Best Shot Picks and Nathaniel's Choice from 'The Godfather'
Thursday, April 7, 2022 at 11:12PM by Nathaniel R
Our film title this week on Hit Me With Your Best Shot was in honor of the restoration of The Godfather (1972) for its 50th Anniversary. Here are the Best Shot choices from seven participants and my own towards the end of the post. Click on the images that follow to read the corresponding articles. I'll be "talking" inbetween the images about a film I've never written about before (!) as I select my own...
Alexander Georgakis choice on twitter (thread)
I, too, adore this shot. The entire opening setpiece of Connie's wedding is a marvel of contrasts. It crosscuts between brightly lit and festive familial wide shots like the one Alex selected and darkly lit, even sinister, exchanges in Vito Corleone's (Marlon Brando) private office nearby. My favourite image from this sequence is the one up top with Vito stroking his cat. Lots of people pet their dogs and cats at home; it only feels idiosyncratic and character-driven because the words (violent) and the images (tender) are at odds and also because movies so rarely display such authenticity when they get 'intimate'.
The shot above is most interesting, though, in the way it parallels an earlier shot where the family gathers fro the group photo only for Vito to abandon it because Michael (Al Pacino) hasn't arrived. It's a small detail but it conveys so much about Vito's respect for Michael... even this father's respect for the distance his son keeps. