Actors – The Godfather

Title: The Godfather

Writer: Francis Ford Coppola

Director: Mario Puzo

Year: 1972

Actors: Marlon Brando (Don Vito Corelone), Al Pacino (Michael Corleone), Robert Duvall (Tom Hagen)

Marlon Brando

In the movie, The Godfather (1972) the audience is presented with two very unique Godfathers. The first is the patriarch Godfather, Don Vito Corleone, which is played by Marlon Brando. Marlon Brando epitomizes the method acting style, so well, that he can play any character that he sets his mind to; he is also a wild card actor because he can play a variety of roles. Method acting involves performers to immense themselves psychologically (both in and off of the set) within the character’s role, by drawing upon their own experiences to enhance the characters feelings and emotions (Goodykoontz & Jacobs, 2014). Francis Coppola believed so strongly in Marlon Brando playing Don Corleone that he fought Paramount Pictures until they eventually gave in.  Marlon psychoanalyzed the character so much that he would put on makeup, stuff his mouth with tissue inside his cheeks and would work the role in front of a mirror; then later, Coppola filmed him while in character and showed it to Paramount Pictures – which they said “yes” (Coppola, 2008).  Marlon Brando’s dedication was admired, as he won an Oscar for his role as The Godfather. Although he did not accept the award, he was absolutely worthy of it.  The intensity he brings to the character is seen immediately within the first scene of the film.  Everything about his character is believable and authentic.  Even the fact that his voice is so muffled, you find yourself trying to listen harder to hear every word he says.  His demeanor screams authority, respect, and authenticity.  Here is a clip of the first dramatic scene.

Robert Duvall

Robert Duvall played, Tom Hagen, The Godfather’s attorney.  Robert Duvall is a character actor because he has had much success in adapting to a wide variety of different character roles. In The Godfather he plays a very smart, loyal, and serious attorney.  In the film he says, “I only work for one man.”  The loyalty of his character is seen when he visits Jack Woltz.  When Jack refuses to take the offer Duvall is presenting to him, his prized horse is beheaded.

Al Pacino

Michael Corleone is played by Al Pacino. Both Al Pacino and Marlon Brando use the method acting style. Pacino is a personality actor because his acting is done in a manner in which the audience forgets he is acting. According to Goodykoontz & Jacobs (2014) strong personality actors make it difficult for audiences to distinguish between the actor and the character (Section 5.5). Al Pacino makes it easy for the audience to see how a pure, innocent young man can transform into an evil, Mafia Don.  This dramatic transformation can be seen in the Sollozo and police officer murder; where Michael was trying to demonstrate he was deserving of the “Godfather” title.

Another film where Pacino shows great transformation is in the film Scarface; he begins as an immigrant who has nothing but a dream to get rich, and ends up being a powerful kingpin.

The following clips show Al Pacino in both his dramatic awe-inspiring roles:

References

Frank Coppola (2008). The Godfather the Coppola Restoration. Hollywood, California.Paramount Pictures

Goodykoontz, B., & Jacobs, C. P. (2014). Film: From watching to seeing (2^nd ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.

YouTube. (2011, November 7). It’s strictly business. Retrieved from YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bo7zkd0kRS

YouTube. (2013, January 11). Marlon Brando, The Godfather Epic Scene! HD. Retrieved from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaUq4h818E8

YouTube. (2013, January 11). Marlon Brando, The Godfather Epic Scene! HD. Retrieved from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaUq4h818E

YouTube. (2013, March 30). Scarface – Dishwasher scene. Retrieved from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdFIgYXHQQ

YouTube (2012, June 22). The Godfather – Michael shoots Sollozzo and McCluskey. Retrieved from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSQqv2UuvC0

The Godfather – Use of sound

Title: The Godfather

Writer: Francis Ford Coppola

Director: Mario Puzo

Year: 1972

Actors: Marlon Brando (Don Vito Corleone), Michael Corleone (Al Pacino), Sollozzo (Al Lettieri)

In films, there are three basic types of sound – dialogue, sound effects, and music.

