1972: The Godfather

Marlon Brando as Don Vito Corleone; Note the ever present puppet strings in the logo

“I never wanted this for you. I work my whole life, I don’t apologize, to take care of my family. And I refused to be a fool dancing on the strings held by all of those big shots. That’s my life, I don’t apologize for that. But I always thought when it was your time, that you would be the one to hold the strings.” – Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando), The Godfather (also explaining The Godfather’s ever present and otherwise random logo with the marionette strings)

What really needs to be said about The Godfather?

1972’s Best Picture is one of the most celebrated and famous movies of all time. It’s a complex and nuanced movie that weaves together family drama and crime thriller, all while offering social commentary on the American dream and 20^th century society. It’s filled with magnificent performances, led by the often imitated Marlon Brando as the mumble-mouthed Mafioso don who deep down is a family man trying to provide a better life for his children.

Don Vito Corleone (Second from left) and his three sons, Sonny (James Caan), Michael (Al Pacino) and Fredo (John Cazale)

The Godfather begins in 1945. Don Vito Corleone (Brando) is the head of a powerful crime family. He has four children, including oldest, quick tempered Sonny (James Caan), and youngest, Michael (Al Pacino), plus surrogate son and family lawyer Tom (Robert Duvall). Michael is a returning war hero who is disdainful of his family’s illegal and violent life. When Vito resists urges from other crime families to begin running drugs, an attempt is made on his life and the rest of the family (both personal and professional) are put in jeopardy. Michael, angered by his father’s shooting, retaliates by killing the mastermind behind attempt, The Turk, plus the Turk’s bodyguard cop. Michael must flee to Italy to escape prosecution. Vito, recovered but badly weakened, gives control of the family to Sonny, who in turn is killed. Vito manages to broker a peace between the families so Michael can return to the US. Michael reunites with his girlfriend Kay (Diane Keaton), lying to her that the family is going legitimate, all while taking over his father’s operations and plotting revenge.

Don Corleone is finally shown respect from someone asking for a “favor” in the Godfather’s opening scene

The Godfather is filled with incredible, iconic moments. Much like Casablanca 30 years earlier, the movie opens with a very long set piece (in this case Vito’s daughter’s wedding), that establishes all the principal characters, their relationships to each other and their motivations. The movie opens with a long, single take of an Undertaker, disingenuously asking Vito for help in taking revenge against two men who had attacked the former’s daughter. The Godfather is insulted by the request, since the Undertaker has continuously shown little respect for Vito or his lofty position, until now, when he needs a “dirty deed” taken care of. Vito finally agrees to do so in exchange for a favor. We understand the Godfather’s place as a highly-feared outsider who we still count on to fulfill our darkest desires, and Vito’s own desire to belong to the society that shuns him.

The Godfather is probably most famous for Brando’s performance. What’s surprising when watching the film is that Vito is probably in only half the movie.  Aside from a few standout scenes, Vito is recovering from gunshot wounds for a long period of time. But he’s such a strong presence when he’s in the film that he is what stands out most. He is always impeccably polite, almost a kindly grandfather with some peculiar verbal ticks, but he still radiates an air of danger when scolding his children for showing disrespect. The scene where he calmly negotiates peace between the families, while still subtly promising to reign down holy hell if something should happen to Michael is a personal favorite.

One of the few scenes between Pacino and Brando

More than Vito, the movie is about Michael’s descent into the corrupt and dark world of the family business. At the movie’s start, he is openly scornful of his family, telling Kay how much their actions disgust him (he’s even late to his own sister’s wedding!). By the end of the movie, he’s shut Kay out of his world after having all his enemies brutally killed (in the film’s famous closing show, the door is literally closed on a distraught Kay as she realizes Michael is the Godfather now). I really enjoyed the few scenes between Vito and Michael, both because they come from two tremendous actors, but also on the themes they convey: the relationship between a father and son and two businessmen immersed in their trade.

I of course would be remiss in not mentioning the (in)famous horse’s head sequence

It is hard to realize now just how much The Godfather has influenced crime movies that have come since. We all have a short-hand understanding of organized crime’s inner workings, hierarchy and codes of honor, thanks in large part to the Godfather’s influence. The French Connection created the template for police procedurals and The Godfather created a similar template for crime movies. Whereas The French Connection put the spotlight on the chaos of maintaining law and order, so does The Godfather show the rules behind organized crime.

Trivia: One of my favorite pieces of Oscar trivia revolves around The Godfather. When Marlon Brando won the Best Actor award, he declined it, citing Hollywood’s racist depiction of Native Americans, as well as an ongoing conflict between Native Americans and the US government over the former’s treatment. To accept the award, he sent Native American activist Sacheen Littlefeather, dressed in traditional Apache garb.

Yep.

