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The Godfather Essay examples

Decent Essays

The Godfather is the story of a Mafia family. It follows the rise of Michael Corleone within the family. Michael was once a war hero and did not want to be involved in the family business. When his father is shot though, Michael takes revenge on the people who did it and becomes a part of the Mafia lifestyle. When his older brother is murdered, Michael ascends to become the boss of the family, and proves to be more ruthless than his father and brother combined. The scene that I am analyzing is one where Michael is becoming his nephew’s godfather at his baptism.
The Godfather is a traditionally edited movie. This particular scene however uses Eisenstein’s method of montage editing. Francis Ford Coppola uses …show more content…

There are no special camera angles, with the exception of a few close-ups. The camera remains stationary. The meaning of the scene is inferred through the editing and the content. Coppola uses this montage in order to give the audience an insight into Michael. He contrasts religion and murder in order to show the complexity of Michael. The newly baptized baby is without sin, and Michael is his guardian into life. Michael is extremely sinful; he has ordered murder as he is taking the godfather vows. The use of religion and murder contrasted is representative of Michael himself. It is used to show the mix of good and evil in him. In Hegel’s dialectic, Michael is the synthesis, a twisted mix of good and evil. The line between the two has become blurred for him. He claims to reject Satan yet he commits the worst sin. He claims to believe in god, yet does not follow the tenets of religion. He is the guardian of this child without sin, and he is full of sin.
Coppola chose to use a montage in this segment.
The hard cuts between such polar opposites as baptism and murder reflects on the contrasts in the main character. Overall, Coppola used this segment to communicate how twisted Michael has become. Michael can no longer distinguish between good and evil or right and wrong. He only evaluates his actions on whether or not they help him. It also shows the changes he has made in the movie. The baptism and

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