'The Godfather' is about navigating that work-life balance

James Caan (from left), Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, and John Cazale keep it in the family in 1972’s “The Godfather.” (Paramount Pictures/MovieStillsDB.com)

Ultimate Movie Year finds the best released films from weekends past to build an all-star lineup of cinema.

"The Godfather"
Released March 15, 1972
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
Where to Watch

For whatever benefits it may provide, being a mafia boss is a tough gig. The hours are long, it's not suited for a healthy lifestyle, and of course, there's the constant threat of arrest or being shot dead in a meat truck. Your own family may also suffer, because what good is all that money if you never have time to spend with your kids, or have been shot dead in a meat truck?

Francis Ford Coppola and writer Mario Puzo seem to have understood this when bringing the character of Vito "Don" Corleone to life in "The Godfather." Played by Marlon Brando in the 1972 film, Corleone is sharply focused on providing for and protecting his own family as the head of a decades-old organized crime operation, but has also brought his own children into the business. The story of Vito's leadership to lift both his own family and the mafia "family" he runs, leading to his son Michael's (Al Pacino) inability to protect both at the same time, form the basis for one of the greatest epics in cinematic history.

"The Godfather" is one of two mob movies in the Ultimate Movie Year, but this one is strictly focused on the family. It begins with a wedding and ends in a baptism, two events that bring families together, but happen in two very different contexts. Work is never far from the minds of the Corleone men, even during these typically joyful occasions, but what makes them different is the man making decisions.

The movie begins with the introduction of Vito, who is meeting with various guests making requests during his daughter Connie's wedding day. Vito is an imposing, commanding figure, yet oddly empathetic to those who seek his counsel and aid while showing him respect. He hears the story of Amerigo Bonasera, an immigrant undertaker whose daughter was violently beaten by two boys who escaped retribution. It's a perfect scene that reveals Vito's firm control of being the most powerful man in the room at all times, but also his generosity and affection for his family and friends. Later into the film, a rival family requests Vito's assistance in establishing a drug trade that Vito refuses. His rivals make an assassination attempt on Vito that he survives, but is so injured that his sons must lead in his place.

Now we turn our attention to Michael, the war hero and isolated member of the family. Michael sees his family for the first time in a while at Connie's wedding, content to lead a life away from the mafia with his girlfriend Kay (Diane Keaton). The attack on his father changes his perspective, and he commits himself to protecting his family as Vito did before him. Michael orchestras and executes a mob hit with the front line enemies of the Corleone family and escapes to Italy. It's during this journey that Michael's embrace of the violent mob life is paused, as he meets a beautiful young girl named Apollonia. He marries the girl, he loves living in a small Italian village, and there's tons of wine. Not a bad gig if you can swing it!

But yet every time Michael thinks he's out, they pull him back in. Apollonia and his brother are killed, and Michael is back in the states working side-by-side with his father. But you know how it is working for your dad without a family of your own, it's 24/7 of "Wait until I'm dead to discover the true mastermind" this, and "Send Fredo to Vegas to bang cocktail waitresses two at a time" that. You need a break from all that, so Michael reconciles with Kay, and they soon form their own domesticated unit.

But where Vito focused on protection for his family, Michael is intensely focused on the security of his family's power. His earnest attempt at a family life died with Apollonia in Italy, and everything he does with Kay is only for show. The work-life balance is askew, and it all comes to a head when Michael assumes full command of the five mob families of New York, assassinating his enemies. The protection of his family is no longer guaranteed, as Michael also orders the death of Connie's husband and his brother-in-law. When confronted by Kay over this fact, Michael lies to her, and she is shut out of the family business. It's one of the great movie endings of all time, but despite her heartbreak then, it's one that saves Kay's soul.

One of the key takeaways from "The Godfather," and reinforced in the first sequel, is that when you find yourself in the crime business, you must find a connection to something else or the life will consume you utterly. Vito finds that connection in his family, and it centers him in a way that is absent from his successors. Let's be clear: These are men who prey on human weakness and have committed murder, so we're not talking about Atticus Finch here, but Vito holds himself to a personal ethical standard that sets him apart from all the other mobsters in the movie. Michael doesn't have a standard, as we see him slide farther and farther away from his personal family. Where Vito embraced his family, Michael turns away. 

The personal disasters within the Corleone family are substantial. Connie wants a fantasy marriage on the outside that's violent and broken on the inside. Fredo is considered one of the most heartbreakingly inept characters in all of cinema that it's become cultural shorthand for a loser. And Sonny? Forget about it, that guy couldn't wait to get out of his family home fast enough to do something violent and/or fun. Sonny pioneered the work/fun balance, and all it got him was being pumped with more holes than a Michael Bay movie. 

If "The Godfather" is a movie about the American story, then it also applies to today. As the family patriarch, Vito rose from nothing (as we see in the sequel) to build his crime business and manages to maintain a respectful balance. His kids were born into this, and no matter their own personal skills, their entitlement to this life plants the seeds to their downfall. All of them abuse their work/life balance, and all of them die alone away from their families, while Vito at least passes while having fun with his grandson. Their adopted brother Tom Hagan (Robert Duvall) also came from nothing. Is it any coincidence that he seems to be the most sensible of the bunch?

The good news is that none of the Corleones die in the back of a meat truck.

