Vizcaya University of the Americas

Ensenada Campus

The Godfather by Francis Ford Coppola

Presented by:
Diana Ramon Galicia

English I
Presents:
Marielle Corleone

Ensenada Baja California a, November 25, 2022.

Index
The Godfather's Overview.................................................................................................................3
Analysis..............................................................................................................................................4
Biography Francis Ford Coppola.........................................................................................................6
Cinematography.................................................................................................................................6
Bibliography.......................................................................................................................................8
 The Godfather's Overview

Don Vito Corleone is the head of the Corleone family who hails from Sicily.
The film begins with the wedding of Don Corleone's daughter, Connie, to Carlo. Don
Corleone in his home office (where the wedding took place) during the wedding. People go
there to pray for him, to ask for forgiveness or to congratulate him on his wedding. When a
funeral entrepreneur approaches him and asks him to beat some young men who are beating
his daughter, Don Corleone warns him that if he finishes his service, they will have to pay
something in return. His godson, Johnny Fontaine, was also going to receive him and asked
him to go to California to talk to a film producer, who had rejected him. . Don Vito sends
Tom Hagen (his adopted son) to talk to the producer (Woltz). Don Vito's youngest son,
Michael (he didn't see his family for a long time after the war because he was a sailor)
came to the party with his girlfriend Kate. At first, he refuses to cooperate with his father
when Sonny (Santino, Don Vito's second son) raises it. In California, Tom (a lawyer) goes
to the studio to meet with the producer, and Waltz makes him drink and tells him
everything. Immediately afterwards the two appeared in the room, and Waltz said, "You
should have said earlier that you were Don Corleone's son. Here we Italians are very
grateful." He showed her a house and a horse, a wonderful horse, Khartoum, which was
worth $600,000. Although they continued to talk, Waltz did not give up, and when he was
rejected again, Tom said goodbye and left. That same night, Volz fell asleep and suddenly
woke up to find his hands covered in blood, and behind the sheets he found a horse's head.
Clemencia (Vito's best friend, this story is told in The Godfather 2) talks to Don Vito
because Solozzo (Don from another family) wants to start a deal in the New York drug
market. Don Vito rejected the deal, saying that getting involved in drug trafficking would
only cause more problems for the family. At the end of the meeting, Solozzo spoke in a
very exaggerated tone, especially very angry. Luca Brasi (Don Vito's main bodyguard)
talks to Don, who orders him to talk to Solozzo and says, "The Corleone won't make me
much money."

Luca is in a bar with Bruno Tatalli (the son of the head of the Tatalli family)
and Elturco (Soloco, they call him the Turk, because their main plantations are in Turkey).
There they talked and agreed. As they were about to shake hands, they threw a knife at
Lucas' hand before jumping off the table and strangling him with a rope.

Rogue opposes and begins a war that will lead to death, persecution and
more, where the desire for dominance and revenge will control its hero. As a result of the
war, some people from both sides were killed, including one of Vito's sons, and he himself
was seriously wounded. After the signing of the peace treaty, Vito has accepted the
distribution of drugs and has used his influence to obtain the necessary permits, a
seemingly calm atmosphere begins to permeate, which does not last long until another
conflict breaks out.

A few years later, the godfather dies, and that's when his son Mike takes over
the organization and decides to defy the peace treaty and start a war that many will not be
able to avoid, taking revenge on all the enemies of his family.

Analysis
The Corleone Company

The Corleone company has as its main activity gambling, its objective in addition to
maximizing the profits of the business for its shareholders, seeks to ensure the well-being
and quality of life of the members of the family. The general direction is in charge of the
founding father, Don Vito Corleone. The branches of the company are managed by
relatives (godchildren), who report the results to the general manager. The operational
direction of the company is shared by Sonny, Michael, Tom and Fredo. The company was
named one of the top 6 fictional family dynasties in America in the 1950s.

Succession

After the murder of Don Vito and serious health problems, the process of succession
of the Corleone family begins. Sonny, the oldest and most experienced son, took over his
father's business. He relies on Tom, Carlo and Clemenza to keep things going, and as his
father recovers, so does Michael. Sonny was accepted into the company from an early age
and was trained by Don Vito to be his successor. However, he was assassinated ending his
succession. Then, even though Fredo was the second eldest son, but given his few
managerial skills, Michael is appointed the new director "Godfather" of the company.

Family protocol

1. It is forbidden to involve women in the family business.

2. The affairs of the company will never be discussed at the table, at lunchtime.
Sonny: Black people are enjoying our banking policy there in Harlem. They drive new
Cadillacs; they pay the bets well. I knew it would happen when they had money. Connie:
Dad never talks about business at the table.