Other Oscars: Best Actor (Marlon Brando); Best Adapted Screenplay

Box Office: $133.7 Million (First for the year)

Other notable films of 1972: Cabaret*; Deliverance*; The Emigrants*; Sounder*; The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Notable to Mr. Robot fans, at least); The Poseidon Adventure; What’s Up Doc? ; Conquest of the Planet of the Apes; Play It Again, Sam; Blacula; 1776; Behind the Green Door

*Best Picture Nominee

1971: The French Connection

You put a shiv in my partner. You know what that means? Goddammit! All winter long I got to listen to him gripe about his bowling scores. Now I’m gonna bust your ass for those three bags and I’m gonna nail you for picking your feet in Poughkeepsie. – Popeye Doyle (Gene Hackman), showing compassion and professional competency, The French Connection

In the early 1970s, the Oscars celebrated a lot of cops and robbers, even if it wasn’t always so easy to distinguish the good guys from the bad. From 1971-1974, the Best Picture trophy went to some sort of crime tale variation, beginning with the hard edged police procedural The French Connection. Even though it’s somewhat dated today, The French Connection was revolutionary for its time with the frank depiction of ruthless and aggressive cops who break as many laws as the criminals they chase. The movie employs an almost documentary-style filmmaking technique with grainy, hand-held footage to create the sense of “you-are-there” realism that is the hallmark of procedural cop shows like Law and Order today.

Cloudy Russo (Roy Scheider) and Popeye Doyle (Gene Hackman) on stake out, just the happy cops you could meet.

Popeye Doyle (Gene Hackman) and his partner Buddy “Cloudy” Russo (Roy Scheider), two New York detectives working the drug detail, spot a pair of suspicious character at a bar that Doyle believes are drug dealers, due to their association with a suspected criminal bankroller. They begin obsessively tracking the couple – who by day run a diner. Meanwhile, Alain Charnier (Fernando Ray), a wealthy Frenchman has persuaded a French movie star to use the latter’s fame to help Charnier smuggle heroin into New York. Charnier does in fact plan to sell the heroin to the diner owner, proving Doyle’s suspicions correct. The cops, aided by their much hated federal friends, begin tracking the suspects. When the trail seems to go empty, Doyle is pulled off the case, but Charnier sends an assassin after him, leading to the film’s famous car versus train chase scene and a final confrontation between cops and crooks.

Fernando Ray as the suave drug smuggler Charnier, once again outsmarting Doyle

The poster for The French Connection tells you a lot about the movie. The gritty shot, shockingly violent for a movie poster, shows Doyle shooting a fleeing criminal in the back, the man’s face captured in dying agony. Without much context, it’s hard to know who the good guy in the scenario is (the poster even tells us that Doyle is “bad news”). The chase scene itself starts with the hitman missing Doyle by pure luck and killing an innocent bystander. Several other people die throughout the chase along with untold property damage (Doyle essentially steals a car to give chase).  It should be noted the chase is the most famous part of the movie and an absolute triumph of tension and excitement that was unmatched for its time.

A still from the famous car chase scene in the French Connection

The French Connection was made at a time when America’s trust in authority was rapidly deteriorating. Popeye represents the sort of brutal, authoritarian nature of peace-keeper that is represented in that systemic distrust. He is racist, violent and alcoholic, breaking rules and endangers others with impunity. Solving crime is not about upholding law and order but merely one side of a game that Popeye will do anything to win. Popeye is one of cinema’s first Maniac Cops, the reckless rule breakers who always have a beef with their by-the-books captains and the soft system that lets criminal punks get away with so much. The formula was lessened over the years with the more cartoonish Dirty Harry (who actually also debuted in 1971) and Lethal Weapon series, among others. By the end, Doyle mistakenly kills a federal agent and shows no regret or emotion. Unlike traditional crime movies, the system is broken. The cops fight incessantly amongst themselves and with other organizations in a battle of egos. Doyle is outsmarted at nearly every turn by the criminals. In the film’s conclusion, the criminals most responsible for the crime end up receiving the least amount of punishment.

Hackman won an Oscar for playing Doyle but I don’t think he’s that good in it. Even though he’s ostensibly the lead, he disappears for a large period of time and he isn’t really the driving action of the film, which is far more plot centered than character centered. Doyle is pretty two dimensional in a lot of ways – he’s a bad boy with a badge—and I didn’t think he was all that memorable, although again, this is watching the film 45 years after it was made, when the character type he originated has really been run into the ground.

The French Connection has a lot of interesting things to say about the criminal justice system. It uses the shabby-chic stylings that made Midnight Cowboy so impactful and gritty. In today’s world, where so many of its troupes and innovations have been copied ad nauseam, a lot of its message and innovations have been lost to modern viewers.

Other Oscars: Best Director (William Friedkin); Best Actor (Gene Hackman); Best Adapted Screenplay; Best Editing

Box Office: $51.7 Million (2^nd for the year)

Other Memorable Movies of 1971: A Clockwork Orange*; Fiddler on the Roof$*; Diamonds Are Forever (James Bond #7); Dirty Harry; Billy Jack; Carnal Knowledge; The Last Picture Show*; Bedknobs and Broomsticks; Klute; Shaft; THX1138 (George Lucas’s first film); Harold and Maude; Straw Dogs; Nicholas and Alexandra*; Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssssss Song

*Best Picture Nominee

$Top Box Office: $75.6 Million