection. The family name is built on two things: wealth and honor. When it comes to wealth, it’s not so much about making more, but about preserving what you have,
Because Sicily was a poor country, living mainly on agriculture. The most important family asset, then, is its honor. Any harm done to the family honor must be met with a harsh reprisal, and if the head of the family is not strong enough to defend the family honor,
It is perceived as weak by the other families, and then its financial status is also at stake. The main currency of this culture is blood. Blood symbolizes the family, it is the thing that binds the family members together, and their actions should therefore
Be aimed at preserving and glorifying this blood dynasty. It is practically an economy of blood, and it is a strict and accurate economy: if the blood of one family member is shed, the financial balance is thrown, until it is reinstated with the shedding of the blood of a member of the offending
Family. Betraying the family, or bringing dishonor upon it, also demand payment in blood. When it is a mafia family, a man can join it even if he wasn’t part of it, and that by marriage,
Or by a blood alliance in which he becomes a soldier in its service. These ties are not as strong as true blood relations, but they are still binding and cannot be broken. On an even lower lever, one can ask the local Don to be godfather to their son, and then their family
Enjoys the protection of the Don and is committed to him, but this is a less binding commitment. The head of the family, as mentioned, is the one responsible for running the family business, and this business includes both the blood economy and the money economy. He is also the main authority
In his immediate family, but it is actually the mother who is the center of this family. Since she does not deal with blood business, she’s on a higher moral plane, and therefore the one maintaining the unity within the family, and the healthy relationships within it. The men who are
Running the family business know that they are doing it for the sake of family life, and take care not to involve the women and children in them – they are not to be harmed in the blood feuds,
And the family business is not discussed in their presence. The men, therefore, live in two parallel worlds: the open world of family life, in which they have to be kind and loving, and the hidden world of family business, in which they must follow the cold logic of greed and violence. The
Women and children, on their part, know that they must not inquire about this world, and that the men are hiding it from them for their own good. This concealment is very successful, because it is based on ancient and strict principles. The mafia was born in Sicily as an underground body
Against the different conquerors that occupied the island, and developed mechanisms to maintain a code of silence, Omerta, that became part of the Sicilian consciousness. Once it became a crime organization, this code was employed to hide its existence, and create the semblance of
A lawful family business. And yet, at least in Corleone, this hidden crime world is out in the open. Sicilian crime may work in the darkness, but its logic is the same as the logic of the culture, co everyone knows the rules of the blood economy, and what they entail. When Don Ciccio,
The strong man of Corleone, kills Senior Andolini for offending his honor, Andolini’s widow knows that he will also kill her little boy Vito, to preempt the possibility that the latter will seek vengeance upon reaching maturity. She begs the Don for mercy and vows the boy will not avenge,
But Ciccio knows that the blood rules are stronger than any oath, and refuses. Vito runs and hides, and the Don’s men go out in the streets of the town, and publicly announce that anyone who helps him will be killed. The logic of blood rules Corleone, and although it is against the
Laws of the state, no one bothers to hide it. Bottom line, though, this is a losing economy. Years later, when Michael arrives at Corleone, he wonders about the scarcity of men in the place, and his local companions explain that they all died in blood feuds. From all
The preservation of the value of blood, it is running out. Sicily, in ‘The Godfather’, appears on the one hand as a paradise of an honest and simple life, that the immigrants to America want to maintain in their new country, and on the other hand as a hell of poverty and murder, whose
Inhabitants want to escape and go to America. one of them is the boy Vito Andolini, who eventually manages to escape Corleone and get to America; and there, in the land of endless opportunities, he finds a completely different logic. When I speak of American culture,
I mean the white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant culture that dominated the United States when Italian immigration arrived. The period portrayed in the first two films begins when Vito gets to America in the beginning of the 20th century, and ends in the beginning of the 1960s, with most of
The action taking place in the fifties. In this period, which the fifties constitute its apex, the highest value of American culture is society. Society isn’t perceived just as a collection of individuals, but as an organic and growing body, that all citizens belong to and take
Part in its growth, and all benefit from it. These decades are therefore characterized by comprehensive social reforms, whose goal is to create an enlightened society – that is, a society that is based on rational principles, sublimates the wild side of Man, and manifests
