Michael Corleone has learned a lot from his family over the years. Never tell anyone outside the family what you’re thinking. Don’t discuss business at the table. Leave the gun, take the cannoli.
But most importantly, never forget to show proper respect to Michael’s father, Vito Corleone, “Don” of the Corleone family and “Godfather” to all who offer him friendship.
Of course, not everyone seems to have gotten this memo.
Although the five Italian mob families that run New York’s crime syndicate generally avoid going to the mattresses, Sollozzo, aka “The Turk,” starts an all-out war after Vito turns down his offer to add drug-dealing to the Corleone family’s business ventures.
Sollozzo had hoped that Sonny, Vito’s eldest son who showed interest in Sollozzo’s plan, would take over the family in the event of Vito’s death. What he hadn’t counted on was Vito surviving the assassination attempt and Sonny seeking vengeance.
But Sollozzo won’t give up hope just yet. He has the backing of the Tattaglia crime family, after all. And he’s pretty sure that he can reason with Vito and Sonny by appealing to Michael, who’s been kept out of the stickier elements of his family’s dealings and who generally avoids violence after seeing his fair share of it in the war.
Unfortunately for Sollozzo, Michael also learned this lesson: Never takes sides with anyone against the family.
The Corleone family deals in organized crime. As such, many of their seemingly noble values are tainted by their misdeeds. That said, many characters demonstrate loyalty to their friends and families. A few men seem to have a sense of protection, keeping women and children out of the fray. And at least one man wants to make the Corleone business legitimate so he can live an honest life.
Godfather is more than just a title held by Don Corleone. He actually is the godfather to Johnny Fontane, and we’re told that this religious position is taken very seriously by the Italian people. Later on, Michael himself becomes a godfather to his nephew, and we see the ceremony take place in a church. It’s presided over by a Catholic priest, where Michael states his belief in the Holy Trinity and renounces Satan.
In other instances, priests perform marriage ceremonies and funeral services. Sonny Corleone wears a cross necklace. Angels and crosses adorn headstones in a graveyard. Michael’s girlfriend asks him if he’d like her better if she were a nun after watching The Bells of St. Mary’s. A man swears on the souls of his grandchildren.
We see a woman’s exposed breasts just before she and her husband have sex (offscreen). A couple has sex onscreen fully clothed. Two men have extramarital affairs (which are hidden by their friends). A movie producer says he’s had sex with many young actresses, but he’s angry that Don Corleone’s godson “ruined” one, the implication being that he got the woman pregnant. We hear about other unmarried people having sex.
While Michael is hiding overseas, he marries a woman, even though he still technically has a girlfriend in the States (though they’d been out of contact). Several couples kiss.
We hear that women in a town are “virtuous,” and Michael angers one woman’s father after expressing interest in her. However, he apologizes for offending the man and courts the woman (they’re chaperoned), marrying her before anything sexual occurs.
We hear that prostitution is one of the businesses of the mob families. A man gets mad when someone tries to bribe him with prostitutes. Someone is frisked for weapons in an invasive manner. We see a man sleeping in nothing but boxers.
It probably won’t come as a surprise that a film about mobsters has a lot of bloodshed. Dozens of characters are shot, and blood pours from their wounds. We also see stabbings and strangulations. Some people survive, some don’t. But nearly every death in this film is the result of carefully organized crime.
A woman is killed by a car bomb that was meant for her husband. After a man is gunned down, one of his assailants kicks his corpse. A man falls to the ground, dead from natural causes, as he plays with his grandson. A few characters are roughed around a bit. Michael gets his jaw broken by a corrupt police officer.
A man wakes to find a horse’s severed head in his bed, soaking the sheets in blood. The Corleones are sent a dead fish as a message that one of their men is dead.
In one scene, Connie, Vito’s daughter, is savagely beaten by her husband, Carlo. She starts smashing dinnerware after learning of an extramarital affair, and he hits her repeatedly with a belt. And this isn’t the first time since we see her with a bruise on her face.
Sonny retaliates after one of these incidents by attacking Carlo in the streets, punching, kicking and even biting the man viciously, promising to kill him if he ever harms Connie again. (Connie begs her brother not to harm her husband, even blaming herself since she struck first.) And that’s not the end of violence in this triangulated trio of relationships.
We hear that two men got a woman drunk and then tried to rape her. When she resisted, they beat her, breaking her nose and jaw (which had to be wired shut). Don Corleone agrees to make the men suffer when the woman’s father begs him for justice.
There are many death threats, and the Corleone family fondly refers to this as “making them an offer they can’t refuse.” One man was told either his brains or his signature would be on a contract. We hear that some politicians have used the mob to have people killed.
Mob goons smash a photographer’s camera at a wedding after he snaps some pics of mob bosses. (Though they give the man cash to replace the equipment.) Don Corleone slaps his godson for crying, telling him to “act like a man.”
The f-word is said once in Italian. God’s name is abused 11 times (eight of those uses paired with “d–n”), and Christ’s name is abused once. We hear a single use of the n-word used as a slur, as well as derogatory slurs for Italian, German and Irish peoples. There are several uses each of “a–,” “b–tard,” “b–ch,” “d–n,” “d–k” and “h—.” And a woman is called a “whore” by her husband.
Don Corleone declines Sollozzo’s offer to invest in heroin because he thinks it’s a dangerous vice that will cause politicians to turn against him. (But he has no problem with alcohol.) Eventually, the mob families agree to control the distribution of heroin, ensuring that it won’t come near schools or be sold to children. We hear that a celebrity switched from marijuana to heroin.
Various characters drink throughout the film. They also smoke cigarettes, cigars and pipes. A few scenes take place in bars.
Several members of New York’s police force, most notably Capt. McCluskey, are on the payrolls of the mob families. (And McCluskey arranges for guards at a hospital to be absent so that mobsters can sneak in and kill someone.)
Much of Don Corleone’s power stems from the fact that he has several judges and politicians in his pocket. We hear that a judge suspended the sentence of two men who beat a woman after she resisted rape.
People lie and betray. Someone jokes about theft. A man spits on an FBI agent’s badge. A woman spits on her brother. Gambling is one of the Corleone’s business dealings, and they own a few hotels and casinos.
A man is called fat. We hear someone urinating. A man neglects to tell his girlfriend that he loves her in front of his friends because he’s embarrassed.
You know, Michael repeatedly tells people that “it’s not personal, it’s just business.” Yet many of the actions he and his family take seem very, very personal.
If you hit a woman, you’re made to suffer. If you make a deal with the wrong person, you’ll get sent away. And if you betray the Godfather, your life will end.
It isn’t until after the sons of the five crime families start getting killed that Don Corleone finally acknowledges a very simple fact that ends the fight between them all: Vengeance won’t bring back their sons.
Of course, by that point, audiences have already had to witness a war’s worth of bloodshed. Not to mention a few sex scenes, foul language and domestic violence.
The Godfather won the Oscar for Best Picture in 1973, and it’s been on the American Film Institute’s top 100 list since the list was first published in 1998. We’re reviewing it now as part of Plugged In’s efforts to cover some classic films that came out before Plugged In existed.
And after reading what sort of problematic content is in this critically lauded film, aren’t you glad we did?
Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.
