The Godfather – Francis Ford Coppola – Movie Analysis

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Movie Analysis - The Godfather
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The Godfather in brief

Story&Drama analyzes and comments for you The Godfather, a 2h56 feature-length film by Francis Ford Coppola, part I of the Godfather trilogy, released in 1972, whose 120 page script written by Coppola and Mario Puzo adapts the 1969 best-selling novel by Puzo.

  • Title: The Godfather
  • Year of release : 1972
  • Scriptwriters: Mario Puzo et Francis Ford Coppola
  • Director: Francis Ford Coppola
  • Genre: gangsters, drama, family epic, tragedy, romance
  • Sequences: 15
  • Plots: 27
  • Characters playing at least 2 actantial roles: 15
  • Total of actantial roles: around 100
  • Character playing most roles : the 8 most important characters (Michael, Vito, Barzini, Tattaglia, Sollozzo, Hagen, Clemenza and Sonny) cumulate 61 roles, half of the total number of actantial roles

One of the most critical and commercial successes of all time in cinema, The Godfather showcases the talents of actors such as Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall and Diane Keaton and mixes a variety of different genres: gangster story, drama, family epic, tragedy, with elements of period drama, action movie, and romance.

Don Vito Corleone The Godfather - Marlon Brando

Media and genre

Feature-length film of 176 minutes (2h56), released in 1972, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, The Godfather mixes a variety of different genres: gangster story, drama, family epic, tragedy, with elements of period drama, action movie, and romance.

The script written by Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo adapts the eponymous novel by Mario Puzo that quickly became a best-seller after its release in 1969. This script is 120 pages (so, less than one page of script for one minute of movie).

Production and reception

Produced by Paramount, mainly shot in New York and Sicily from the 29th of March 1971 to the 6th of August 1971.

Despite many production problems, the movie became one of the most critical and commercial successes of all time. Produced for an amount of 6 millions dollars, it made 268 million dollars during the next 40 years (statistics: 2012)… It won an Oscar for the best film, best adaptation and best actor (Brando) and was nominated 7 additional times.

The Godfather has remained one ot the most critically-acclaimed movies in cinema. According to audiences: on IMDB, the film is ranked n°2 of all the movies of all times, with a mark of 9.2/10, amongst a survey of more than 560,000 votes. Where The Godfather II is ranked 3rd with a mark of 9/10.

Actors

Apart from Marlon Brando and Al Pacino, the movie showcases talents such as James Caan, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Richard S. Castellano, Richard Conte, Al Lettieri, Sterling Hayden, John Cazale, Simonetta Stefanelli.

Coppola gave supporting roles to his own sister Talia Shire (Connie Corleone, Vito’s daughter), to his mother Italia Coppola (Vito’s wife, Sonny-Fredo-Michael’s mother) and even to his daughter Sofia Coppola who, as a baby, plays Michael’s nephew in the final baptism. The film really is a true family story.

Marriage of Michael Corleone in Sicily

Story outline

A fascinating story

The Godfather showcases the dynastic transition from the beginning of the 20th century to the post-war era around 1945 to around 1955 amongst a family of Italian gangsters (interestingly enough, the term “Mafia” is never mentioned). The family is part of a cartel of five families who oversee a series of illegal business activities in New York City.

The story opens with the reign of the aging patriarch Vito Corleone, also known as “The Don”.

The Corleone clan (Luca Brasi, Tom Hagen, Fontane, etc) will soon have to fight against the Five families alliance Sollozzo / Tattaglia / Barzini – the two sides of mobsters disagree about the topic of selling narcotics.

The main plot focuses in on the reign of Vito’s younger son Michael who sits at the periphery but finds himself thrust to the head of the family business when the Godfather Don Corleone is murdered, which leads to the assassination of the Mob leaders.

Michael Corleone as the new Godfather

Other side plots detail the secondary aspects of the Corleone family’s life, particularly a beautiful love story of Michael exiled in Sicily.

The Italian-American family saga will continue in the other two parts of the trilogy, the sequels Godfather II and Godfather III, which will be built around the character of Michael Corleone, reaching the strength of age and then aging, his power attracting enemies even in his family and in the Catholic Church.

A masterful scenario

The Godfather tells its story with near perfect virtuosity:

  • A complex and intricate narrative composition
  • Unforgettable, endearing and charismatic, contrasted and deep main characters
  • A seizing hyper-density of highlights and emotionally strong moments,
  • A quasi permanent suspense
  • Some genius theatrical strikes
  • A masterful concealment of essential information
  • A huge quantity of drama and narration special effects

Story analysis

Our analysis offers you to learn from the scene by scene study of the movie, which allows to see the deep structures, to get inspired from the technical mastership of highly-skilled scriptwriters.

Our analysis provides you:

  • A detailed and commented summary of the movie, scene by scene, listing all the remarkable narrative and dramatic effects.
  • A detailed commentary about the plots.
  • A commentary about the characters and their actantial and thematic roles.
  • A study of the story parameters: timeduration, timelines, places
  • A study of the themes related to the characters and storylines.
  • A study of genres, registers and colours used.
  • A study of focusing and views.

Learn to write movie scripts from the best scriptwriters.

The Godfather cut horse head

Table of Contents

Introduction

  • The Godfather in brief
  • Methods and tools

Full scene by scene summary and commentary

The Godfather - film summary and commentary
The Godfather – film summary and commentary

Synthesis – plots, characters and story settings

  • The plots
The Godfather - plots analysis
The Godfather – plots analysis
  • The characters
    • Analysis of the actantial roles
  • Time, durations, chronologies
    • Plots duration
    • General chronology
The Godfather's general chronology - script analysis
The Godfather’s general chronology – script analysis

General conclusion

Enjoy your reading !

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