The ideals of liberty, equality, and justice. Societies like the Sicilian society, dominated by selfishness and violence, is perceived in this consciousness as backwards societies, that did not emerge out of the animalistic stage of Man, and our goal is to progress and transcend
This stage. The state is the apparatus that is supposed to “civilize” its citizens and get society to this goal, and therefore it is a very invasive apparatus, that penetrates all aspects of life and regulates them. This perception is shared by all Western
Countries of the time, but American culture also has an opposing perception, which sanctifies the individual and their right to pursue happiness, which is usually related to wealth. In the capitalist system, this tension between the individual and society is resolved by the
Perception that if the individual accumulates more wealth by dealing with others, everyone benefits. If blood is the currency of Sicilian culture, in American culture it is money, that replaces blood: instead of killing others to take their money, we trade with them. At heart, capitalism is also
Selfish, but it is a selfishness that doesn’t lead to bloodshed, and benefits society, and therefore is regarded as enlightened. Business is the blood that flows in the arteries of American society, and the businessman ensures its vitality. Here, too, business is regarded as the domain
Of the more selfish men, while the women are perceived as morally superior, and their domain is therefore the home and the family. But the place of the family within this worldview is essentially different. While in Sicilian culture, the family is the highest value and
Business is done for its sake, in American culture both family and business are part of the bigger structure of society. Business is there to ensure the financial prosperity of that society, whereas family is responsible for advancing society towards enlightenment. The women are perceived
As those who see the “big picture” of society, and their role is therefore to domesticate the men, and rear the children in the right way. The woman, then, isn’t “just” a housewife, but carries a very important job, and housewives were given detailed manuals on how to run their
Household. One of the principles was that the woman must be involved in the man’s trouble at work, give him someone to talk to and support him, and help guide him to take the right and ethical decisions. In an ideal family, husband and wife should be partners, open about everything.
American economy, unlike the Sicilian, is a successful economy. And according to the story that the American society tells itself, it also thrives and progresses, turning its members into more enlightened people. While is Sicily we saw that everything happens in broad daylight,
American culture represses some parts of human nature – the anti-social parts – and hides them in the dark. It does recognize that Man is still partly in this darkness, but believes in its ability to take him out of there, and educates its citizens accordingly. But ‘The Godfather’ shows
Us the dark side of this worldview itself, how, in its attempt to rectify old ills, it creates new ills. The powerful and invasive apparatus of the modern state is supposed to civilize humans, to elevate them above their primitive animalistic state, but it does more than that: it erases their
Identity and their heritage, and severs their roots. And so, when young Vito Andolini arrives to America, the immigration officer looks at the sign around his neck that says ‘Vito Andolini from Corleone’, and absent-mindedly registers his name as ‘Vito Corleone’, foisting a new identity upon
Him. When the boy grows up, he finds that there’s a gap between the American story and reality, and that a poor immigrant boy has almost no chance of living the American dream, or, at least, no
Legal chance. And since you are nothing in America if you are poor, he turns to crime. Once he does, he reconnects with his Sicilian heritage, combining it with what he learned in America, to establish the mafia of the new world. Vito’s journey from rags to riches, from a poor
Immigrant boy the head of the crime world, begins with his murder of the neighborhood thug Fanucci, a man who made his living by extorting protection money from every business owner in Manhattan’s Little Italy. He takes Fanucci’s place as the local strongman, but here we see the difference
Between them: he does not extort the members of the community, but becomes their guardian, teaching them that they can come to him for help with their troubles. Thus, he enjoys the loyalty and protection of the community, and achieves the status of Don, just like in Sicily. But America is
Not Sicily, where the Don is the most powerful and honored man. Here he must play by the rules made by systems more powerful than him, and therefore must build his organization differently. First, to win honor in America, it’s not enough being the strongest man in
The neighborhood. The scale is much larger, and to get his family to the status he aspires to, he must arrange it as a profitable business. Vito constructs his crime syndicate to be like an army, commanding hundreds of soldiers, compartmentalized in a way that ensures no crime could be attributed
To its heads. On top of that, he establishes connections in the worlds of politics, law, and media, becoming an almost omnipotent octopus. The highest value of the American mafia is still the family, but the family is perceived as a business firm, and because it uses any means
Necessary in its business, it rapidly becomes a mighty empire, an American success story. In Sicily, we saw, blood has higher value than money. In America, because of this focus on business, money achieves almost equal status, and undermines the rules of the blood economy.
