The Best Picture Countdown #45: The Godfather (1972)

Note: this post is modified from a previously published post

Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Starring: Al Pacino, Marlon Brando

It was unlike the mobster movies that came before, and set the standard for all those that followed. While James Cagny and Edward G. Robinson played bad guys in movies that knew they were bad, The Godfather succeeds by creating its own moral compass, eliminating the law and order side of the story and focusing squarely on the cloistered world of the mafia and its men. It isn’t just a matter of bad guys being bad; this is a story of social and business politics, of moral shades of grey, and above all else, family.

The Godfather opens and closes on family events: a wedding at the beginning, and a christening towards the end. The opening scenes are familiar even to those who haven’t seen the film as they’ve been referenced and parodied so much. This is where Michael (Al Pacino), in his soldier’s uniform, informs Kay (Diane Keaton), that his father made a man “an offer he couldn’t refuse,” and where Brando appears as Don Vito Corleone, creating the cinema’s most lasting and iconic image of the mafia boss. The first scene with Vito and Bonasera, a man who has come to ask a favour, is one of the best in the film because it lays down the code, the governing laws of this world. The Don chastises Bonasera for going first to the police – the police can do nothing for him; this is a “family” matter. He then tells him that he’s not in the business of murdering for hire – the men who caused Bonasera’s daughter pain will be made to suffer, but the punishment must fit the crime. And then he utters that immortal line: “Someday, and that day may never come, I’ll call upon you to do a service for me.” And he will, later, ask a favour of Bonasera, but not of the kind that Bonasera no doubt fears.

Vito is the looming, central figure of The Godfather, although Michael is its central character. At the beginning of the film he is the son who isn’t involved in the family business – his brothers, the hot-headed Sonny (James Caan) and soft-headed Fredo (John Cazale) are directly involved, adopted brother Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall) acts as the family’s counsel – but as the story progresses, he sinks deeper and deeper into the mire. When the time comes for the reins to be passed, they go to Michael, who must learn quickly how to handle them and consolidate his still unstable power. The baptism sequence operates on multiple levels. On the literal level, Michael is acting as Godfather to the baptized child. On the figurative level he is becoming the Godfather and undergoing a baptism of his own as his enemies are eliminated one after the other and he makes his first great demonstration of power.

Michael wasn’t the son being groomed to take things over; shortly before he takes his first steps into the family business, Vito tells him, “I never wanted this for you… I always thought when it was your time that you would be the one to hold the strings. Senator Corleone. Governor Corleone. Something… There just wasn’t enough time.” But even though Michael isn’t the most obvious choice, he does turn out to be better suited for the position than any his brothers. Sonny, even if he didn’t die in a hail of bullets, is too unpredictable, too quick tempered. Michael, on the other hand, is calm and collected and treats what comes as part of the business. When he and Tom learn that Tessio (Abe Vigoda) is a traitor, Tom expresses surprise, but Michael takes the news calmly. “It’s the smart move. Tessio was always smarter.” Michael recognizes that power is up for grabs now that Vito is out of commission, and he doesn’t take it personally that people are trying to grab it. He doesn’t take it lightly, though, either.

The Godfather is a film that is brutal for the myriad ways in which people are threatened and killed, but within the context of the story the Corleones aren’t considered villains. Even when Carlo (Gianni Russo) is murdered after being reassured that nothing will happen to him (“Do you think I’d make my sister a widow? I’m Godfather to your son” Michael says), we the audience are assured that this isn’t bad since Carlo betrayed the family. There aren’t any traditional good guys in this film – the only cops are crooked and anyone who’s not “with” the family is actively working against it. The film’s moral compass is skewed towards the Corleones because the story limits itself to them and the people who try to harm them; the people whom the Corleones harm through their various business endeavours don’t factor here at all.

