The Godfather Movie Essay

The Godfather film center on the Corleone family and Michael Corleone’s rise to the head of the Corleone crime family. The movie begins with the introduction of Vito Corleone (born 1892 – died 1954, heart attack), the head of the Corleone family, in New York at his daughter’s wedding. Vito is a Sicilian born Italian immigrant who is married to Carmella Corleone (born 1897), who is also a Sicilian born Italian immigrant. Vito is best described as calm, intelligent and calculated. Carmella is best described as patient, calm and devoted. Vito and Carmella have four biological children and one adopted son.
Their oldest son is Santino (born 1916 – dead 1948, shot), referred to as Sonny, is best described as short tempered, loyal and protective.
The Corleone family has several family rules that are absolute and inflexible which make them impossible to uphold. Both spoken and unspoken rules can be observed in the family. A spoken rule in the family can be observed when Michael tells his older brother, “Don’t ever take sides with anyone against the family”. In other words, no matter if the family is wrong or right on a subject you must always agree with the family decision. A similar rule is spoken by Vito to his son Sonny, “Never tell anyone outside the family what you are thinking”. To rephrase, keep all family matters private and keep your opinion related to the family decisions to yourself. These spoken rules directly relate to the ultimate unspoken rule that loyalty must always belong to the Corleone family, even over your spouses who are not Corleone and over personal life choices (career decisions and family living locations). The rule displays the attitude of “we are the insiders and everyone else is an outsider”. For example, Michael’s adamant refusal, dismissal and outright lie given to his wife, Kay’s inquest into family business related matters. It is easy to see how these rigid family rule quickly became problematic to the