Emotions are still driven by blood, but the logic is business logic, and the aspiration is to become part of American rationale. Vito sees himself as a “reasonable man”, meaning, a man who has transcended the irrational culture of his homeland, where you must follow
The rules of its eye-for-an-eye economy. The same goes for the other mafia Dons. Vito, then, forgoes vengeance, which was so important in the Sicilian culture, because it harms business. And the other Dons believe him, because they all see themselves as reasonable men, meaning, men who are more enlightened than the Sicilian Dons,
And no longer think in the terms of the blood economy, where everyone loses. Then again, Vito continuously emphasizes the superiority of blood – that is, your emotional connection to your family – over any other value. Along with showing us how he builds his financial empire,
The films also show how he builds his family as a warm and loving cell. Once his children get older, he tries to bequeath these values to them. However, he lives in a so-called “civilized and enlightened” society, so he must conceal the logic of blood. Every mafia family must be
Running some legitimate family business, from which it supposedly makes its fortune – for the Corleone family, it is the marketing of olive oil it imports from Sicily. Its family life also obeys the local values of decency, and the principles of omerta,
And of hiding the real family business from the women and children, are kept much more strictly. While in Sicily we saw Don Ciccio sitting on his porch and openly discussing his murders, Don Vito discusses his business only in a closed room, with all the blinds shut. The logic of blood confines
Itself to dark places, hidden from everyone, outwardly denied, masked by code. In this way, the Mafia successfully kept its presence in America a secret for decades. If we look at gangster flicks before the sixties, we will not find the word ‘mafia’ mentioned in them.
The mafia’s worldview in the new world, then, is the product of a transformation in the Sicilian worldview, once it met the American worldview. But its mere existence is diametrically opposed to American thought, that aspires to penetrate all the dark places,
Expose them, and clean them of any unenlightened thinking. In the 1950s, the word ‘mafia’ first enters American consciousness, as a terrifying concept that threatens to destroy it from within, and the American system begins to fight it. The majority of the plot of ‘The Godfather’
Takes place, then, at a point in time when there is another paradigm shift, the result of this clash. To fully understand the worldviews of the American society and of the mafia, we must also see how they portray each other, and what comes out of the clash between them.
