The Godfather is a story of the divide between business and
real life, dark and light, and high and low. Through out the great film, The
Godfather, Coppola does a brilliant job at revealing and defining this divide.
This divide is revealed mainly between Vito (dark) and Michael (light), but
there are also a couple minor characters that support this. Just as Coppola makes
known the divide, what is even more brilliant is how he shows the connection between
the two and how they can come together. There are two major scenes during the movie
that show this: the wedding scene, and the very last scene of the entire film.
These three critical scenes define the movie and show Coppola’s inventiveness
as they are not fully revealed, but are implied throughout the entire movie
using different characters and different viewpoints.
The opening wedding scene shows many examples of the
difference between real life and business. One example is the scene of the
Corleone family picture. The first time they try to take this photo it is
stopped because Michael is not present. This brief moment shows the divide and
difference between Michael and the rest of the family, mainly his father, Vito.
Michael even states how far he is from the rest of the family as he tells Kay
about how Vito helped Johnny Fontane’s career and then Kay keeps questioning
how. After Michael sees Kay’s reaction to the outcome of the story, he tells
her, “That’s my family, Kay. That’s not me.” Just as the scene is coming to a
close, the Corleone family gets together for a second try at the family picture
and this time Michael is in it and then drags Kay into the photo. This simple
scene is foreshadowing to the ending of the movie, as Michael closes the gap
between the family business and the outside world while dragging Kay into it.
The final scene of The Godfather defines the entire movie,
as Michael is standing in the office with a distance between Kay and him and
then the door closes to end the film. The shot that shows Michael standing in
the office at the end of the hall and the side close-up of Kay helps define how
Michael has gone from one end of the spectrum to the other. He once described
how he was not like his family and now he is the head of the family,
transgressing from light to dark. Another important action in the scene is the
door closing as Kay is staring into the office. This explains how closed out
Kay is from Michael’s business or the difference between light and dark. Since
Michael is now at the dark spectrum, Kay does not see or know what he does.
These two critical scenes define a major motif in the film.
Not only does this theme happen in these two scenes, but also through out the
majority of the film. Without these two prominent scenes that define this idea
of business and life or dark and light, the viewer would not clearly see this. Coppola
shows, mainly, through out the entire film with the, developing character,
Michael whose views drastically change during the course of the movie.