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Written by Sunil Dhokia Purpose Of The Analysis In this analysis, I will be exploring two movies in the gangster genre, The Godfather and American Gangster. The purpose of my analysis will be to look at the themes and therefore explore some of the deeper meanings that appear in both movies. Thesis The Godfather and American Gangster, whilst exploring different ethnic mafia groups, both cover the themes of The American Dream, violence, ego-driven protagonists and family. Note: I will be covering the basic story elements on The Godfather and American Gangster, as part of my discussion on the various themes in both movies. However, if you have not seen either movie, I would advise that you watch them first and then come back to my analysis to avoid any narrative details on these movies. What Are The Movies About? Before we dive into the analysis of these respective movies, it's worth giving a summary on each movie. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, The Godfather (1972) is a gangster crime-drama, which focuses on the Corleone family over 10 years and looks at the rise to power of one of its sons, Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) as the mafia boss of his family. Directed by Ridley Scott, American Gangster (2007) is a biographical crime-drama. The movie looks at the true story of criminal, Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) and his rise to power in Harlem, New York City, in which he smuggled and sold heroin in the United States via American service warplanes from Vietnam. The story also focuses on Ritchie Roberts (Russell Crowe), a police detective who leads a private task force to try and stop Frank Lucas's drug empire. How The American Dream Plays a Role in Both Movies? Kimberly Amadeo on The Balance website defines 'The American Dream' as the following: "The American Dream is the ideal that the government should protect each person's opportunity to pursue their own idea of happiness". The American Dream is manipulated and distorted in both movies to satisfy the personal wants and desires of Michael Corleone and Frank Lucas. Michael and Frank pursue lives that are directly involved in criminal activities, and therefore this already breaks away from the protection aspect of the definition that the government should provide in support of a person's career aspirations. Where the definition does apply to both characters is the "opportunity to pursue their idea of happiness". In the case of Frank, he is pursuing the idea of independence in his 'Blue Magic' drug product, particularly for how he deemed his former boss, Bumpy Johnson (Clarence Williams III) to have only managed and therefore not been an owner to his criminal activities, as Frank says "The white man owned it, so they owned him". Frank's pursuit of happiness, therefore, is to become the owner of his criminal organisation, in which the only person he reports to and is accountable for is himself. Michael's idea of happiness is to be there for his family at all costs. This is best exemplified upon his return to America from his exile in Sicily, Italy, particularly in the aftermath of his brother's death and to be there for his ageing father, who is in the twilight of his life. The difference between Frank and Michael's trajectory into the criminal world is that whilst Frank is the natural heir to Bumpy's enterprise, it's only at the moment that Vito Corleone is shot and a series of events that soon follow, that Michael's hand is forced to become the don of the Corleone family. The happiness for Michael, therefore, is for the safety and wellbeing of his family first and foremost, whilst simultaneously consolidating and growing the Corleone's family strength and muscle in the mafia underworld. For Frank and Michael, rather than the government per se, the police force in both stories is seeking to break down and destroy the happiness that these men have built up for themselves, despite the violent means in which these men have often gone about achieving this. However, during this era in New York's history, particularly during the 1960s and 1970s, it has been well-documented that corruption did exist and operate within the city's police forces. This is best exemplified in 'The Knapp Commission' committee that was formed in the early 1970s, by then Mayor of New York City, John Lindsay. The purpose of this committee was "to investigate the now-widespread allegation of corruption within the police department" (Vicent Amoroso, Culture Trip - 2016). In The Godfather, corruption is represented in the character of Captain McCluskey (Sterling Hayden), who is a dishonest policeman and on the payroll of crime boss Virgil Sollozo (Al Lettieri). In American Gangster, corruption comes in the shape of Detective Nick Trupo (Josh Brolin), who has an agenda of looking to get a cut of the money from Frank Lucas's 'Blue Magic' drug business. Both movies mix the fictional elements of their stories with real-world historical context, to break down the idea of what The American Dream is. That the government, who while have mostly good intentions for its citizens, aren't always able to spot and eradicate corruption within its various institutions such as their police forces. As a result, the very forces of law that should be protecting its citizens to freely pursue their dreams are the same individuals who manipulate those same laws in pursuit of their ideas of happiness. While hard-working honest folks like you and I, would never side with criminals such as Michael Corleone and Frank Lucas in their illegal pursuits of happiness, we can at the very least understand the historical context that informs the criminal direction that these characters take. This is for how they are unable to pursue the everyman persona i.e. a regular