Let’s turn our focus to this convergence. After WWII, the American society turned to take care of all its inner ills, aiming to eradicate them once and for all, and fulfill the promise made by President Roosevelt during the war: “We of the United
Nations are not making all this sacrifice of human effort and human lives to return to the kind of world we had after the last world war. We are fighting today for security, for progress, and for peace, not only for ourselves but for all men, not only for one generation but for
All generations. We are fighting to cleanse the world of ancient evils, ancient ills.” The Senate formed special committees, with wide ranging authority, to handle each problem specifically, and these committees subpoenaed members of bodies that were seen as undermining American society,
And demanded of them to testify against their comrades. But the committee that handled the mafia problem found it very hard to gain the cooperation of the witnesses, or even to prove that the mafia is a real thing, and not a myth. For some reason, they did not recognize that the
Committee is working for their sake and for the sake of their children, and refused to help it. If we want to use cinema to understand the way that the American consciousness perceived what was going on, ‘The Godfather’ alone will not suffice. But there is another movie, in which we will find
Everything we are looking for. Not just any movie, but one of the biggest movies of the fifties: ‘On the Waterfront’, directed by Elia Kazan, and released in 1954. Kazan was one of the people who agreed to testify before the Senate about the activities of communists in Hollywood,
And got criticized by many of his colleagues for doing so. This film was his way to justify his actions, although he avoids making a direct connection, by making it not about communists but about the mafia – or the mob, as they are called here. It is one of the films that
Display fifties rationality best of all. The film is notable in another way, being the first true showcase for method acting. The acting style known as “The Method” was developed in the 1940s, mainly by acting teacher Lee Strasberg, and actor Marlon Brando. In essence,
The method actor is required to recall a life experience similar to the one they are playing, and give expression to their own emotions through their acting. It was used in theatre at first, but in the early fifties, Brando started to play in films, and brought it to the big screen. It was
By no means a smooth transition. His expressive style seemed very odd to the moviegoing audience, standing out like a sore thumb among the actors around him, and was ridiculed by many, especially comedians. In ‘On the Waterfront’ he plays the leading role, and he is also, finally,
Surrounded by a cast of other method actors, who all deliver an electrifying performance. Method acting stopped being a joke after this film, and Brando’s Oscar-winning performance. The story takes place on the Manhattan docks, where the longshoremen union is
Ruled by a crime syndicate. Heading the union is a mobster who goes by the name Johnny Friendly, a brash and charismatic man who lives up to his name, by being friendly to all those who are loyal
To him. Under this gregarious veneer, however, he is a ruthless and greedy man, who runs the union in a way that would make the most profit for him and his cronies. With the power of money, he also controls the dockworkers: anyone who speaks up against him finds himself removed
From the work schedule, and without salary. The dockworkers, who are poor uneducated people, lower their heads and accept their fate, to the dismay of the local priest, Father Barry. This is an important point – the waterfront, the movie tells us, is not part of America. The movie
Does not attack the capitalist system for its love of money, but makes a distinction between two forms of love of money: the American, rational love of money, in which people do business with each other to everyone’s benefit, and the irrational, selfish love of money found on the
Waterfront, where everyone thinks of themselves, and so everyone loses except Friendly and his goons. The latter is what is known as greed, and since everyone is driven by it, it allows the mob, that is based on greed, to prevail. Friendly and his gang fit the stereotype
Of the irrational gangster that typified classic Hollywood: fancy dressers, hot tempered, selfish, and violent. The Waterfront Crime Commission, on the other hand, are wise and level headed people, who are trying to expose the syndicate’s crimes and indict Friendly. But his people show loyalty,
See themselves as a family, and refuse to cooperate with the investigators. And what’s more confounding is that even the dockworkers who aren’t part of the gang, and are severely suffering under its rule, refuse to testify against it. This is based on old American values of camaraderie and loyalty,
But the film is hammering into our mind that this behavior is, at the end of the day, irrational. We can see that they gain nothing by remaining silent, and that logic, morality, and everything else determine that they should leave these silly principles behind, and testify
Before the commission. But even those who do see the light are ruled by another powerful emotion: fear. Anyone who “rats” knows that they will pay for it with their life, so they don’t talk. The movie begins with the murder of Joey Doyle, a dockworker who intended to spill the beans
To the commission. To lure Joey into the trap, they exploit his friendship with Terry Malloy, whose brother Charlie is Friendly’s right hand. Terry is a simpleton, a former prize fighter, who doesn’t know much and just follows Friendly’s orders. But he is fond of his pal Joey, bereaves