If anybody knows about honoring that work-life balance, it's Coppola. He stocked the film with members of his own family, including casting his sister Talia Shire as Connie, his daughter Sofia plays the baby being baptized at the end of the film, his father Carmine wrote music, and also made a cameo along with Coppola's mother. Coppola embraced the romantic Italian reverence for family that brings an authenticity to "The Godfather," whether the bonds between characters strengthen and weaken, or even something as simple as sitting around the kitchen table while somebody makes dinner.

"The Godfather" was initially set for release around Christmas 1971, but it was delayed to a mid-March premiere in 1972. It opened in a handful of theaters on March 15 and then went wide the following week across the United States. It reportedly grossed $15 million before its opening, then went on to make $243,000 million worldwide as one of the biggest hits of all time. Adjusted to 2020 box office dollars, "The Godfather" remains in the top 25 money-drawing films of all time. It also cleaned up at the following year's Academy Awards, winning Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay by Coppola and Puzo, and Best Actor for Brando, who famously refused to accept it and sent up Native American Sacheen Littlefeather in his place.

The film would go on to become one of the most acclaimed motion pictures of all time, regularly placing near the top of every "Best Movie Ever" list made over the past 40 years. The American Film Institute has "The Godfather" ranked second in its AFI 100, the British Film Institute has it at 21 on its "Sight and Sound" list, and the users of the Internet Movie Database have it at 2nd as well. It has a 98 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and, of course, it's one of the entries of the Ultimate Movie Year, a more exceptional honor I could not imagine.

It leaves a nearly insurmountable legacy to follow, which makes it more impressive that Coppola followed this with "The Godfather Part II" two years later. It also cleaned up at the box office, Academy Awards, and critical acclaim, and some people have legitimate trouble figuring out which of these movies are ranked 1. and 1a. Now, following two of the greatest films of all time is even harder, so considering how hard they are to make in general, it makes sense that "The Godfather Part III" couldn't possibly live up to the first two. The 1990 conclusion to the trilogy is actually not a bad movie at all, but it is not in the running of "The Greatest Movie of All Time," so it catches more heat than it deserves.

Sofia Coppola famously played a supporting role in "Part III" to mixed results, so Papa Coppola was still hanging onto that work-life balance as best as he can. He didn't quite pull it off, but back in 1972, it was as locked in as Don Vito Corleone.

The Weekend: It's hard to deny "The Godfather's" place as one of the greatest cinematic achievements ever, and director Francis Ford Coppola as one of the most revered in his field. In fact, you can argue that Coppola had one of the single greatest decade run of films ever, with "The Godfather" in 1972, both "The Conversation" and "The Godfather Part II" in 1974, and "Apocalypse Now" in 1979. One could easily make a case for any one of these movies being the Coppola selection in the Ultimate Movie Year. Still, I'm pleased to find the original "Godfather" in a great spot on a relatively slow weekend historically.

One of the top films I want to mention is Sam Raimi's "Evil Dead 2," released this weekend in 1987. The sequel to Raimi's low-budget "Evil Dead," the second film is essentially a near remake of the first, but with more imagination, nerve, horror, and humor. Starring Bruce Campbell as our hero Ash, "Evil Dead 2" would be like if somebody tried to make a horror movie as a live-action Looney Tunes feature. It's hilarious, weird, insane, and an essential film for anybody who's a fan of movies.

Released that same weekend was a movie by two of Raimi's contemporaries, the Coen Brothers' "Raising Arizona." It was only the second movie by the Coens, but it made an incredible impression on me as a youth from the first few seconds. We already waxed the poles of the Coens in our "Big Lebowski" entry, so let's say that their movie with Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter as two sterile parents who steal a baby for their own is incredibly funny and brilliant. You should watch it as soon as possible.

Another influential filmmaker who dropped two of his best on week eleven is the excellent Albert Brooks. The actor/writer/comedian/director was the creator of several movies that never lit the box office on fire but gained acclaim and fandom in various circles. 1981's "Modern Romance" stars Brooks as a film editor whose deep neurosis put him in self-defeating relationships. Brooks was also behind 1985's "Lost in America," featuring Julie Hagerty and him as a couple on a cross-country road trip. 

Leonard DiCaprio was beginning his career as one of the biggest movie stars in the world when he starred in the period adventure film "The Man in the Iron Mask," also featuring John Malkovich, Gérard Depardieu, Jeremy Irons, and Gabriel Byrne as the Four Musketeers. The 1998 movie opened second at the box office, beaten only by the film that made DiCaprio an international sensation, "Titanic."

Two other master filmmakers dropped two of their most memorable films as well. Like Coppola in 1974, director Stephen Soderbergh had a landmark 2000, releasing two acclaimed hit films: Best Picture nominees "Traffic" and "Erin Brockovich," the latter of which debuted on this weekend. "Brockovich" not only scored multiple nominations, but Julie Roberts took home the Best Actress prize as the title character. One year later, in 2001, Christopher Nolan launched "Memento," a mind-bending, timeline-skewed crime thriller that officially put him on the map with only his second film.

Other notable films of the weekend include 1992's "My Cousin Vinnie," featuring Best Supporting Actress winner Marisa Tomei; Ron Howard's "The Paper" from 1994 starring Michael Keaton in a comedy about print journalism; the beginning of the "Final Destination" horror franchise in 2000; and the surprise comedy hit remake of "21 Jump Street" with Channing Tatem and Jonah Hill from 2012. Finally, two Disney animated classics were turned into live-action film adaptations, as 2015 saw the release of "Cinderella," followed by "Beauty and the Beast" in 2017. 

Next Week: "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"

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