It is easy to take measure of how influential The Godfather has been since its release. It has been echoed and quoted and satirized numerous times (perhaps most notably in The Freshman, where Brando plays a mobster who is a spoof of Don Corleone), and the image it created of the romanticized gangster – the honest man simply trying to run his business – continues to shape the way we look at the mob in film and television. But perhaps even more importantly it has transcended the realm of fiction to become, in a way, a philosophy of life. You don’t take sides against the family. It’s business, it isn’t personal. And you always leave the gun, but take the cannoli.

The Best Picture Countdown #27: On The Waterfront (1954)

Note: this post has been modified from a previously published post

Director: Elia Kazan
Starring: Marlon Brando, Eva Marie Saint, Karl Malden

On The Waterfront is a film widely recognized as Elia Kazan’s response to criticism of his cooperation with HUAC, but even though the political subtext is firmly rooted and aimed at a particular moment in time, the film itself hasn’t become dated. It remains a carefully measured study of one man’s choice between being a fellow traveller in something that he knows isn’t just, or risking his life to stand up for a principle that everyone believes in, but no one believes in enough to die for.

The film is divided into two distinct worlds. There’s the rough world of the waterfront where some men thrive by doing favours for Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb), and where all men survive by being D & D (deaf and dumb) even while they’re starving from lack of work and even if their friend happens to succumb to a suspicious “accident.” The other world – still rough, but not as rough – is occupied by idealists such as Father Barry (Karl Malden) and Edie Doyle (Eva Marie Saint), people who believe that the only way to free themselves of tyranny is to fight against it, rather than silently accept it. Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) begins life in one world and spends the film fighting for the right to exist in the other. The driving force behind his desire for movement comes from his relationship with Edie, but before they even meet Terry knows that he can’t go on with the waterfront life. The film begins with him luring Joey Doyle (Edie’s brother) to a rooftop for Johnny Friendly. Terry thinks they’re just going to talk to him and is dismayed when he finds that Joey has been thrown off the roof to his death. His participation in Doyle’s death wakes him from his complacency with the way the waterfront is run. When he gets involved with Edie and Father Berry, he finds a way – and a reason – to turn things around, even as the people who would benefit most from change (the longshoremen) fight him at every turn.

This is a film with a point to make, but it doesn’t make it at the expense of the story, nor does it put all its energy into bashing the viewer over the head with its meaning while letting its characters languish underdeveloped. The characters in this film are full-blooded and full of life, and the story itself is made up of moments that are deeply moving. Everyone knows the “I coulda been a contender” speech that Terry makes to his brother Charlie (Rod Steiger). This speech has been referenced and parodied so much that, by all rights, it should have lost its meaning by now. But when you see it in the film, when you see the speech in the context of Terry having become fed up with the injustice of the world and men being denied their “shot,” when you see Charlie pull a gun on Terry and the way Terry just pushes the gun away, unable to believe that they’ve come to this point, you hear a speech that remains meaningful and relevant. Later, Terry finds Charlie dead and hanging from a hook, his punishment for not having made Terry fall in line. In an autobiography, Brando stated that during his first viewing of the film he had to walk out because he couldn’t stand his own performance. It’s hard to believe, given how pitch perfect his performance is, especially in the scene where Terry finds Charlie’s body, and the scene directly before it when he breaks into Edie’s apartment. This is a performance so complete and natural that you don’t think of Terry Malloy as a character being played by Marlon Brando, but as a person in his own right whom you just happen to be watching. The same can be said of Edie, a character who could easily have been a simpering victim, but is instead a strong and independent woman as played by Eva Marie Saint, who more than holds her own opposite Brando.

There are moments in the film that could easily have lapsed into false sentimentality – Terry’s walk at the end, for instance – in the hands of a lesser director. That Kazan can keep the film in line, that he absolutely earns the moments that would otherwise seem sappy, is what makes it unfortunate that in some circles he’s considered first as someone who named names, and second as a brilliant director. Whatever you think of Kazan’s politics – and keeping in mind that the HUAC/McCarthy era isn’t quite as black and white as it is often presented – his skill as a storyteller cannot be denied. On The Waterfront is a film about a specific place in time, but told in a way that ensures it remains timeless, a treasure of a film that can be returned to again and again.