His death, and feels used and betrayed that he was unknowingly part of the plan to kill him. Even so, when he is subpoenaed to testify, he doesn’t think of complying. He doesn’t know much, but he knows that Friendly, Charlie, and the rest of the gang are his family,
And that there’s nothing worse than stooling. But then he meets Edie Doyle, Joey’s kid sister. Edie studies in a monastery and wishes to be a teacher, to educate the next generation of Americans, but her loss makes her realize that there are things that need tending right away,
And she sticks around to help Father Barry save people from the mob. Edie and Terry feel mutual attraction, but when they talk, the difference between them comes to light. This is how the genders were perceived in the 1950s. The men were perceived as partly animal,
Who haven’t completely left the jungle behind. This is why they are selfish and violent. The women were perceived as more civilized, having the sociable nature needed to create a harmonic society. Therefore, the job of the woman was to tame the man, and to rear the children to be more
Civilized. Women were now regarded as the head of the family, and they stayed at home to take care of it, while the men were out to provide for it. Edie thinks Terry is like an animal, but she believes that he can be saved, so she maintains her relationship with him,
Even after learning of his part in her brother’s murder. Terry, meanwhile, is deeply affected by her, and feels pangs of conscience. He turns to Father Barry for advice. This is the logic that ruled the entire Modern Age, reaching its culmination in
The nineteen-fifties. Humanity was seen as one big family, which we should all become part of. In the jungle, people lived in tribes, but we must transcend this tribal thinking, because this type of family is fake. The defeat of fascism was seen as the defeat of tribalism,
And now western societies wanted to eliminate every other tribe as well, and create the brotherhood of Man. As we see, though, Barry leaves it to Terry to decide. While communist societies tried to impose this brotherhood in a top-down way, democratic societies believed
It should be left to the people to grow organically, and figure it out themselves. When Friendly finds out what has been going on with Terry, he sends Charlie to either straighten him out, or eliminate him. But Terry refuses to play along, and Charlie can’t bring himself
To hurt his brother. And here we see Friendly’s true face: Charlie, allegedly his best friend, didn’t follow orders, so he has him killed. The brotherhood of the syndicate is fake brotherhood, which only serves the selfish needs of its head. When Terry discovers his brother’s dead body,
He sets out to take revenge on Friendly, but is intercepted by Father Barry. Terry is convinced, and so he finally climbs up out of the jungle, and joins the enlightened world, the civilized brotherhood of Man. He testifies before the commission, doesn’t crumble under the murderous looks given to him by the mobsters,
And exposes the criminal ways of the syndicate. This, then, is how American consciousness perceived the mafia in the fifties: as a tribe of people who did not yet rise above the irrational jungle state, and have yet to realize that their own good requires them to become part of society,
Part of humanity. The film already recognizes the strong family bond between the mobsters, but sees it as a fake and irrational bond, in contrast with the true fraternity, the family of humankind. People like Father Barry, Edie, and the commission people do understand it, leaving the jungle
Behind, but they still have to help others get to that level. And they will eventually succeed, since they have the superior point of view. The scene in which Father Barry lets Terry decide for himself shows his belief that every human has a rational side, and this side is the stronger side,
That will eventually prevail. When Terry achieves enlightenment, he understands that by testifying he is not betraying anyone, but, on the contrary, was betraying himself all those years. Existence in a homogenic society is the natural state of man, and this is what he
Should strive and work for. ‘On the Waterfront’ manifests the confidence typifying American consciousness at the time, the confidence that eventually society will get its members to an enlightened state, and defeat organized crime. Less than two decades divide between ‘On the
Waterfront’ and ‘The Godfather’, but there’s a world of difference between them. There is one thing that binds the two films together: their place in the history of method acting. If ‘On the Waterfront’ was the first time that cinema took method acting seriously,
‘The Godfather’ is its victory lap, as it was now the norm. The saga acknowledges it not only by casting Brando as Vito Corleone and Lee Strasberg as Hyman Roth, but also by giving a chance to a new generation of amazing method actors, who would go on to dominate American cinema
In the next two decades. Ideologically, however, we see a complete reversal. Let’s see how ‘The Godfather’ portrays the period of the government investigating the mafia. The Senate Committee on crime is trying to break the Corleone family, and manages to secure
The cooperation of one of its enforcers, a guy named Willi Cicci. Cicci is simple man, who has about the same mental abilities as Terry Malloy, so the so-called “enlightened” people should have a clear advantage over him, and ability to expose the irrational impulses driving him. Or do they.
