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Rating: “I believe in America. America made my fortune. And I raised my daughter in the American way, giving her freedom, but I also taught her not to dishonor her family. She had a non-Italian boyfriend, they would go to the cinema together and come home late, and I didn’t protest. Two months ago, he invited her to a car ride with another friend of his. They made her drink whisky and then tried to take advantage of her. She resisted, she kept her honor. And they beat her, like an animal...”.
Like a great theatrical masterpiece, the film opens with a pivotal scene lasting about half an hour. A gaudy and boisterous wedding (the godfather's daughter is getting married) with many dialog niches in Don Vito's study. Amid dances and lavishly set tables, the director already constructs the entire conceptual framework of his work here, with dark and whispered windows opening like abysses in the gaudy and noisy context. The jovial and affectionate appearance on one side and on the other, the infinite meanders of the labyrinth of power that the godfather has managed to build and now master. Surely, the surprise effect comes with the boss's response, who pinpoints with a few exact phrases his value system. They're not just paid assassins. It’s a matter of friendship and favors.
No use beating around the bush. In strictly aesthetic terms, this is one of the most beautiful films ever. The artistic fabric is all exquisite, every sequence necessary and impeccable. A gallery of memorable characters, a narrative device that knows how to be simple, clear, yet relentless. A new, fresh epic because it is all immersed in the world of mafia and crime, and precisely because of this, irresistible. Coppola rewrites the rules of the game, and he knows it well. To do so, he cleverly acts in at least two respects.
In the exquisite quality of the writing, Coppola and Puzo make some minimal exaggerations. The characters are indeed memorable, Don Vito Corleone stands out like a giant, Clemenza is wonderful, but there's also some small apparent imperfection, necessary for the “greater good”. A somewhat crude scheme emerges in the dichotomy between Santino and Michael, there's perhaps too much insistence on the aggressive impulsiveness of the firstborn, who seems to lack nuances and intelligence to be Don Vito's son. Michael, on the other hand, makes a double somersault, from decorated soldier to new ruthless boss. A leap that's a bit too wide and sudden. These are imperfections born from the necessity of building a wide picture, with many characters and many shades of grey. If Don Vito is elusive and impossible to categorize, a sphinx without an answer, Michael is initially still unblemished. The ease and speed with which he becomes what everyone knows is not really among the highlights of the Puzo – Coppola duo.
The second aporia, much more significant and profound, concerns the choices. Unlike the second (and even more the third, despite its limitations) here the protagonists don't really make choices. There's never a real doubt instilled in the characters: Santino chooses and always will choose one path, Tom Hagen another, Michael yet a third. Free will is almost non-existent, not portrayed. The mechanisms are inevitable, like in a Greek tragedy, the fate of the protagonists is already written. The only real transition phase is Michael's, but as mentioned, it’s swift.
These, which seem like flaws, should be taken for what they are: necessary choices by the director to construct an epic narrative truly effective. Coppola knows very well he’s committing some stretches, but he can't help it. Time for doubt, for anguish, for moral torment will come later. Part II is such also due to the radical choices of this first work. Here we can truly speak of mafia heroes, the setting is exquisitely naive (not for naivety, but for extreme craftiness), and the viewer allows themselves to be carried away without objections. Coppola is the puppeteer who manipulates his audience's emotions at will, who finds themselves shamelessly cheering for someone who shoots people in the face. Like the flashback part in Part II, here too the portraits and scenarios are the offspring of a strongly secretive narrative, reticent about facts and topics that wouldn't benefit our protagonists' reputations. And so, the myth of Don Vito is built, the atrocities of Michael are accepted because they come as reactions to atrocities suffered. In the end, one loses orientation and finds pleasure in front of sequences no less than terrifying, like the one at the baptism, during which the new godfather has a clean sweep made.
But the filmmaker is not content with just subjugating us. After nearly three hours of keeping us in his pocket, with mouths open, he gives us a moment to open our eyes. Everything is accomplished, Carlo has been dealt with. The audience is satisfied, applauding. Then comes Connie, who desperately accuses her brother. And his wife, Kay, asks if he really did those things. After the great epic adrenaline, the viewer returns to the plane of reality, after the merry-go-round Coppola brings them back to earth. Now the henchmen are kissing the hands of the new Don and we feel like Kay, with the door closed in our faces, in the other room so as not to hear.
The deception of this film will be proposed in different forms in the second chapter. But the moods of the two works are too distant to make a comparison. To the Hamlet-like decadence of that one contrasts an impetuous epic in this first monumental work. As in war, as in myth, there is no guilt for the hero who kills. The chain of wickedness and revenge is too tight to distinguish a single moral tile. This is the strength of the film, which captivated everyone, both those who understood its fundamental problematic nature (here subtly avoided, but blinding in the finale that makes one reconsider ex-post everything that precedes it) and those who were naively deceived, spurred on by the dark beauty of such compelling plots. But in the end, we all fell for it, no denying it. Even James Caan, the actor who plays Santino, said that after seeing this film, you feel like being part of these families. In short, Coppola tricked him too.
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