Dialogue consists of the narration (or words) which are spoken by the characters in a scene.  The purpose of dialog is to further the development of the plot; enhance the characters; and, establish the details that the audience needs to understand about the story Goodykoontz & Jacobs, 2014). According to Goodykootz & Jacobs (2014) dialogues in films influence everyday personal communication, such as reciting various film phrases.  Some of The Godfather film memorable phrases include: “I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse”; “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer”; It’s business, not personal.” In fact, the extensive dialogue within The Godfather film established the theme that everything within the Corleone mafia family is considered “not personal, but strictly business”. The following clip from The Godfather shows one of the quotes within the film by Michael Corleone (Al Pacino).

Sound effects include artificially produced sounds that enhance a film. Popular sound effects include: crowd noises, screams, gun shots, nature sounds, etc. Sound effects, in The Godfather film, utilized various sounds to reflect the realization to the theme of violence that is associated within organized crime. For instance, one scene that stands out is where Michael Corleone kills Sollozo in the Italian restaurant. The characters frisk Corleone for weapons, but they do not find any.  Their conversation over dinner is very uncomfortable and they speak Italian through some of it – which does not include any subtitles. Michael requests to go to the restroom, and that is where he grabs a revolver that has been strategically taped by the toilet.  As he grabs the gun, Michael places his hands on the side of his head and a train sounds thundering by outside. The train sound effect represents the terrible thoughts that are occurring inside his mind and racing heart.  The sound of the train returns when Michael sits back down at the table.  While Sollozo speaks, the train sound effect becomes ever so louder. Then, Michael pulls out the gun and the loud gun shots (sound effect) kill both Sollozo and the police officer. The sound effects were carefully placed within the scene so that viewers could identify with what they are seeing (Goodykoontz & Jacobs, 2014.  Michael was now considered a true Corleone man as he had just crossed over from pureness to the now pure evilness.  Here is a clip of the scene:

Music is key to a successful film, and includes score and soundtrack. The score is background music that accompanies the action on the screen, and the soundtrack are collections of songs used in the film (Goodykoontz & Jacobs, 2014).  In addition, there are diegetic and non-diegetic sounds.  Diegetic sounds occur within films and include natural sound effects that match the sources on the screen (sound of the films world), and non-diegetic sounds refers to background music of which the characters do not hear (outside of the films world) (Goodykoontz & Jacobs, 2014).  There is a scene in The Godfather that uses the score, diegetic, and non-diegetic sounds – the horse head.  The scene of “the horse head” uses the score of a non-diegetic sound, which is the waltz music; and, the diegetic sounds include the crickets and screaming.

The use of sound in The Godfather film really creates the dark and solemn mood the filmmakers were going for.  They used Italian accents and also include a lot of gunfire and explosion sounds.  There are also soundtracks that were included throughout the movie.  All of the sounds encompass the feeling of the authenticity of the Italian mafia gangster theme.  The gangster genre often includes sounds of opera instrumental music, and of loud gun fire and explosions.  The sounds were realistic and practical to the theme of the film.  The opera music was perfectly selected as well.

The film utilized every important element of sound that was needed to authentic the theme and genre.  If the film was missing a key category of the basic sounds, the film would have negatively been impacted.  For instance, if the score was removed, the film would not have flowed in its continuity.  The proper use of the score emphasized the precise gangster mood of the film.

References

Goodykoontz, B., & Jacobs, C. P. (2014). Film: From watching to seeing (2^nd ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.

Lakedaimonios Sparta. (2011, Nov 7). It’s strictly business. Retrieved from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bo7zkd0kRS4

Movieclips. (2011, November 22). The Horse Head – The Godfather (1/9) Movie CLIP (1972) HD. Retrieved from Movieclips: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VC1_tdnZq1A

Zapfinger, D. (2012, June 22). The Godfather – Michael shoots Sollozzo and McCluskey. Retrieved from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSQqv2UuvC0

Week 2 – Lighting in The Godfather film

 

