Realism and Idealism for the Godfather

Realism and Idealism for the Godfather

I will never forget what I felt when I first seen my first mobster movie, I was about 12 years old, it was real late at night and I just could not fall asleep. I was flipping the channels looking for something to watch, and that is when I encountered my first mobster movie. I was intrigued from beginning to end; it was like nothing I had ever seen before. The way they talked so confident and cool to the way they looked so sharp and sophisticated. Although they were ruthless criminals, they had certain respectability towards them that no body could deny. Even though I was young and didn’t quite understand all of the scenes I became infatuated with the movie the Godfather and went on to seeing a couple of other popular films like Goodfellaz, Casino, and Once upon a time in America. It is almost unreal how one movie can have such a big influence on your life, but I truly believe that after that day, something inside of me changed, and I began to grow an overwhelming passion for these types of films. It was like discovering a completely new world you never knew existed.

What draws people to mobster films like the Godfather? Hollywood’s gangster stereotype does what we would not dare, and acts like no body we know. They do not care about nobody but their selves and do anything they want, or at least think they can. That is what infatuates people with gangster and mafia films, because people secretly want to experience this lifestyle without being punish like the gangsters in the movies. The gangster film is particularly popular in America. Its popularity might be because of the history and actual real life stories of the mob. However, what Hollywood does is take the underworld culture and turn it into the stereotypical story. One stereotype is all mafias having to be Italian. Some people get the impression that all Italians are in the mafia. Movies can have an impact on society and culture, after the release of the Godfather, many Italian American criminals began to sound like the characters in the film, in taped recordings of their conversations. The film gangster’s stereotypical mold that they are usually materialistic, street smart, immoral, tough, and self-destructive. Their main goal in life is for power and money because they have an ambitious desire for success and recognition in life, but sometimes underneath all that they can express sensitivity and gentleness especially with their families like one of the famous quotes in the Godfather “A man who doesn’t spend time with his family, can never be a real man.” (Godfather)

It was not until the sound era that gangster films became the most popular, entertaining way to attract people to the theatres. Without sound, the gangster films could not come to life. It was the 1930s that the events of the prohibition era such as bootlegging and the St. Valentines Day Massacre of 1929, and the existence of real life gangsters and the rise of contemporary organized crime helped to encourage this genre. The talkies are accounted for the rise of crime films. The first talkie “100% all talking” picture and, of course, the first sound gangster film was The Lights of New York in 1928. Martin Sorcese, Brian De Palma, and Francis Ford Coppolla, who also directed the Godfather, have become the best storytellers of the gangster culture using visual storytelling. To them gangster films are moralities tales and success stories turned around in which criminals are the ones living in a dream world of success and wealth. Although they are destined to failure and possible death, criminals are portraying as the victims because the stories are told from their point of view. Great actors like Pacino, Deniro, who both played in the Godfather and Pesci also had an influence in making the gangster/mafia culture what it is today, by playing their parts so unbelievable well that their attitude, dialogue, and cold hearted cruelty on the screen transforms the modern day image of the culture of the gangster. The Godfather