The Godfather is considered one of the greatest films ever made. With a screenplay by Mario Puzzo and Francis Ford Coppola the film was directed and produced by Francis Ford Coppola, who played a powerful part in every part in every aspect of the making of the film, overseeing the editing of William Reynolds and Peter Seler. Each scene is perfectly constructed, and works with every other shot and scene in the film to create a narrative unity. The story of the Godfather unfolds in the dialogue and plat, the story of the characters, and the visual imagery of the film, including the editing. The scene being analyzed is the baptism scene of the first godfather movie. Also known as the Baptism monatge It is a crucial scene, as it allows resolution of plot points and allows Coppola to reveal the ideological contradictions of the movie, and the true character of the family.
The scene uses not traditional continuity which has movement from wide shots to close ups, but also mixes in a great deal of non-traditional coverage. There are at least 11 cameras and camera angles in the shot, and they are put together in the form of a collage, as time is compressed in the editing, so that all of these murders, literally all across the country seem to take place within the five minutes of the baptism. However, scenes showing men dressing, or sitting in a barbershop chair, or looking at a watch to mark the time of the death, is clearly occurring at different times, but made to seem to occur all during the five minutes of the actual baptism. Thus the scene takes place in real time, as each event is given its actual real time (only a few second for each killing and then to get away), but the various real time plot events are condensed down for the montage effect to seem like they happened during the baptism.
The cameras do not move, but there are complex developing shots, as several plot lines: the baptism, the execution of the five families, the settling of the scores the family has accrued during the film all develop during the scene. I believe that there cuts are matched on action, and there are no jump cuts, because montage time has already been established.
For a spit second we see the subjective point of view of Clemenza, and a momentary subjective subjective shot from the point of view of the man who kills Moe Green, however, there is not a true subjective point of view. Yet, if we consider the entire montage, we realize that even though Michael Corleone never leaves the church, and even the church scenes are not shot though Michael Corleone’s eyes, the entire montage presents the subjective mind of the new Don and Godfather of the Corleone family. Only Michael knows what is happening in its entirety; only he knows who will live and who will die, and how the five families will be wiped out. This gives Michael Corleone an almost omniscient point of view, an effect Coppala gives to Don Corleone once earlier in the film. This connection proves that Michael is the true heir of Don Corleone,
The characters are shown as both linked and in opposition. Michael and the loyal members of his crime family are aligned, linked, and the other bosses oare in opposition. However, there is one character, Kay who is never really shown, except that we know that she is at Michael’s side, but off camera. This established the role Kay will take in the family after his scene, when Michael assumes full control of the world of the rackets. She will be excluded from that life, and Michael will even lie to her about it, and finally, she will end up in opposition to the new Don Corleone, as shown by the famous scene of the door closing between Kay and the new godfather.
Yes, the scene uses intercutting parallel edits between both different locations and different times of the executions. The pacing is normal and deliberate; and it allows the viewer to understand the methodical nature of Michael’s mind; the pacing reveals that Michael is a great strategist, and a true heir to his father’s skills and title. The sound and picture match, and the voice over is of the priest reading the sacrament of baptism.
II. The editing serves the story in several ways. First, it is the scene where Michael assumes the throne and becomes ruler of the family. Although a baptism, the scene resonates with the religious ceremonies that would accompany a coronation. It also ties up and resolves the plot, and puts the Corleone family back on top. It establishes Michael as a calculating, rational strategist, as a true heir to his father. I believe the editing team chose this manner because it captured several themes of the movie. There is the mixture of the sacred and the profane, but the scene also shows both sides of the culture of Italian Americans. It also shows how foundational acts are often very bloody, but that they are justified by the various tools of ideology, like religion.
I think the timing, pacing and the structure of the edits has several effects on the audience. First, we are confronted with the change that has overcome Michael. Michael was a very sympathetic character, one for whom the audience grows affection, and the ‘good’s son, who was untainted by his father’s crimes. As he says at the wedding, “that’s my family Kate; it isn’t me” (Copalla). In this scene, Michael becomes the family, and there is no longer any separation between Michael and the family. Second, the tone of this scene creates the feeling that what is happening is the final scene in the tragedy of Don Vito Corleone, and I use tragedy in the classic greek to Shakespearean sense.
Don Vito was a great man, who rose from nothing and seeing his family murdered, to establish a kingdom. His goal was the basic immigrant’s American dream, to struggle and establish a great fortune so the next generations of the family can be established and accepted into American life. Don Vito has three sons, and although Michael is the smartest of the three, Don Vito does not want Michael to enter this life. He wants Michael to have the opportunities he never had. As Don Vito says to Michael after Michael has joined the family struggle and shortly before he dies, “I never wanted this for you. I worked my whole life to take care of my family and I refused to be a fool dancing on the strings held by those bighsotsso that when it was your turn that you would be the one to hold the strings” (Copalla). After Michael shake his head, Don Vito says “there wasn’t enough time Michael,” to which Michael replies “we’ll get their pops, well get there” (Copalla). Don Vito, wanted the classic American dream for his family, which all Italian Americans watching the film resonate with, thinking of the hard work and tough conditions their grandparents endured so their children could have an opportunity in America and their grandchildren could rise even higher. Don Vito thinks he has amused enough power to alter the conditions of the world, when, like in King Lear and Julius Caesar, the world, still not hammered into the new form envisioned by the great hero, strikes back. Don Vito is wounded to the point where he is too weak to run the family, and his first son dies and his second is a fool. Thus, in order to save the empire he built for, and in his family’s name, he must give up his dream. In order to save the family, the highest production of that family must be sacrificed. And this is the tragedy of Don Vito Corleone. He spent his entire life fighting to create an empire to leave his son Michael enough power and wealth that Michael could escape his fate and move into the real ruling class. Yet, because of the tragedy of his fall, he must bring Michael into the family to save it.
Works Cited
<citations>