office job or get into positions of high power such as a Senator. This is due to corrupt police and law enforcement organisations and the racial prejudices that America held towards African-American and Italian-American people during this period in time. Therefore, one could argue the lack of respect shown by many Americans to immigrant families living in the country during this era, meant that immigrants were not always afforded the opportunities to progress through legal means of work. As a result, citizens like Michael and Frank often had no other choice but to resort to illegal means of work, to obtain high levels of power and wealth that were not afforded to them otherwise. Violence Something prevalent in the gangster genre since its early days is the depiction of violence. The severity of the violence shown on-screen, however, is all dependent on the type of story being told. Take for example the scene in The Godfather, when Vito Corleone sends his enforcer, Luca Brasi (Lenny Montana) to meet with Bruno Tattaglia (Tony Giorgio) and Virgil Sollozo is among the many acts of violence carried out in the movie. Both Coppola and his cinematographer, Gordon Willis, decided to use a combination of high and low-key lighting techniques and shadows. This decision from a filming standpoint allows us to infer that Coppola and Willis wanted the audience to differentiate between the good and evil aspects in each character. Particularly the moment when Luca Brasi is being strangled to death, the camera chooses to linger on Brasi, as the high-key lighting on Brasi's face allows the audience to experience Luca Brasi's pain at this moment. Coppola decides to use only a few cutaways in this scene to focus on Sollozo and Tattaglia, with William Reynolds and Peter Zinner's sharp editing and the use of low-key lighting on the actors' faces to show the cold, steely nature of these characters and the lack of emotion derived from killing a rival gang member. The shows the audience that these gangsters bear no guilt on their souls or conscious for the evil acts of violence that they commit to rival gang members, as they are the same qualities that allow them to consolidate and grow their mafia enterprises. In American Gangster, Ridley Scott and cinematographer, Harris Savides, know when to show the audience horrific acts of violence and when to infer such acts. Case in point, the scene in which Jimmy Zee (Malcolm Goodwin), Huey Lucas (Chiwetel Ejiofor), and an unnamed policeman are in Frank's luxurious apartment, as the various characters are consuming Lucas's 'Blue Magic' drug on a piano table. After Jimmy sees the policeman groping his partner, this leads to him shooting the cop in the leg. What follows is a hideous act of violence, as Scott and Savides focus on the emotional reactions of Huey and Jimmy's partner, complemented with bone-crunching sound effects of Lucas slamming the piano tabletop on Jimmy's head. This technique from the filmmakers to not show this violence allows the audience to experience the horror unfolding, without seeing any of the grotesque details. Scott wisely understands the less-is-more technique, as pictured in one's mind a heavy object such as a piano hurting an individual can be much impactful to an audience in conveying a disturbing act of violence, than seeing a mangled beaten figure of a human being on-screen. What can we observe from these movies is that Coppola and Scott don't just throw on-screen, acts of violence for the sake of fulfilling a checklist of the various tropes found in the gangster genre. More often than not, characters in well-written gangster movies will carry out acts of violence with a specific purpose or motive, as opposed to reacting in a fit of anger (though this can also happen if it's internally consistent with a character's arc a.k.a Tommy DeVito in Goodfellas - 1990). The purpose or motive of violence could be to gain something from the situation. For example, Luca Brasi's murder is for the Tattaglia and Sollozo crime families to send a message of intent to break down the Corleone family's power structure and therefore grow their respective empires in the process. The purpose or motive of a violent act could also be to stop a situation from escalating further. For instance, when Frank Lucas beats Jimmy to a pulp with a piano tabletop as a result of Jimmy shooting a police officer, Frank is looking to defuse the situation to avoid drawing attention to himself from the law. Both Scott and Coppola also cut to reactions of certain characters in key moments during scenes of violence. They both understand that capturing the emotional reaction from characters, to either convey the satisfaction in killing an individual or capturing the fear on a character's face as they witness such an act, allows for maximum emotional impact on the audience, so that the violence carries weight and significance within the context of the stories. Ego-Driven Protagonists Jason Hellerman at No Film School gives a great breakdown of the archetypal gangster for how they are portrayed in these genre movies as stated below: "They usually are materialistic, street-smart, megalomaniacal, and can be self-destructive". Both Michael Corleone and Frank Lucas share many of the archetypal, ego-driven qualities outlined by Hellerman, as there's quite a bit to unpack here. Frank's determination to go the source of the drugs, rather than selling a product that in his eyes is not pure, is his unrelenting desire to sell "a product that's better than the competition at a price that's lower than the competition. If we breakdown this line of dialogue, we can see the street-smart and megalomaniacal qualities in Frank's character. The street-smart quality of Frank comes from the first part of the line of the product being better than the competition. The movie explores this