The benefits of "The Godfather 1" are obvious, he used very straightforward The way is presented in front of you, even if you don't have much experience in watching movies, you can clearly perceive the deterrent. Just one example. He persuaded the film director not to, and cut off the horse's head, which he spent 600,000 yuan carefully cultivated for use as a stallion, and placed it in the corner of his bed. On the one hand, this shocking power is beyond the audience's expectations: I thought I was injured, but found that the way to break a person's heart is not to hurt him, but to hurt the most cherished thing in his heart, depriving him of all imagination of the future. This is ingenious. On the other hand, the whole continuous long shot that slowly approached the bed and slowly moved down with the bloodstains, and the soundtrack that kept rising and the volume increased in line with the mood, made people clearly appreciate the director's brilliant audio-visual techniques.
The benefits of "The Godfather 2" require more ideological participation from the audience. If you just look directly at what the director presents on the screen, sometimes the sense of narrative will be disrupted by this cross-cutting. I was a little depressed during the first third of watching "The Godfather 2": what exactly did the director want to say? It wasn't until halfway through that I was woken up when I heard Al Pacino say this by the fire. Then those movie pictures and plots seem like every word. The following is a brief description of my own feelings and analysis of the story. As for the analysis of audio-visual language, I will talk about a lot of space separately. Because Coppola is so good at making movies! The language of many scenes is so powerful that it is difficult to analyze a sentence or two. If it is mentioned below, it will only be briefly mentioned.
The story adopts a two-line narrative, obviously trying to compare the similarities and differences between Marlon Brando's godfather Victor and Al Pacino's modern godfather Mike. The contrasting techniques in the film will inevitably adopt various similes and metaphors to strengthen the various connections between father and son. What matters is what is being compared and what is the impact of the comparison.
The difference between the growth environment and the way of enthronement:
The status of the godfather in the godfather family is obviously very similar to the seat of the ancient emperor. Both have unequivocal sovereignty and the prestige that shocks the world. If the godfather is the emperor, then the adopted son Tom is the loyal minister and military commander by his side, Sang Ning is the prince who cares about love and justice but has an impulsive personality, and Fred is the honest but cowardly second brother caught in the middle. , Mike is a smart little prince.
The godfather grew up in the village of Sicily, and his parents and brother died when he was 7 years old. After that, he smuggled to New York by boat, and established his own family in New York's Italian Village, continuing the Sicilian marriage model. Then he established his own circle of friends step by step, and won the trust of people around him with his loyalty, enthusiasm to help others, and extremely mature and stable personality. The way he gained his confidence was by killing the domineering and prominent mafia in his area. In downtown New York, where the legal system is not perfect, and the city regulations and immigration are in chaos, breaking into houses and even killing people is a harmless thing. - No one gets too obvious punishment for killing someone, as long as you do it covertly enough. This first murder gave him a vague sense of accomplishment, and his calm personality helped him immensely. In the subsequent disputes between neighbors, he used generosity and persuasion to win more and more people's affirmation. On the one hand, he accumulated the confidence to deal with others, and on the other hand, he won unswerving support for him. Left and right arms, commonly known as revolutionary friendship.
As for the new godfather played by Al Pacino, he is the most father-like of the three biological sons, so it is not difficult to explain why the godfather prefers him the most. The most obvious reason for an elder to prefer his younger generation is that he sees the shadow of his youth in the child. Mike grew up in New York. He was a pure son and a young master. He was taken care of by his brothers and received the best education. He chose to drop out of school to join the army, which aroused the dissatisfaction of his brothers. It was precisely because the brothers were more talented than their fathers. He doesn't value himself as much as Mike, but Mike just doesn't appreciate it. When Mike was young, he didn't understand his father and his family. At the wedding, he told his girlfriend Kay, played by Diane Keaton, that it was my family, not me. But fate has flown, and after his first murder (and the purpose of the murder was to protect his father from being harmed by others), the justice he had always stood for was subverted, or it could be said that something hidden in his heart was destroyed. When he woke up, he officially decided to take over the family affairs after experiencing the process of being plain and happy but still being ruthlessly destroyed in those days in the country. Something deep in his heart was a Sicilian idea. The godfather was born out of this idea, but he was more and more bound by this idea, so much so that he lost all the support around him.
Why do people with similar personalities lead two completely different lives?
