The film “The Godfather”, directed by Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola, is a wonderful conjecture that invites us to contemplate the Mafia fully on its terms. That is why we have sympathy for characters who are inherently evil. Don Vito Corleone is a sympathetic and rather adorable character; throughout the film, this lifelong professional criminal acts in a way that viewers cannot disapprove of. This is one of the main reasons this film is a classic and an untraditional gangster movie.
The script for The Godfather does not follow a single formula other than the classic structure in which authority shifts between generations. However, inside Coppola’s films were some of the genre reinventions that set The Godfather apart from the classic gangster films. The main character in the movie is an involuntary criminal boss, forced by both circumstance and birthright to become the leader of a crime syndicate. With their humble origins and rise to power, the plot elements are presented as memories not of Michael but of his father, the man whose death prompts Michael’s life in organized crime (Barsam and Manahan, 92). Finally, Michael is unusual in that he gains power and prestige but is not eliminated by corruption and greed.
Based on the above arguments, it is clear that The Godfather is a unique representative of the gangster film genre. Its innovation lies in the fact that it shows gangster life from a completely different perspective. Instead of describing the blunts and their victims, the film shows the fate of a young head of a syndicate who becomes one through no fault of his own, which is atypical for such films.
Works Cited
Barsam, Richard and Dave Manahan. Looking at Movies: An Introduction to Film. 5th ed., W.W. Norton & Co, 2016.