Lighting can be very powerful.  In fact, different tones of light can bring about feelings of excitement, add mystery, or create a sense of calm or peacefulness. Just like photographers use special lighting to enhance a pictures message, cinematographers also use lighting to enrich scenes in a movie.  For instance, in the classic film The Godfather the beginning scene of the movie dramatically changes back and forth from dark and dreary to bright and happy.  When Don Corleone (Marlon Brando) is in his study, low-key lighting is present. Then, when Don Corleone steps outside to partake in his daughter’s wedding, the lighting dramatically changes to high-key lighting.  According to Goodykoont & Jacobs (2014) the purpose of low-key lighting is used to intensify dramatic scenes, and in contrast, high-key lighting has bright light everywhere, which is used to promote a sense of happiness (Section 6.4).  In The Godfather the cinematographer used the different lighting tones to show the dramatic discussions (low-key lighting) going on inside the house within the mafia family; then, as soon as the mafia characters stepped outside, the light becomes very bright (high-key lighting) and cheery due to a wedding that is happening outside.  In fact, the cinematographer Gordon Willis mentioned in the book Masters of Light that he used lighting in The Godfather as a technique to portray the soul of the picture (Schafer & Selvato, 1984).  So, Willis used the inside lighting to portray a very down and menacing feel as the mafia discussions were taking place.  Then once the mafia family stepped outside the doors, the sunny bright light was used to portray the happiness of the wedding.  The mafia family only discusses their dark secrets “inside” the house.  Therefore, when the light dramatically changes from high-key lighting to low-key lighting viewers are visually made aware that the discussions will vividly change in nature.  Throughout the movie, the lighting changes and the low-key lighting makes the scenes more intense and the shadows add depth and darkness to the characters. For instance, at times Don Corleone’s face has shadows around his eyes with a soft white light above him.  The lighting is focused around Don Corleone and this shows the intensity to hear and listen to what he is saying, as his eyes are not needed to prove the darkness of what he is speaking.  The lighting intensifies the characters dark side.

The Godfather film is a gangster genre film, and is a subgenre of a broader genre of crime film.  According to Goodykoont & Jacobs (2014) the film realistically depicts the extreme violence that is mundane in the world of organized crime and other gang activities (Section 4.2).  The theme of The Godfather movie is dark, evil, and corrupt.  In order to make this theme come to fruition, the proper lighting had to be used.  If Don Corleone and the mafia family where outside in the high-key lighting discussing their dark schemes, the characters would not have been perceived as a feared mafia family. If the viewers do not trust the characters dark side, then the film’s gangster genre theme would have been missed; therefore we would not be still discussing the movie years later.  The lighting gained the authenticity of the gangster genre and the evil feelings associated with it.  The cinematographer truly used lighting in The Godfather film to his advantage.

References

Goodykoontz, B., & Jacobs, C. P. (2014). Film: From watching to seeing (2nd ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.

Schafer, D., & Selvato, L. (1984). Masters of Light: Conversations with Contemporary Cinematographers. Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press.

THE HEAT

Title: The Heat

Writer: Katie Dippold

Director:  Paul Feig

Year: 2013

Actors: Sandra Bullock (Sarah Ashburn), and Melissa McCarthy (Shannon Mullins)

 Story:  FBI agent Sarah Ashburn (Sandra Bullock) is very uptight and follows all the rules, whereas, Shannon Mullins (Melissa McCarthy) is a loud-mouthed, crude detective who does not believe in rules and does things her own way.  The comedic story follows the two agents as they become intertwined in a case where they are both forced to work together to take down a Boston drug lord that is taking over the city.  They bicker over whose case it really is, what interrogation style to follow, and which one knows more about the background intel of the case.  Sarah Ashburn uses her systematic investigation style and Shannon Mullins relies on her street smarts and gut instincts to crack the case.  At first , they hate one another, but as the film progresses, the two end up forming a deep respect and friendship as they both bring “The Heat” to unfold the case.

Plot:  The film starts off with Sarah Ashburn and other FBI agents getting ready to raid a house.  As Sarah tells the FBI agents what to do from the manual book, they ignore her and raid the house anyway.  The team handcuffs two people inside the house and after checking around tell Ashburn they found nothing and her theory is outrageous.  As they are getting ready to leave, Ashburn finds drugs taped under a table and finds a secret hidden area that opens with a bunch of rifles and guns.  In the process of finding these item, she is insulting her fellow FBI agents for not finding anything.  Later, at work, she tells her boss she wants to be promoted to be a supervisor and her boss does not think she is right for the position because she cannot get along with any of the agents due to competitiveness and arrogance.  Her boss then explains there is an issue in Boston which involves chatter about a murder, extortionist, and drug lord named Simon Larkin.  He sends her to up to Boston to solve the case.  He said if she does well with the case they can then promote her to a supervisor.

Then, the film switches to detective Shannon Mullins who is seen in her car watching a guy trying to pay for a prostitute.  She is being radioed in asking why she is not at work and she responds back with crude and lewd language.  Mullins goes up to the car and shows the guy her badge and takes his cell phone and calls his wife.  While she has the guy in handcuffs in her car she stops and interrogates a guy that is smoking drugs.  He takes off running and she tries to hit him with her car and even throws a watermelon at him.