The first thing to say is that the two have different ways of having rights. The godfather and the loyal followers around him have stepped out of the country step by step, from a poor boy to gradually becoming a family force to dominate New York. As mentioned in the film, the family gradually expanded like the Roman Empire. People who used to fight together, they have witnessed tens of thousands of times how the godfather refused to pay the mafia protection fee, and how to help widows negotiate with tricky black landlords. Their die-hard admiration for the leader could not be replaced by the young godfather they took over. The godfather's sons have a sense of deference to their father that is unmatched by the younger godfather as a younger brother. This is Mike's luck, but also sadness. Fortunately, he was favored, trusted, and commended by his godfather, allowing him to ascend to the throne in one step. The sad thing is that he has enjoyed all the rights and reputations, but he has not yet cultivated to the ability and prestige he should have. All the initially visible short-lived trust faded over time, Frank asked to stand on his own, and brother Fred finally couldn't take it anymore, shouting to him "I'm your brother, I need your respect, I'm not as much as you think. Silly!". Only Tom followed him as faithfully as all the loyal ministers in history, and it was more based on the kindness of his godfather who adopted him from a young age and his own upright and loyal personality.
Second, the times are different. When the godfather first came to the United States, everyone was a new immigrant, and all Italians lived in the Italian quarter of New York. It was called New York, but it was actually nothing more than the second Italian Sicily. People speak Italian and live a Sicilian style of life in which men kill and set fires outside the home and women work tirelessly to raise children at home. In that era, the responsibility of a man was that he could grit his teeth and take on everything, be calm and calm, whoever could be more composure was more manly. A woman only needs to be able to sing and dance, be beautiful and have the function of raising children with a good wife and a good mother, without hearing anything outside the window. Everyone follows this approach, trusts each other and is very happy. The New York concept of 1950 had grown considerably, and Diane Keaton was clearly an educated and knowledgeable new-age woman. How could she endure a life where women were completely subordinated to men's orders, staying at home with husbands and children every day? She wants to have the right to know about her husband's business (without even asking for participation), and the freedom and sovereignty over her own actions. When Al Pacino insisted that it was his child when the two quarreled, Diane Keaton responded lightly but forcefully, saying that it was also my child. The status of women is improving, and the sovereignty of women as human beings is gradually awakening. However, the heart of the modern godfather is obviously not keeping up with the new pace of the times for modern women, and he still stays in the Sicilian patriarchal society. This is the most fundamental reason for the unhappy marriage of Mike and Kay. Until the end of the film, the husband and wife looked at each other for a long time, making the audience think that Mike seemed to forgive her, but after the close-up of the blinking eyes, a door was used to cover the wife's helpless face. This door closed an opportunity for Mike to forgive her and himself, and once again refused to move towards the concept of modern society. Mike's sister, because of her blood relationship and because she was unable to break away from the family, finally succumbed to her brother. However, her life was all black because of this repressed pain.
Regarding murder, in the Sicilian era, as mentioned above, as long as you do things carefully enough, you don't have to do it yourself, there will be a group of people who will do it for you. The eldest brother Sang Ning in Godfather 1 was shot to death at the toll booth to prove this point. After the death, the funeral followed. The general concept of everyone is that if you kill my people, I will kill yours. See who kills more and kills harder, and there is no time for retribution. After the death of his eldest son, the godfather realized that revenge could not bring the dead back to life, so he vowed not to take revenge again. In the 1950s, New York was already a society ruled by law, with police, federal agencies, and news media layered upon layers. Killing is not the only solution to the problem, nor is it the best practice. When Al Pacino finally faced his rival Ross, he adhered to the same belief as his father "I only kill my enemies". This led to Frank's death, leading to unnecessary trouble in a legal society. But there is nothing wrong with this in his opinion. If it was his father, he would definitely make this choice. Because indeed, after De Niro made his fortune in New York, he returned to Sicily for thousands of miles. When facing the old and weak enemy, he had no mercy and ruthlessly killed the bully who was domineering in the past. The attitude of the godfather and the modern godfather to revenge at the same age is unexpectedly consistent, but it is reasonable, after all, their personalities are so similar, they just happen to live in two eras. The retribution of the Sicilian godfather for killing the enemy is the injury of his assistant, while the retribution for the modern New York godfather to kill the enemy is the death of Frank, the most loyal Zhuge Liang-style figure by his side. The Godfather's partiality is that he cherishes Mike, so he does not want him to be involved in the family business, and he realizes that although the Corleone family has power, it is still a less open path. His vision is also to realize that Mike and his personality are similar, so he wants Mike to escape from this circle and go somewhere else to prove that he will also be successful. When he came home and found out on the hospital bed that Mike murdered him, he just waved his palm lightly. Great here. The Godfather was not reconciled to Mike, until the end of "The Godfather 2", when he left Sicily young and vigorous, holding little Mike on the steam train and smiling happily, it still made people feel infinitely emotional.