100 Days, 100 Movies: On The Waterfront (1954)

Director: Elia Kazan
Starring: Marlon Brando, Eva Marie Saint, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb

On The Waterfront is a film widely recognized as Elia Kazan’s response to criticism of his cooperation with HUAC, but even though the political subtext is firmly rooted and aimed at a particular moment in time, the film itself hasn’t become dated. It remains a carefully measured study of one man’s choice between being a fellow traveller in something that he knows isn’t just, or risking his life to stand up for a principle that everyone believes in, but no one believes in enough to die for.

The film is divided into two distinct worlds. There’s the rough world of the waterfront where some men thrive by doing favours for Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb), and where all men survive by being D & D (deaf and dumb) even while they’re starving from lack of work and even if their friend happens to succumb to a suspicious “accident.” The other world – still rough, but not as rough – is occupied by idealists such as Father Barry (Karl Malden) and Edie Doyle (Eva Marie Saint), people who believe that the only way to free themselves of tyranny is to fight against it, rather than silently accept it. Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) begins life in one world and spends the film fighting for the right to exist in the other. The driving force behind his desire for movement comes from his relationship with Edie, but before they even meet Terry knows that he can’t go on with the waterfront life. The film begins with him luring Joey Doyle (Edie’s brother) to a rooftop for Johnny Friendly. Terry thinks they’re just going to talk to him and is dismayed when he finds that Joey has been thrown off the roof to his death. His participation in Doyle’s death wakes him from his complacency with the way the waterfront is run. When he gets involved with Edie and Father Berry, he finds a way – and a reason – to turn things around, even as the people who would benefit most from change (the longshoremen) fight him at every turn.

This is a film with a point to make, but it doesn’t make it at the expense of the story, nor does it put all its energy into bashing the viewer over the head with its meaning while letting its characters languish underdeveloped. The characters in this film are full-blooded and full of life, and the story itself is made up of moments that are deeply moving. Everyone knows the “I coulda been a contender” speech that Terry makes to his brother Charlie (Rod Steiger). This speech has been referenced and parodied so much that, by all rights, it should have lost its meaning by now. But when you see it in the film, when you see the speech in the context of Terry having become fed up with the injustice of the world and men being denied their “shot,” when you see Charlie pull a gun on Terry and the way Terry just pushes the gun away, unable to believe that they’ve come to this point, you hear a speech that remains meaningful and relevant. Later, Terry finds Charlie dead and hanging from a hook, his punishment for not having made Terry fall in line. In an autobiography, Brando stated that during his first viewing of the film he had to walk out because he couldn’t stand his own performance. It’s hard to believe, given how pitch perfect his performance is, especially in the scene where Terry finds Charlie’s body, and the scene directly before it when he breaks into Edie’s apartment. This is a performance so complete and natural that you don’t think of Terry Malloy as a character being played by Marlon Brando, but as a person in his own right whom you just happen to be watching. The same can be said of Edie, a character who could easily have been a simpering victim, but is instead a strong and independent women as played by Eva Marie Saint, who more than holds her own opposite Brando.

There are moments in the film that could easily have lapsed into false sentimentality – Terry’s walk at the end, for instance – in the hands of a lesser director. That Kazan can keep the film in line, that he absolutely earns the moments that would otherwise seem sappy, is what makes it unfortunate that in some circles he’s considered first as someone who named names, and second as a brilliant director. Whatever you think of Kazan’s politics – and keeping in mind that the HUAC/McCarthy era isn’t quite as black and white as is often presented – his skill as a storyteller cannot be denied. On The Waterfront is a film about a specific place in time, but told in a way that ensures it remains timeless, a treasure of a film that can be returned to again and again.