concept by choosing to show Frank travelling to the source of the drugs in Thailand, as he discusses with the Thai vendor the possibility of importing large quantities of heroin into America. Particularly, when the vendor tells Frank that he somehow expects to transport a 100 kilos of heroin into the U.S without being questioned by the authorities, Frank simply replies "that's right". At this point, Frank is not afraid of the dangers involved and is willing to do whatever it takes to the ship the drugs into the States, which convinces the audience that he is indeed a street-smart character. Furthermore, Ridley Scott and Harris Savides, decide to use low-key lighting on Frank's face and to cut back and forth between Frank and the Thai vendor during their conversation. The use of such lighting indicates the dark, dangerous qualities prevalent in a street-smart character like Frank and therefore shows the audience the overwhelming conviction that he'll be able to move the drugs into the U.S, without raising any suspicions. The price set lower than the competition part of Frank's line of dialogue conveys the megalomaniacal quality of his character. Screenwriter, Steven Zaillian, makes a point in the screenplay to convey in Frank's dialogue scenes that at no point is he concerned with his competition and the ramifications of selling a drug that might wipe them out of business. This concept is explored in his conversation with one of his competitors, Domonic Cattano (Armand Assante). Dom expresses to Frank how he has a monopoly on the illegal drug market in New York and that drug rivals such as own are suffering in the process. The line where Dom says to Frank "What about your fellow dairy farmers out here, Frank? Are you thinkin' of us? You thinkin' of them?" to which Frank replies "I'm thinking of them, Domonic, as about as much as they've ever thought about me", Ridley Scott allows the camera to stay fixed on Frank's character at just the right moments during this scene. The steady camera work coupled with Denzel Washington' acting, who throws in an appropriate amount of sarcasm in his response to Dom, conveys the lack of respect that people have shown to Frank during his rise as a drug lord. As a result, the story gives Frank a clear, logical reason, for why he has no sympathy for his competitors in the illegal drug market. Michael's ego veers towards the megalomaniacal archetype of a gangster. This comes from his desire to further his family's power and muscle within the mafia business. The scene where Michael is sat down in his house, having taken an unfortunate beating from the police captain, McCluskey, the full-shot view of Michael delivering his intentions of how he will kill both the police captain and rival crime boss, Sollozo, is brilliant foreshadowing from Coppola, with a slow push-in of the camera, that sells the idea of Michael being the head of the Corleone family someday. Even when fellow family members Clemenza and Tessio, laugh and scoff at the idea of a police captain being gunned down, Michael is unrelenting in his belief that the crooked, dishonest qualities of McCluskey are justifiable reasons to kill a person in an authoritative position. As a result, Michael's character arc is one that is not fazed by external conflicts that stand his way, namely rival crime families, and that his pursuit for absolute control and power will not be stopped by anyone or anything. What we can take from the scenes discussed above is learning some recurring patterns in the characters arcs of Michael and Frank. This includes their stubborn persistence to overcome obstacles to achieve their goals of growing their criminal empires, their anticipation to be one step ahead of their competition and their desire towards feeding their ego in their quest for obtaining wealth, power and control. Family Family plays a prominent role in both the respective stories of Michael Corleone and Frank Lucas. Take, for instance, the scene where Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) and his son, Michael are in the back garden of their home. The over-the-shoulder shot that Coppola uses of Michael looking at his father allows the audience to see a passing of the torch if you will. As we look at Vito in the later stages of his life, the knowledge and wisdom that he imparts to his son is the foundations of Michael's cold, calculating demeanour, that he would use to his advantage in his peak years as head of the Corleone family. The nuanced acting from Marlon Brando shows his character's regret for not wanting his son to go into the mafia business, as Coppola's use of a two-shot between Vito and Michael informs the audience that the former's time as don of the family is all but up. Also, the scene in which Michael is at the hospital, following his father being shot multiple times, his love and affection for his father's well-being and protection is shown throughout the scene. This includes Michael and Enzo (The Baker) guarding the front of the hospital, as one of the rival crime families scope the hospital, and Michael's refusal to leave the hospital grounds, as the police captain, McCluskey, hits him in his jaw for not co-operating. At each moment in this scene, Michael's resolve is tested, with the threat of danger ever-present, but his unconditional love for his father is the consistent throughline in his character's strength to protect him, no matter what dangers lay ahead. Likewise, Ridley Scott also uses a similar technique, but in this case, Frank Lucas's wife, Eva, (Lymari Nadal) becomes the conduit for which the audience understands how Frank became the man he is today. The passing of the torch has already taken place at this point in the story, with Frank well underway to establishing himself as a major crime figure in both Harlem and New York. In the scene at