It is worth mentioning that the film attaches great importance to the concept of family. This is very in line with a concept held by people in the traditional large family society in rural areas. In today's only-child society, there is generally a family of three. In fact, the concept of family will become more and more blurred. But for the older generation of parents, this concept is relatively better understood. Take my family as an example. Like my grandparents’ generation, my grandfathers and siblings have a total of nine people, including seven boys and two girls. My grandfather is the second boy and the third among the nine. Counting the number of children of the same age that other grandpas gave birth to, I have a total of 12 uncles of the same age as my father, who are commonly referred to as dads in our northwest village. Therefore, during the Chinese New Year, we always have to pay respects from the second and third masters to the sixth master, and then from the eldest, second, and third fathers, all the way to the twelfth father. This huge base of the entire population constitutes the concept of family.
The Corleone family in the film is undoubtedly huge. This deep-rooted blood friendship is the children of three boys and one girl, as well as Frank and Tom, the right-hand men of revolutionary friendship, collectively referred to as the Corleone family. In The Godfather 1 & 2, we see how this huge family is gradually disintegrating due to the death of the Godfather Pillar. Brother Sonning died tragically on the street because of his impulsive personality, Frank chose to leave his own business, Connie has always been around unreliable men, Fred chose to deceive himself with extravagance, the death of the old mother, Kay and Mike parted ways due to conflicting values , Tom used his life to fulfill Mike's wish for revenge. All the visible supports were getting further and further away from Mike. The original complete family was stripped away, leaving only Mike, who was meditating in the dark, and the two children around him who were terrified like puppets. The blood relationship made Connie finally choose to bow her head and return, which also triggered the most touching hug in the film: Mike's forgiveness for his brother Fred. The touch of the white palm on the black suit during this hug was like a glimmer of light and hope in the dark wasteland, giving people the illusion of warmth, thinking that the two brothers could indeed be reunited, realizing the only reunion of the Corleone family. But this hug was finally confirmed to be an illusion. The director was very ruthless and let Fred die on the drifting boat in the sea after repenting. In particular, the last scene of Fred was very warm. He showed unparalleled tenderness and told Mike's eldest son his innocent thoughts when he was a child fishing. Then, faced with such a tragic end. What makes people sad is that Mike personally planned and witnessed the death of his own brother. Instead of pushing others to hell, he pushed himself into the boundless abyss. Mike's most obvious harm in following the Sicilian tradition is to leave himself alone.
Having said that, I have to mention a certain bad taste of the director, that is, to create the most tragic scene at the most tender moment. In other words, beneath the seemingly warm surface, there is actually the most tragic plot. You even have to believe that beauty is real, and then throw you into hell the next second. This is most evident in the scene where The Godfather dies in The Godfather 1. How a childish old man fell to the ground in a prank. In the midst of sadness and shock, he couldn't help feeling that maybe this was the safest and most suitable way for him to die: a bright sunny day, a natural death while playing with his grandson, without any bullet holes and bloodshed.
The finishing touch is the conversation between Frank and Tom as family players and bloodline outsiders, the conversation between the two towards the end of the film, and the subsequent joke about how to gracefully settle their own lives in the bathtub. Frank's way of seeming to discuss other people, but actually speaking his own inner thoughts is heart-wrenching. This dialogue between the two standing in front of the dense steel net makes people recall how they grew up with the godfather from two strangers who were barely clothed, to now witnessing the changes in the world. How did little Mike change from a baby held in his father's arms to a ruthless person who now sticks to his inner beliefs, and everything went away with the steam train... The movie takes only two or three hours to present Out of the ups and downs of people in the changing times. And this elegy of the changing times is a memorial dedicated to the Corleone family by director Coppola.
"Like the Roman Empire."
"Yes, it used to be."
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