The senators are trying to get to the bottom of things, expose the truth hiding under Cicci’s elusive lingo. But when they get to it, a strange thing is happening to them: they find it hard to talk straight. Cicci has no problem discussing bloodshed, and his coded
Language is simply the language that the mafia developed to conceal its murderous logic. But when the senators discuss bloodshed, they distance themselves from it by using high language, which Cicci can barely understand. This suggests that they did not really transcend the jungle,
But merely covered it with civilized language, and it still resides within them. They believe that they have a top-down view of the mobsters, but are actually dealing with the American subconscious, that rules them from within. Cicci, on his part, is amused by their squirming. For us viewers,
It isn’t certain who has the advantage here. Cicci, unlike Terry Malloy, is a low-level enforcer, and the information he has is not enough to indict Don Corleone. The Committee needs someone closer to the Don, and it finally manages to catch a big fish: Frank Pentangeli,
A high-ranking member of the family, believes, wrongly, that Michael ordered his elimination, and agrees to testify against him. The FBI keeps him in an army barracks under heavy guard, and manages to bring him to the Senate in one piece. Pentageli is ready to tell all, but when he turns to look
At Don Corleone, his smile freezes. Accompanying Michael is his big brother, Vincenzo Pentangeli, who was flown in from Sicily, and looks at him accusingly. The senators ceremoniously begin the questioning that would finally expose the Don Corleone for what he is, but the witness,
To their dismay, refuses to cooperate, retracting all his previous statements. Society’s moment of triumph over the mobster turns into a crushing defeat, and the senators can’t fathom what just happened. What we are witnessing is no less than a reversal of the Modern worldview, the worldview
At the basis of ‘On the Waterfront’: it is not loyalty to the tribe that is revealed as bogus, crumbling before loyalty to society, but the other way around. Loyalty to family, to blood ties, is the authentic loyalty, overpowering any other. Fifties American rationale collapses.
This fictional scene dramatizes what actually happened at the time, when the belief that humans will eventually see the light, and unite as one happy society, collapsed. The 1950s committees did not manage to expose and eliminate the mafia, and by the end of the decade, it was the committees
Themselves whose morality was put under question, especially after the actions of Senator McCarthy. When the novel ‘The Godfather’ came out in 1969, it was partly an attack on fifties mentality, an attempt to tell the story from a different angle. According to the book, the Manhattan
Docks are actually controlled by the Corleone family, and the family fraternity in it isn’t bogus at all. The movie adaptation doesn’t mention the docks, but even so, the combined effect of the novel and the film undermines the worldview of ‘On the Waterfront’, trying to reveal its
Falsehood. This is one thing that we should not forget when we analyze ‘The Godfather’: it constitutes a clash between two worldviews, and is constructed accordingly. So now, let’s go back to the year 1972, put ourselves in the minds of American viewers viewing this film
For the first time, and try to understand how it affects the way we view the world. ‘The Godfather’ opens with a big party scene, the wedding of Don Corleone’s daughter. But the Don is not among the partygoers. In a closed, half-lit room, he sits with his crew, and visited
By members of the Italian-American community, who come in one by one, asking his help with solving their problems. From their stories, we learn that they are not treated fairly in American society, not even by its official institutions, and only the Don can help them. We further learn that he
Is a very powerful man, with ties in all walks of society, and almost omnipotent in his ability to solve problems. But he does not exert his power unjustly. On the contrary, he uses it to bring
Justice to the people wronged by society. The Don is not, then, an enemy to the American way of life, but rather heir to all the heroes we’ve seen in American cinema since the days of the western, an individual who fights for justice against a corrupt system. If we are looking for the
Traditional gangster image we are used to seeing in cinema, we find it in his eldest son, Sonny – a hot-headed, impulsive, fancy dressing, womanizing type – but he is portrayed as a bad mobster, who brings displeasure to his father. The true mobster, according to ‘The Godfather’, is a family
Man, a serious, level-headed, keeps a low-profile type, acting on purely rational principles. Later, we learn that Don Vito built his empire on bootlegging and illegal gambling – that is, vices that we regard as mostly harmless – and that he is a loving, caring,
