‘The Godfather’

The ‘Godfather’ is a great American film by Francis Ford Coppola and it portrays an image of modern American culture. The film introduces a family which is made up by father and children. The father is known as Don Vito Corleone (The Godfather) and he has three sons, one adopted son and one daughter namely: Micheal, Santino, Fredo, Tom Hagen (adopted son) and Connie the daughter (Puzo, 2002). The Godfather is the leader of the mafia family and one day he attends his daughter’s wedding together with his sons. Godfather is a character who likes maintaining peace to those who love peace but he is also ruthless to those who acts against his will.  He follows the traditional values though there is a confrontation between old and new ways of living (Puzo, 2002). A war emerges when the Virgil Sollozzo (drug seller) wants protection and support from the Corleone family and then he plans to give them a reward after selling the drugs.  When he takes the drug issue to Don Corleone, he rejects the idea and refuses the offer.  Since Sollozzo is not pleased by the Don Corleone moral act, he advises his hit men to kill Don but he survives from death and gives his son Michael the leadership to fight against the Sollozzo illegal acts (Puzo, 2002).

Michael is a hero who holds outlaw values in the entire film.  He does not have experience like his father but he struggles to fight his enemies and to maintain the old values.  Remember that Michael is the young brother who goes to fight for Americans in WW1 while his father is the leader of Mafia family and plays the role of maintaining law and rules.  After his father is shot, Michael feels that he must revenge and finish the Sollozzo and McCluskey who plans to kill his father (Puzo, 2002). Later, his father is hospitalized and Michael goes to visit him.  While in hospital, he notices that Both McCluskey and Michael are planning to kill his father. Michael takes the matter to the police station and finds that the McCluskey (police) has taken the bribe and instead of investigating the matter he breaks Michael’s jaw (Puzo, 2002).  At this point, the heroic nature of Michael is explicit in that he takes a strategic plan to kill Sollozzo and McCluskey. He requests them to have a small meeting in one restaurant to discuss the matter. Michael had already hidden a gun in the bathroom and so he leaves both Solozzo and McCuskey   in the dining room taking the meal and enters in the bathroom to take the gun. After few minutes Michael shots the two men on the head.

Michael is an outlaw hero who is controlled by individualism and self-determination, and a character whose actions benefits the family. This is because, there is a strong bond which unites the Corleone family and the violence is a result of the family unity (Puzo, 2002). After the death of the two men, Michael goes to Sicily and after two years he learns that his brother Sonny is killed.  He feels that he must go back to Newyork to find out the cause of deatrh. After his father’s death, Michael kills Michaelkills Tessio and Carlo Rizzi since they had planned the death of Sonny.  This shows that Michael loves his family and he commits the crime to ensure that there is safe (Puzo, 2002). Michael is an outlaw hero because he knows the right and the wrong things but he acts against the law and kills the criminals.

 

 

 

Reference

Puzo, M. (2002). The godfather. New York: New American Library.