FBI Ashburn comes onto the scene and is interrogating Terrell Rojas (the same guy that Mullins brought to jail) asking him where he gets his drugs, he says from Tatiana.  Mullins finds out and interrupts the interrogation.  Mullins said she is going to kill Ashburn and Ashburn thinks she has mental problems.  The Captain of the department tells Mullins and Ashburn that they have to work together on the case to bring down the drug lord.  Ashburn calls her supervisor and begs that Mullins cannot be a part of the case, and he said she has to work with her or she cannot become a supervisor.

Mullins steals the FBI file from Ashburn and sees her brother in jail asking him if he knows who Larkin is and he said no.  As the two are working the case, they come into contact with a series of crackpots and strange people.  At Club Ecko, they successfully tapped a bar owner’s cell phone in an effort to locate Larkin.  As they leave the club, they are confronted by DEA agents who have been working on the Larkin case for several months and are worried they will be compromised.  Then, Ashburn and Mullins discover a surveillance video that connects Larkin’s organization with Mullins brother, Jason, who was just released from prison.  Mullins finds her brother and he says a guy named Julian is trying to get him back into the drug ring, and he tipped them off about a murdered drug dealer.  Chemicals on the victims shoe lead them to a paint factory where they see a murder occur from Julian and his team – which include the previous bar owner whose phone they tapped.  Julian is put into custody.

After a night of drinking and partying, Ashburn wakes up and realizes she gave her car keys to a guy named Wayne – one of the bar patrons.  She tries to get her car back, but Wayne starts her car and is instantly killed by a bomb.  They then discover that Julian escaped from custody with the goal of harming Mullins’ family.  Mullins moves her family into a motel.  Jason leaves the hotel, with the intention to join the Larkin organization to help Mullins solve the case.  Jason tips off Mullins and Ashburn about a drug shipment coming into the Boston Harbor.  Even though Mullins’ does not want the FBI involved, Ashburn gets the FBI to take down the shipment.  However, the agents do not find anything.  They figure out Jason was being tested by Larkin and Larkin shots Jason.  Then, Ashburn and Mullins get into an argument and have a falling out; then later reconcile when they arrest several drug dealers as a way of getting closer to Larkin’s location.  Ashburn and Mullins are equipped with hand grenades and rifles and go to find Larkin.  Julian finds Ashburn, ties her up and stabs her in the leg, and then leaves. Mullins finds Ashburn and takes the knife out and frees her. They are then discovered by Adam and Craig.  Ashburn and Mullins learn that Adam is actually Larkin who has been working his own case from inside the DEA for several months. Julian returns and Larkin orders him to kill both Ashburn and Mullins while he is on his way to the hospital to finish off Jason – who is in a coma.  Larkin leaves and Mullins head butts Julian leaving him incapacitated while they race to the hospital to save Jason.

They arrive at the hospital and Ashburn lags behind due to her stab wound in her leg.  Mullins finds out her brother has been moved to a different room and she locates the new room and finds Jason about to be killed by Larkin, when suddenly Ashburn crawling on the floor of the room shots Larkin.  Since Larkin was captured, Ashburn requests to stay in the FBI’s Boston office since she and Mullins were now really close friends.

Chronologically:  The film was told in chronological order.  At first Ashburn’s character was shown.  Then, Mullins character came into the scene.  Later, they were joined together through a case.  Then, throughout the rest of the movie even though they did not like each other at first, you could see how they ended up becoming best friends at the end.   The chronological order set the stage for their personalities and viewers wondering how the two could ever work a case together.  However, this chronological order made the plot more sentimental since the two ended up becoming best friends at the end.

If the film would have been told non-linearly, the ending would not have been so sentimental because it was important to see the characters first in their own individual elements.  If the characters would have been put together from the very beginning, viewers may not have been able to see the polar opposite differences between the two characters.  The characters flaws were easily seen from the beginning and then at the end the audience can experience how much they both changed for the better – together.

References

20th Century Fox. (2012, Nov. 27). The Heat official movie trailer.[Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahGnefZTdq4

Dippold K. (Writer), Feig P. (Director). (2013). The Heat. [Motion picture]. United States: 20th Century Fox