Francis Ford Coppola's most iconic film, The Godfather, was all held together by one big lie about the Corleone crime family. The Godfather is considered one of the best movies of all time, if not the very best, and for good reason. It's a masterpiece in nearly every way, from its fantastic story to the star-studded cast of The Godfather. It's difficult to imagine a way The Godfather could have been better, but it's much easier to imagine how it could have been worse. Interestingly, if The Godfather had been more truthful about one important part of its story, it would have ruined the film.
One of the most iconic parts of The Godfather is its bleak and grim portrayal of organized crime. The entire trilogy is filled with backstabbing, hits, shootouts, beatings, betrayals, and just about any other violent crime imaginable. While The Godfather is loved for its brutal take on the gangster genre, it could have been much darker. In fact, The Godfather glossed over one of the most vicious parts of the Corleone crime family, and if it hadn't, Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola's masterpiece would have been entirely different.
The Godfather Glossed Over How The Corleone Family Actually Made Money
The Corleone Family Did Awful Things For Their Wealth
One of the harsh realities of rewatching The Godfather is that the movie never really gets into how the Corleone family makes its money. While discussing Sollozzo's narcotics deal, Vito briefly mentions that the Corleone family was involved in the illegal liquor and gambling trades, that they had a hand in the New York union scene, and that they had collected a wealth of favors from judges, politicians, and influential people. Though the Corleone family was extremely powerful and wealthy - Vito didn't even bat an eye at Sollozzo's request for a million dollars - The Godfather never showed how they made their money.
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Aside from Vito's brief mention of their business dealings, The Godfather doesn't examine how organized crime affected ordinary people, and instead focuses on gangland power struggles. Aside from the iconic horse head scene in The Godfather, and an anecdote explaining what "an offer he can't refuse" is, The Godfather never shows what the Corleone family had to do to gain their power and wealth. In reality, Vito and the Corleone family would have had to beat, murder, and exploit a lot of innocent people to gain their position. There's no such thing as a gang that doesn't hurt innocent people, and the Corleones were no exception.
The Godfather Portrayed The Corleone Family As Noble Gangsters, But The Reality Was Probably Different
The Corleones Were Only Heroes When Compared To Worse Crime Families
Even though all gangsters are villainous for their crimes, The Godfather goes out of its way to show that the Corleones were less evil and morally reprehensible. That's one of the reasons Vito turned down Sollozzo's deal: he was too noble to have a hand in drugs, as he thought they were too destructive and damaging. On top of that, the only people they killed were other gangsters and Carlo, an abusive husband and traitor. None of the Corleones' victims in The Godfather were innocent, and the movie intentionally portrayed them that way to make them more sympathetic.
The Corleone family probably left a trail of innocent blood, bodies, and bullets in their wake, and they were anything but noble.
It's very easy to root for the Corleone family when The Godfather only shows them using brutal violence against criminals and villains, but the reality of it would have been very different. Vito and his men beat and killed civilians to secure their favor, destroyed families with their illegal liquor and gambling, and used both psychological and physical torture to extort innocent people. The Corleone family probably left a trail of innocent blood, bodies, and bullets in their wake, and they were anything but noble. While that may be evidence that The Godfather glorified organized crime, it was also completely necessary to become the masterpiece it is.
The Godfather's Story Wouldn't Have Worked If It Was Honest About The Corleone Family
The Corleones Needed To Be Likable To Get Audiences To Root For Them
Though it isn't true to the darkness of real-life organized crime, it was for the best that The Godfather didn't delve into the Corleone family's more villainous side. Quite a bit of The Godfather's story and impact relies on audiences seeing the Corleone family as an example of "noble" gangsters. It would have been much harder for viewers to care about the failed hit on Vito if The Godfather had first shown him ruining countless innocent lives. Likewise, nobody would be invested in Michael's revenge against Barzini and the Tattaglias if the movie had first shown that the Corleone family was just as wicked as them.
Nobody would be invested in Michael's revenge against Barzini and the Tattaglias if the movie had first shown that the Corleone family was just as wicked as them.
The Godfather is loved for its brutal depiction of organized crime, but that's not the only thing that makes it such a masterpiece. The truth about the Corleone family serves as the perfect example of that: showing the death and destruction they brought to innocent people would have made The Godfather much darker and grittier, but it also would have made the film worse. There is such a thing as too much of a good thing, and The Godfather could have drowned in bleakness. There also wouldn't have been enough room for audiences to get invested in its amazing characters, its incredible atmosphere, and its beautifully woven plot.
Don Corleone has some of the best quotes in The Godfather, and they've become some of the most famous movie quotes of all time.
Another reason The Godfather didn't need to show the true brutality of the Corleones is because the movie isn't about organized crime as a whole, it's about different crime families battling for control. Almost everyone who watches a gangster movie understands that the characters are inherently bad people. The drama in The Godfather doesn't come from showing how good triumphs over evil, it comes from seeing how evil people can destroy each other. If The Godfather had peeled back the facade of the Corleone family, it would have lost its antagonists, its tension and suspense, and pretty much everything that makes it so timeless.
Francis Ford Coppola directed this 1978 classic that would go on to become one of the most iconic crime films ever made. Starring Marlon Brando, James Caan, and Al Pacino, The Godfather gives a tense and introspective look into the Corleone crime family of New York City.
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