Bait and Switch is the Name of this Game

Rating: 1/10 (15 February 2006)

Does "Godfather" romanticize crime and criminals? Yes, it does. Take, for instance, the Godfather's name "Corleone" which translates as "Lionhearted," suggesting that the heroes are to be compared to Richard the Lionhearted, legendary chivalrous hero of the Crusades and friend to Robin Hood. There can be no doubt that author Mario Puzo and director Francis Ford Coppola have made romantic idols of the Corleones, as the film gilds them with mystery, honor and gallantry. But of what Holy Crusade are the Corleones the leaders? Seemingly a war for survival against vicious enemies who would destroy their gang. But why should we care what happens to a bunch of evil criminals?
"Godfather" is just as much interesting for what it fails to show the audience as what it does show. The film makers wrongly assume that the audience is sophisticated enough to infer the kind of lurid but educational scene that made such a great success of earlier gangster films, nitty gritty illustrations of the inside workings of organized crime: loan sharking, extortion and vice. "Godfather" for the most part ignores this subject matter, the everyday business of crime, in favor of what should be only the end part of its story: a war between gangs over control of the rackets. The drama is essentially without motivation. The movie is simply not interested in showing us much of the dirty business that is the reason for the war. That is because the heroes would seem much less chivalrous if their criminal enterprises were shown in any depth or with any real understanding. For most of its length, the movie plays as a revenge tragedy in which the gallant protagonists could be members of any great family (whether criminal or not) protecting their cherished honor.
Why did the film makers deliberately sanitize the criminal aspect of the Corleone family? Are they apologists for crime? I think they are. One confidence game employed by the film makers, which is also familiar among the annals of organized crime leaders, is a variation on the trick called "bait and switch." We expect a portrait of a ruthless and immoral criminal, instead we are made to believe in the essential moral rightness of Don Corleone when he condemns as a contemptible enemy the kind of criminal who trades in narcotics. In other words, we are lured into the theater with the promise of a true to life depiction of the actions of a bad guy, and then the film makers slyly pull a fast one and show us a good guy instead! (We are persuaded to ignore the fact that the Godfather is an extortionist and pimp  even worse we are asked to believe that extortion and pimping are not so bad, especially if practiced by an honorable guy like Don Corleone, who, whatever his failings, is much too decent to trade in narcotics.)
This jiggery pokery was so effective that around the time the movie and its sequel came out an ivy league educated friend of mine on his way to a brilliant career on Wall Street bitterly denounced a critic of "Godfather" for making the claim that Don Corleone was not entitled to be regarded as a great hero like President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, General Douglas MacArthur or Doctor Albert Schweitzer, who had received similarly adulatory treatment in film. My friend, having seen both Godfathers, was convinced that a Mafia leader might be just as honorable as the heroic portrait the movies presented.
So, I feel some need on this occasion to remind the public of what the Mafia does, even when they allegedly refuse to get involved in narcotics sales. The Mafia is mainly in the business of Vice. It feeds off the weaknesses of a mass of little people who are corruptible, who are vulnerable to the appeal of easy sex, cheap thrills, quick money and quick fixes of their problems. These little people pay for their vices all their lives, much more than they can afford to pay, and end up ruined for the greater glory of the Mafia. Most racket crime is not glorious; it is petty and mean and easily committed by anyone who has less courage or daring than the average person. But it's easy to understand why the film makers left this out of the movie. It would be kind of absurd to call a scuzzy dirtbag by the name "Lionheart."