Deconstruction of 'The Godfather'

Deconstruction of The Godfather’s Opening Scene

The Godfather is regarded as one of the greatest films of all time, and it is well deserved.  Francis Ford Coppola directed this, and the film is based on the characters made my Mario Puzo. In the opening scene it begins with a black screen, with a trombone playing the beautiful melody, and then the title comes up. ‘Mario Puzo’s The Godfather’, with the logo of a hand holding a puppet’s strings. The music then cuts, and reveals a dark room  with a man telling his story about how he feels about America, while the camera slowly pans out. The camera uses a tripod to get a stedicam to keep the calmness of the scene and balance with no shaking. It zooms outwards until it is behind the shoulder of the shadow figure, who is revealaed to be Marlon Brando who plays Don Corleone, The Godfather himself. The establishing shot is a close up, and zooms out to a medium shot and ends on an over the shoulder shot.

The sound in the begining with the trombone is low, and a great score, which is also non-diegetic sound. The characters cannot hear it as it slowly fades out, and is there for the audience to enjoy and add efect to this drama type film. The chararcters speak and tell their stories, and this is not narration as the other characters can hear it, making it diegetic.

The lighting in the scene is very dark, and miniscule and the characters can barely be seen to add an effect on the man’s sad story about his daughter, and his despair as Don Corleone at first decides against helping him. This lighting is effective in this scene because it has a strange peacefulness about it. Showing how the life of a mob boss is calm, and peaceful.

There is artificial light in the room, as you can see the features on Don Corleone’s face from above instead of using the room’s lamps and sun’s light out of the curtains. The film also begins at an equilibrium, where the main character is in a state of peace and calmness, and some shots that go further on during the opening show the room and the men that protect the Godfather and have high respect for him, as they do not interrupt his conversations, they stand watch to protect him.

The Mise en Scene used   is fashionable, as all the characters wear suits and a flower in the suit showing that they are there for a special occasion, which is later revealed to be The Godfather’s daughter’s wedding. Looking around the scene for the Mise-en-scene, you can see that the props used are obtained through wealth with the rich furniture that looks expensive, and bought with dirty money.

 The makeup used is once more a minuscule thing, but Marlon Brando’s cheeks have makeup to make them seem bigger and like a bulldog. The colours of the scene are dull, and kept at a brown, black and white colour that sets the drama aspect of this film. The narrative is  easy to understand as it is the opening scene, and introduces you to the characters.

The genre is this film is drama, and the best films usually are, as they evoke emotion into people and how they feel about a certain film, even seeing some as art, which is why they win awards for the best picture in the well-known Oscar awards. The reason drama is the best genre is because it shows emotion and usually involves big A-list actors that can show a variety of emotions.

The editing that is used in this film’s opening is calm, and has continuity as it shows time moving and reality as the characters are in a normal room with the sun in the background, there is nothing unusual in this film like jump cuts, cross cutting, and others. The linear is narrative, and goes one direction with minor sub-plots.