3. Do not mix business issues with those of the family.

4. You should never act against the family.

5. Godchildren must have loyalty to their godfather.

6. There will be no response with acts of violence that harm other families of power.

7. When the founding parent is negotiating, his children should not get involved,
they will only listen.

Values

The founding father established a series of values on which the members of the
family-company must be conducted, among them: loyalty, respect and family. The first
concerns, on the one hand, the commitment of the children and close relatives to the
business and to Don Corleone, to be honest in their actions, and on the other, the honesty of
their godchildren to respond to the requests of the Godfather when he requested his
services.

The second, refers on the one hand of the children to Don Corleone, since he made
the decisions, and his children could not be against or claim their father for them. On the
other hand, godchildren should treat him with honor and always serve him. And finally,
between the families of power, there should never be confrontation.
 The third tends to put family interests before any situation. No matter how great the
financial loss, family security and peace of mind are always paramount. However, the
Fredo effect appears at the end of The Godfather I, where the hero rebels against the
family's decisions.

Biography Francis Ford Coppola

Francis Ford Coppola was born on April 7, 1939, in Michigan (United States) into a
family of artists. Son of musician Carmine Coppola and actress Italia Coppola, at the age of
9 he becomes seriously ill with polio, and it is during his convalescence when he begins to
feel attracted to the world of cinema. In 1957, at the age of 18, he enrolled at Hofstra
University and began his studies in Dramatic Arts, where he would excel thanks to his great
artistic gifts and establish his first contacts. He finally graduated in 1960 from the
prestigious University of Los Angeles. In 1969 he founded his own film company and a
year later won his first Oscar as screenwriter of 'Patton'. In 1972 Paramount commissioned
him to direct and script 'The Godfather', a proposal that would change his life as it became
a box office phenomenon and won three Oscars. The second part of the film, released in
1974, manages to maintain the success of the first and consecrates him as a filmmaker.

In 1991 he decided to carry out 'The Godfather III' which, although it receives very
good reviews and nominations, does not obtain the success of the previous ones. This title
is followed by a new version of 'Dracula' (1992), 'Jack' (1996) or 'The Rainmaker' (1997).
Throughout his career as a filmmaker, Coppola also develops his facet as a producer.

Cinematography
Director Francis Ford Coppola's film goes beyond the idea of good and evil, as
absolute values.
It inserts a form of violence that had not been seen in the cinema until that moment,
highlights Edgar Adrián Mora Bautista
Shown for the first time on March 15, 1972, it transformed the way the films were
distributed and released, he says.
The film emerges in a specific era of changes, where elements such as the idea of
the filmmaker as an author and this confrontation between what is called the "old" and the
"new Hollywood" appear, with former studio films where a "Star System" worked in an
efficient, but uniform, way abounds.
The also master in Latin American Studies from the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters
adds: the film by director Francis Ford Coppola transformed the way of distribution and
exhibition for the first time.
"Before, the film was released in two or three cinemas and from there, as the weeks
went by and they gained an audience, the number of theaters assigned to them extended.
From The Godfather, in its second week of exhibition, what there will be is a national
premiere and that will impact later on the policies also of distribution of the tapes, "he
emphasizes.
Audiovisual archetype
Mora Bautista explains that it is one of the few historical productions that has the
widespread consensus of the average viewer and critics: it is a great work.
"Because his characters are multidimensional, and that impacts the viewer, it is what
transforms the perception and reception of his cinematic messages. As an example is the
generation of sympathy in the antihero; That is, the film goes beyond the idea of good and
evil, as absolute values," he says.
The public looks at the mafioso who lives from crime, who has a questioned form of
sustenance, also as a character with a hint of authority and justice.
"Vito Corleone became an audiovisual archetype to refer to the mafioso. In fact,
when someone plays one in the movies, even as a parody, there is this idea of the hoarse
voice, of cadence when speaking, which is a way of identifying the idea of leadership
within the mafia. It is an archetype that has had many subsequent derivations," he says.
 Bibliography
Análisis del filme “El Padrino” desde una perspectiva de la Empresa Familiar. (s. f.-b).

https://www.boletin.upiita.ipn.mx/index.php/cultura/647-cultura-numero-52/1226-

analisis-del-filme-el-padrino-desde-una-perspectiva-de-la-empresa-familiar

Francis Ford Coppola. (s. f.). SensaCine.com. Recuperado 24 de noviembre de 2022, de

https://www.sensacine.com/actores/actor-372/biografia/