Frank's house, when he is talking to Eva about Bumpy, Scott uses a low-medium shot, which effectively humanises this otherwise evil character to explain the importance of Bumpy on Frank as a person. The combination of this shot, combined with Denzel Washington's low tone of voice shows us the softer, emotional side of Frank whenever he talks about Bumby, as expressed in the line "He taught me how to take my time, taught me that if I was going to do something to do it with care, love". This allows us to understand how Frank justifies his decision-making process, not only in his criminal activities but in his family life as well. A common link between Michael and Frank is that whilst they always try to separate business and family, their actions in the criminal world always seem to come back to affect their loved ones in some shape or form. Take, for instance, the scene when Frank Lucas has Detective Trupo's Shelby Mustang blown to smithereens, has almost an immediate consequence as Trupo and his fellow corrupt group of cops break into Lucas's mansion to try and locate the getaway money that every gangster conceivable hides in the event of an emergency. At this moment, we feel for Frank's mother and his wife, Eva, who are perils to the damage done by Trupo and his men in trying to locate this money. Screenwriter, Steve Zaillian, also decides to have Eva stand up to Trupo when he asks her where the getaway money is located. As Trupo slaps her on the face, we quickly realise that standing up to these crooked individuals does not change their moral compass in the slightest, as Frank's mother is unable to help Eva in this terrible situation. During the third act of The Godfather, when Michael's wife, Kay (Diane Keaton) has suspicions of his potential involvement in the mafia business, Michael convinces Kay that the Corleone family will become fully legitimate within five years. As an audience, we know this not to be true at all, as any mafia business always involves an illegal element or elements to their operations. At this point in the story, Kay and her children are now sadly trapped in the ecosystem of the mafia underworld. At the end of the movie at Michael's home, when various individuals pay respect to Michael as the new don of the Corleone family, Kay views this moment from afar, just like the audience, as we are only given a glimpse into his mafia lifestyle. The powerful, yet simple shot of the door closing on Kay, signalling that she is to be left out of Michael's business affairs going forward and therefore informing us the beginning of a troubled, and turbulent relationship for both Michael and Kay. The dark paths that our protagonists take in these movies inform us that gangsters can never escape the consequences of their actions in the mafia business. As a result, it always inevitable ends in hurt or death for either the main protagonist or the ones they hold near and dear to them. Conclusion Based on the thesis provided at the beginning of this analysis, we can now decipher the following themes and therefore deeper ideas found in both The Godfather and American Gangster: The American Dream, while distorted and manipulated by the central protagonists of Michael Corleone and Frank Lucas, the historical context and ethnicity issues presented in both stories show that the very authorities that uphold The American Dream can also distort this national value for their gain. Violence is prevalent in many key scenes and moments across both movies. The violence is there to not glamorise the hideous acts on-display, but rather as a way for our characters to further their criminal exploits or to contain escalating situations that may draw attention to the characters illegal activities. Ego is a trait that our protagonists display in both movies, as these characters will often use these traits to their advantage to gain more power and control in their criminal ventures. Family plays a central role in our protagonists' respective character arcs. They begin their journeys by learning the behaviours and tendencies from their fathers and in turn learn to adopt the violent side of their role models in their path towards criminality. On the flip side, the protagonists will also learn and adopt the softer, warmer sides of their fathers' personas, particularly the protagonists' desire to do whatever's necessary for the safety and protection of their families. There are also consequences for women who marry into this way of life, as the material enjoyment of this lifestyle quickly dissipates into one that is filled with uncertainty and danger, that at any moment, it can all be taken away. Parting Musical Gift Whilst my analysis on the gangster genre has been a professional piece, it would seem ludicrous to not continue the trend that I have done in most of my articles thus far by including a piece of music, in this case from Nino Rota's classic score, The Godfather (1972). The song that I have chosen which best encompasses not only the romantic themes present in that movie but across the gangster genre as a whole is the 'Love Theme from The Godfather'. Your Thoughts What are your thoughts on The Godfather and American Gangster? Do you agree that the themes in this analysis cover both movies adequately or are there any others that you think are worthy of inclusion in your analysis of these movies? Comment below, as I would love to hear your thoughts. All images above belong to Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures and any other respective owners. All YouTube content below belongs to their respective owners. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.
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About MeMy name is Sunil Dhokia, I'm a movie fanatic and love all things Hollywood. Blog Archives
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