100 Days, 100 Movies: The Godfather (1972)

Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Starring: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton

It was unlike the mobster movies that came before, and set the standard for all those that followed. While James Cagny and Edward G. Robinson played bad guys in movies that knew they were bad, The Godfather succeeds by creating its own moral compass, eliminating the law and order side of the story and focusing squarely on the cloistered world of the mafia and it’s men. It isn’t just a matter of bad guys being bad; this is a story of social and business politics, of moral shades of grey, and above all else, family.

The Godfather opens and closes on family events: a wedding at the beginning, and a christening towards the end. The opening scenes are familiar even to those who haven’t seen the film, they’ve been referenced and parodied so much. This is where Michael (Al Pacino), in his soldier’s uniform, informs Kay (Diane Keaton), that his father made a man “an offer he couldn’t refuse,” and where Brando appears as Don Vito Corleone, creating the most lasting and iconic image of the mafia boss. The first scene with Vito and Bonasera, a man who has come to ask a favour is one of the best in the film because it lays down the code, the governing laws of this world. The Don chastises Bonasera for going first to the police – the police can do nothing for him; this is a “family” matter. He then tells him that he’s not in the business of murdering for hire – he will make suffer the men who caused Bonasera’s daughter pain, but the punishment must fit the crime. And then he utters that immortal line: “Someday, and that day may never come, I’ll call upon you to do a service for me.” And he will, later, ask a favour of Bonasera, but not of the variety Bonasera no doubt fears.

Vito is the looming, central figure of The Godfather, although Michael is its central character. At the beginning of the film, he is the son who isn’t involved in the family business – his brothers, the hot-headed Sonny (James Caan) and soft-headed Fredo (John Cazale) are directly involved, adopted brother Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall) acts as the family’s council – but as the story progresses, he sinks deeper and deeper into the mire. when the time comes for the reins to be passed, they go to Michael, who must learn quickly how to handle them and consolidate his still unstable power. The baptism sequence operates on multiple levels. On the literal level, Michael is acting as Godfather to the baptized child. On the figurative level he is becoming the Godfather and undergoing a baptism of his own as his enemies are eliminated one after the other and he makes his first great demonstration of power.

Michael wasn’t the son being groomed to take things over; shortly before he takes his first steps into the family business, Vito tells him, “I never wanted this for you… I always thought when it was your time that you would be the one to hold the strings. Senator Corleone. Governor Corleone. Something… There just wasn’t enough time.” But even though Michael isn’t the most obvious choice, he does turn out to be better suited for the position than his brothers. Sonny, even if he didn’t die in a hail of bullets, is too unpredictable, too quick tempered. Michael, on the other hand, is calm and collected and treats what comes as part of the business. When he and Tom learn that Tessio (Abe Vigoda) is a traitor, Tom expresses surprise, but Michael takes the news calmly. “It’s the smart move. Tessio was always smarter.” Michael recognizes that power is up for grabs now that Vito is out of commission, and he doesn’t take it personally that people are trying to grab it. He doesn’t take it lightly, though, either.

The Godfather is a film that is brutal for the myriad ways in which people are threatened and killed, but within the context of the story the Corleones aren’t considered villains. Even when Carlo (Gianni Russo) is murdered after being reassured that nothing will happen to him (“Do you think I’d make my sister a widow? I’m Godfather to your son” Michael says), we the audience are assured that this isn’t bad since Carlo betrayed the family. There aren’t any traditional good guys in this film – the only cops are crooked and anyone whose not “with” the family is actively working against it. The film’s moral compass is skewed towards the Corleones because the story limits itself to them and the people who try to harm them; the people whom the Corleones harm through their various business endeavours don’t factor here at all.

It is easy to take measure of how influential The Godfather has been since it’s release. It had been echoed and quoted and satirized numerous times (perhaps most notably in The Freshman, where Brando plays a mobster who is a spoof of Don Corleone), and the image it created of the romanticized gangster – the honest man simply trying to run his business – continues to shape the way we look at the mob in film and television. But perhaps even more importantly it has transcended the realm of fiction to become, in a way, a philosophy of life. You don’t take sides against the family. It’s business, it isn’t personal. And you always leave the gun, but take the cannoli.