The Godfather Part I

      For years, American pop culture has been portraying mobsters in a very similar way and all these ideas derive from a 1972 cinema classic, The Godfather. The Godfather is an American crime film series that follows a family of mobsters and their trials and tribulations in the underworld. Francis Ford Coppola was the pioneer director of these types of mafia movies and he set the path for most of the other films that were made about the same subject. This film has a very certain style of all cinematic elements including cinematography, score, and settings. From the opening scene, the camera uses a certain style that it uses throughout the film to show importance to the character speaking, and the same goes for the setting. In the first scene, the character the audience first sees has one dim light above him in an otherwise mostly dark room, which creates tension and gives great importance to that specific character. Merely moments later, the camera pans out to not only reveal a larger, shadowy figure in the side of the shit, but it takes away the importance on the character we first saw. The dim light and use of darkness on character's bodies as well as settings is used throughout the film to display several different themes. For example, for the first half of the movie, Michael Corleone, is never fully shining in light when discussing family mafia business, but later on at a turning point, Michael is the main focus on the camera with full light on him as he says some of the most significant dialogue in the film, and that is the turning point for his character. This is made very clear to the audience and the use of lighting helps very much. The use of the dolly to pan out with the character is something that is used a lot and the audience sees more throughout the film. This American classic was the archetype for American mobster films.
       Although it may be over 40 years old, The Godfather has a cast consisting of many current A list actors and actresses who went on to have incredibly successful careers after the 1972 classic. Marlon Brando plays the "Godfather" and as well as him, the main family consists of Al Pacino, James Caan, and Robert Duvall. It's very interesting to see the progression in these actor's skills and how far they've come in terms of acting from 1972 to the present. One of the things that I believe is the most intriguing about The Godfather is just how well it holds up in modern times. In present cinema, most movies are filmed very technologically and come in incredibly high quality with a lot of CG effects, but the subject matter as well as the effects and stunts in The Godfather still hold their own in modern times. In my eyes, this film is a true American classic and showed modern cinematic directors many ways to introduce themes and elements through the use of things such as lighting and camera use. Without this film, the idea of mobsters would not be what pop culture displays it to be.