Tre Cliché Cinematografici di Coppola

Page to Picture Part Four

J. K. Tang

FROM HORSE HEADS TO COTTON-BALL CHEEKS, Coppola’s The Godfather saga has sustained itself as the pinnacle of Italian-American literature. Through the multigenerational gaze of the Corleone family, we watch the seamless projection of Puzo’s canon onto the silver screen and Sicilian familial principle onto the New York crime scene. This projection, across mediums and cultures, stamps its own conventions and trope into the ‘mafia’ genre. Here’s to name a few…

1. Corleone’s Cotton-Chin

As cinema immerses itself into new technologies, we have seen several incidences, where veteran actors de-age themselves back to their primes.

However, in 1971, Marlon Brando and the creatives deemed it necessary to age the charming 47-year-old via facial prosthesis. To achieve the mid-50s to 60s appearance of Vito Corleone, Brando had to sacrifice his red-carpet handsomeness for the leathery mask of the “Don”.

With this in mind, they needed to further accentuate the machismo of the menacing mob boss. Known to all 21st century brain-rotters, the positive-canthal tilt of one’s chin is the answer in maintaining Vito’s mewing streak onto the big screen. Ergo, cotton balls were stuffed into Brando’s jaw, bringing the mogging menace to live-action.

2. Equestrian Evils

Have you seen Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron? A childhood flick that brings us closer to one of God’s most majestic creatures. Innocent. Beautiful. And full of spirit. At least one time in their naïve lives, they should feel the bliss of freedom and happiness.

Unless you race for the successful movie-producer of Woltz International Pictures, Jack Woltz.

In one of the most critical plotlines, the “Don” infamously threatens the producer, as he refuses to cast his ‘superstar’ godson, Johnny, in the studio’s next blockbuster.

The threat was an unexpected nap with the severed head of poor ol’ Khartoum. Rippling from the theatres of the 70s to our streaming apps, this moment forever forewarns the power and control of ‘the mob’ in the crime genre.

3. Forbidden Fruit

“When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some of its fruit and ate it…” (Genesis 3:6)

To assert the Catholic roots of mafia culture, Coppola’s films simulate monothetic moral systems by the fatal contact with forbidden fruits as a determinant of one’s impending doom.

Plucked from the Bible’s first ‘branch’, Genesis, the Puzo canon mirrors the transgression of Adam and Eve to provide narrative and moral consistencies in a saga filled with unexpected betrayal.

In Vito’s naïve purchase of oranges, we witness the usurpation of the Corleone criminal empire. The sweet temptation of domestic life punishes the “Don”, for his soul is chained to the criminal underworld.

After Michael ascends to “Don” status, Vito embraces the comforts of his home garden, where he harvests a small orchid of oranges. With no crime in sight, the mere presence of Coppola’s unforgiving fruits rewards Corleone with his perfect death, and reminds us of the sins in his past life.

Simply, the Godfather films are all great mafia films and all great mafia films are the Godfather films