Analysis of The Godfather

While watching the movie The Godfather I could not help but notice the numerous props that were used to set the scene and feel of the movie throughout its entirety. The props that I felt were extremely important the film and gave it its real feel were alcohol and firearms. In the opening scene of The Godfather, the Godfather is visited by a father who wants revenge on the boy who hurt his daughter, and he wants the Godfather to reap that revenge for him. When the father of the daughter starts to get really upset the Godfather's men immediately give him a shot of some sort of alcohol, and that started me off wondering why would you offer someone alcohol when they are freaking out about something and crying, I would the rational choice would be a box of tissues don't you? But the idea that instead he is given a shot of alcohol to calm his nerves instead is speaks volumes to the kind of men we will be dealing with throughout the movie.

The significance of guns in this movie was so important throughout the whole thing because of what the represented to the Corleone family. They were used to represent power among the five head families that are involved in so

mething illegal whether it is firearms or drugs, and they are practically in every scene. Whether they are just stuck in the back of their pants, on a table near one of them or hidden in ran

dom places in restaurant bathrooms. They are pretty much everywhere. When Michael choses to the kill two of the men that are connected to his fathers shooting in one way or another he is so overwhelmed and shaky that he doesn't even really know how to go through with it, but he and his family both know that once he pulls that trigger the first time he must flee the country, and when he does so he is accompanied and protected by two men who are carrying rifles, and for the rest of the movie pretty much every scene he is in there is also a gun.

Another big part in the movie that includes multiple guns in one scene is the scene where Sonny is murdered. He is attacked at a check point which is also a trap and shot with hundreds and hundreds of bullets from machine guns surrounding him. There is no getting past this scene for him because he is literally destroyed. The amount of guns that had to be used for this movie is rediculous, I cannot even imagine how many were actually used. I am pretty sure that if you started to count from the beginning you would have to lose count because they turn up everywhere unexpectedly that it is almost like if there is not a gun in a scene it is weird. The amount of power that they signify in the movie is overwhelming to me. They are like a sixth finger on a Corleone family hand.

Mise-en-scene in The Godfather is significant in so many ways besides just guns and alcohol. There are so many other important props and things that make the movie what it is from, oranges, to cats, and clothing and cars. There is something in every scene that makes the movie so amazing, and so meaningful. The setting is beautiful all over New York and even in Sicily it is just beautiful. They make everything feel so real like you as the viewer can imagine you are in the scene with them and can feel what the characters feel and what the writers want you to feel and see. The mise-en-scene in this film is probably the most noticeable to me because we watched this movie right after reading the chapter and everything was so fresh in my mind that I could understand what the writers were trying to get us to understand, and I think that is something that I really hope can measure up in the many more films that I will watch in the future.