Introduction
The cinematic depiction of the cultural criminalization (intersection of crime and society) has been adequately expressed in some renowned films and mostly these films are categorized as ‘Mafia films’. Further, in terms of a significant illustration of the Italian mafia in the American society, two of the most remarkable cinematic works are those of Ford Coppola’s ‘The Godfather’ (1972) and Martin Scorsese’s ‘Goodfellas’(1990). Both these films have rendered their level best effort in romanticizing the private lives of the Italian mob in America and tries to explain the life of a Mafia with utmost clarity (Sims, "Was Goodfellas the Last Truly Great Mobster Film?"). In sync with the historical adaptations from the actual Italian mafia, these movies have some significant depiction of the actual attributes like criminal behaviour, violence, faith in the American dream, and stern cultural values related to ethics and loyalty. However, violence is the core theme of these mafia movies and the way these two films have depicted the violence has definite cinematographic adept involved in them. This essay aims at comparing the violence portrayed in Ford Coppola’s ‘The Godfather’ (1972) and Martin Scorsese’s ‘Goodfellas’(1990) to understand how the cinematographic excellence behind them had been applied to create these legendary masterpieces of the film history.
Violence in ‘The Godfather’ and ‘Goodfellas’
The central theme of both the movies is crime and concerned violence. However, ‘Goodfellas’ is definitely more brutal and reckless in the depiction of some of the violent scenes. The prime reason behind this requisite is based on the fact that succession of the mafia regimes and cartels by murder, assassination, and massacre had been the prevalent practice in the lives of the Italian mafia. For example, in Goodfellas, Karen and Henry Hill describe murder as a ‘normal’ process in their lives which was not a ‘big deal’ anymore. Multiple gunshots, encounters, and blood spill is shown in the movie in almost more than 16 scenes to explain the routine involvement of murder in the life of the mafia. Scorsese used his sense of familiarity with the crime world as a chief motto to describe his viewpoint via unconventional filmmaking techniques ( Porton, “Certain dreams: Martin Scorsese on Framing, childhood, and westerns”).
In ‘The Godfather’, there is a different style of illustrating the violence in the life of the Warring family members where a unique religious stance is juxtaposed to all the acts of murder. The acts of murder and gore are explained as a sense of divine justice for those who betrayed their cartel for more money and power. Even the acts of murder and physical assault of the family members are described as acts which could not be evaded as a part of the real justice done for treacherous conduct. The depiction of domestic violence is more explicitly explained in the Godfather when compared to Goodfellas.
Cinematographic techniques used for showing violence :‘The Godfather’ and ‘Goodfellas’
The iconic style of Martin Scorsese in using unconventional cinematographic techniques like his framing skills for portraying a character’s point of view in an entire scene has been well deployed in the Goodfellas ( Porton, “Certain dreams: Martin Scorsese on Framing, childhood, and westerns”). For example, the use of long take (an uninterrupted and uncut sequence) in the famous ‘Henry attacks on Karen’s neighbor who attacked her’ scene of the film is an epitome in itself. Scorsese has used his typical style of visually narrating the scene by chasing the character across various locations. This scene begins by chasing Henry as he casually walks close enough to the male neighbour and suddenly lands a punch on him. This scene’s sequence is uncut and then followed by Henry repetitive smashing the male neighbour’s face with the handle of his gun repeatedly. The camera remains horizontal to the ground and perfectly still to depict the entire scene with maximum clarity. The sound of punches grows steadily and the notion of savage brutality in Henry’s character gets fully illustrated.
Similarly, in order to depict an act of series of murders, Ford Coppola’s use of the parallel editing techniques in the famous Christening scene where the various stages of the christening event are intercut to show a series of murders. The presence of Michael Corleone as a Godfather in the various stages of the event are crosscut to simultaneous acts of murders being done at the other part of the city by his henchmen. Thus, the narrative effect of the two different happenings and the use of parallel editing imply that both the events are occurring at exactly the same time. The two acts of christening a family member and murdering the traitors to the family are shown to have common goals of safeguarding the family members.
Conclusion
Concluding, it can be deduced that both the films show the brutality of violence to be taken as a mandatory component of living the life of a mafia. Explaining the one side of violence, killing is expressed as a routine act for a mafia who is in pursuit of expanding and sustaining his crime empire in the Goodfellas. Similarly, the other side of the involved violence as a mode of rendering the divine justice for all the misdeeds of both outsiders and domestic traitors is envisaged in The Godfather. The excellent filmmaking techniques of both the makers have further ameliorated the direction, screenplay and fantastic acting performance by the legendary actors in both these films.
Works Cited
Horton, Peery. "Certain dreams: Martin Scorsese on Framing, childhood, and westerns".2014. Web. 20 June. 2016.
Sims,David. "Was Goodfellas the Last Truly Great Mobster Film?".2015. Web. 20 June. 2016.