And loyal family man, who adopted a young orphan named Tom Hagen and made him part of the family, and a godfather who truly cares for the community members under his protection. Don Corleone, then, gains our sympathy, appearing as a good American. We identify with him, as we identify with all
Cinema gangster protagonists, but in his case the identification is not because he speaks to our irrational urges, but rather because we feel that his logic and morality is similar to ours. One of the people who visit the Don in his room is his godson Johnny Fontaine, who causes a big
Stir among the partygoers, because he is a very famous singer. Fontaine tells the Don that he suffers from a disease that makes his voice weak and harms his singing career, so he is trying to
Develop an alternative career as a movie actor. He has his eye on a part in a big war movie, which fits him perfectly, but the producer has a personal grudge against him, and refuses to let
Him have it. The Don promises Johnny he will get the part, because he is about to make the producer an offer he can’t refuse. What does this mean? We already know, because in the previous scene we saw his youngest son Michael, and his girlfriend Kaye, sitting on the lawn and watching the festivities,
But not taking part in them. We learn that Michael does not want to get involved in the family business, so he is dating Kaye, a non-Italian girl. But he feels obligated to tell her the truth about his family, and Fontaine’s appearance gives him the right opportunity.
And so we learn that we’ve been duped. After we developed sympathy for Don Corleone and came to see him as a hero, we find out that maybe his motives are noble, but his methods are murderous, and unbecoming of our enlightened society. Or are they? Is it possible that his methods
Are also compatible with our society? The story of Johnny Fontaine sounds suspiciously familiar – wasn’t there an Italian-American singer with a similar life story? In the early 1940s, Tommy Dorsey’s big band included a young singer named Frank Sinatra, who became a
Sensation with the girls, got an early release from the contract in 1942, and launched a very successful solo career. Towards the end of the decade, however, his career suffered a slump, he temporarily lost his voice, and his film career, consisting of musical roles, also stalled. That,
Until he was surprisingly cast to play a major part in the war movie ‘From Here to Eternity’, in 1953, in a dramatic part which won him an Oscar, and put him back on top. Sinatra went on
To become one of the biggest movie stars of the decade, the greatest pop singer of the century, and one of America’s golden children. Truly, an example of the realness of the American dream, proof that in America, even a poor immigrant can become the biggest entertainer in the world. But
Not everyone bought it. ‘The Godfather’, based on rumors that circulated in the industry, claims that this story is false, that American society actually suppressed Sinatra’s career, and that his talent could have been denied of us, if it wasn’t for the mafia employing
Counter-force. The conclusion is that the rules of capitalism are based on selfishness and violence, and that the story that America is telling itself, that it is an enlightened society, and the mafia’s action are “not part of America”, is a lie. How is it that the Americans fail to notice
The fallacies in their worldview? We shall take a couple of Americans as an example. After promising his help to Johnny Fontaine, Vito sends Tom Hagen, his adopted son and counselor, to talk to that Hollywood producer who stands in his way, a man named Waltz. But Waltz
Refuses to budge, and eventually explains why. Waltz is part of the enlightened worldview that regards materialism as a negative thing, so to show that he isn’t materialistic, he adds that he also had feelings towards that actress. But when he describes these feeling,
He does so in a language so materialistic, that we realize that he is, in fact, all dollars and cents, and has no other dimension. He speaks the enlightened language, but doesn’t understand it, and every successful American we meet in the saga is made of the same cloth.
‘The Godfather II’ opens, once again, with a big party scene. This time, it is Don Michael Corleone, who is throwing a party in his Nevada mansion. Among the guests is the state senator Geary, who is giving a speech, commending Michael for his “magnificent
Contribution to the state”, and presents a generous check he got from him, donation to the local university. The Senator and his wife are very friendly to the Corleones, but then, when the men close themselves in Michael’s room and the women stay outside, the tune changes.
