I just rewatched the Godfather part I and II so I figure I really should write something about them. I really think that the Godfather part one is the best film of all time. I know what you are all thinking... what about citizen kane or casablanca or twilight?! Well I'm sorry to disappoint you but it's true and I'lll tell you why...
The Godfather (part uno) more than any other film displays the corruption of the human person. Michael Corleone played by Al Pacino, of course, at the beginning of the film is innocent despite his family's nefarious habits. You can see him tell Kay, "That's a true story.... Kay that's my family not me..." You can seem him walk down the streets of NYC giggling with Kay with gifts in his hands, judging by the shape of the boxes they were probably for her. Until, they saw the newspaper with the headlines saying that his father was thought to be dead. You can see in his left grip the newspaper crumble in consternation. Of course the story goes on.... Michael becomes closer to the family business, but it wasn't until the seen where the camera slow creeps in on his professional stance in the chair as goes slowly and declaratively details how he is going to kill the men responsible that you see a new Michael Corleone.
Yes, there is at the great scene where he shoots the cop and drug dealer in the head in Louis'. But that was not when the audience was supposed to know he had fallen, truly fallen. The point of no return was breached probably an hour later. Toward the very end, Coppolla leaves us with a very important scene, very underrated and very misunderstood.
Michael had Carl, his brother-in-law, killed for arranging Sonny's death and he had just confessed. Of course Michael has him strangled in the passenger seat of a car. The aftermath ensues. Connie, his sister, comes running into his office, screaming and hitting him, crying "you killed him, you killed my husband." Unfortunately for Michael, Kay was there, witnessing this. '
Kay asks Michael after Connie is carrie out of his office,
"Is it true?"
"I have told you, you are not ask me about my affairs"
"Is it true Michael?" He slams his hand down on the desk and screams. "Stop it! You are not allowed to ask me about my affairs!"
Kay is crushed, Michael can see it. He comes up, having calmed down and consoles her.
"Okay, this one time, this one time you can ask me about my affairs." She looks up still crushed and asks again, "Is it true?"
He looks her dead in the eye, stone cold and says, "No."
And that ladies and gentlemen was the point of no return. Lying to the face of someone he once loved, proved to be the ultimate threshold of Michael Corleone's corruption.
It was not a murder that corrupted him or his elaborate plan of vengenance. But it was merely the culmination of all of that expressed in that one lie that was supposed to show the audience of his falling. The woman he once giggled with down Manhattan streets was now merely another tool, like one of his errand boys. Here job, as the tool she was to become, was to bear him an heir, because now the family business meant more than the family itself.
Watch it again, it really is the best portrayal of a corrupting soul ever filmed.