We see the difference between the two men. While Michael is aware of the hypocrisy, and regards “civilized” language as a tool to be used when the doors are open, Geary is unaware of it, and a moment after he extorts Michael and displays shameless greed,
He reverts to the position of a civilized American, blaming his counterpart for the same things that characterize him. He believes that his behavior constitutes doing business, unlike the greedy mobsters. In Geary’s case, the door exists inside his own mind, and he can pass through it
From one side to the other without even noticing the hypocrisy – it became second nature to him. In the beginning of our discussion, we asked what creates the doublespeak about money that we find in ‘The Godfather’. We can now answer this question. American culture,
As it is revealed before our eyes, is based on a contradiction: it perceives capitalism as an economic system suitable for an enlightened society, when it is actually a system based on “every man for himself”. This contradiction is built into the American worldview, so the truth
Has to be repressed, to prevent the collapse of this worldview. The language of business supplants the violent reality with a seemingly enlightened discourse, thus allowing the Americans to continue living the delusion. And here we find two forms of doublespeak: the mobsters understand
That capitalist logic is actually similar to their logic of blood, and so they operate easily within the system, where all they have to do is develop a coded language that describes their logic in a way that sounds like business talk, a language in which a murder threat is “an offer you can’t
Refuse”, and killing is “pushing a button”. Thus, they manage to be seen as businessmen in the eyes of society, and since they master the true logic of capitalism, they also achieve financial success. With the regular Americans, the picture is more complicated. American consciousness
Is trapped in the enlightened discourse, that cleansed itself of violent of blood expressions, so when it tries to discuss bloodshed, it wriggles around the subject to avoid admitting it is part of its logic. When it talks about money, it is proud to mention “bloodless” monetary activity,
Like business or charity, but apologetic or condemning when it talks about selfish monetary activity. The Americans who are financially successful are those who have learned, like Waltz and Geary, to internalize this language, and are pursuing selfish goals while presenting it to
Others and to themselves as doing business. But Waltz and Geary cannot live forever in their blissful blindness, and both wake up one night to find, to their horror, that they are sleeping in a bed soaked in blood. It suddenly dawns on them that the blood logic is
What rules them, and worse, that there is someone who masters this logic much better than they do, and thus has control over them. And just as the Godfather arranges this rude awakening for them, so does ‘The Godfather’ release the blood that was locked in the American subconscious, and splashes
It across the screen. Gangster flicks were always violent, but the rules set by Hollywood’s code of production compelled them to create a bloodless crime aesthetic, because, the logic went, blood might arouse the viewers’ aggressive tendencies. But, it could be claimed, this is just the type of
Repression and wriggling that prevented Americans from seeing how violent their society is. The violence of ‘The Godfather’, made a few years after the collapse of the code, does not hide, but is shown in a graphic and ugly way, as if trying to expose the reality underneath the
Civilized veneer. And the reality that is thrown in our faces is that not only are the mobsters not irrational, but their rationality is actually our rationality, and our capitalist logic helps the mafia succeed. Both forms of doublespeak – the mafia one and the American one – intertwine with
Each other, and create a violent and hypocritical discourse, in which crime can thrive and prosper. This project presumes to explore the subconscious of ‘The Godfather’, yet so far, we explored only the American subconscious, at least as it is portrayed by ‘The Godfather’. From our analysis,
It might seem as though the worldview of the mafia doesn’t have a subconscious: the mobsters say exactly what they mean, even if it is said in coded language. It would appear that the worldview of the mafia is more real, more connected to reality, and that mobsters don’t
Suffer from the complexities that the American worldview instills into the minds of its holders, and can therefore operate in the capitalist system and succeed better than others. But it isn’t that simple. The clash with American culture does affect the worldview of the mafia, and this
Effect is actually what drives the main plotline. After we’ve explored the dark side of the American culture, we shall now, in the second part, enter deeper into the darkness of Don Corleone’s room.
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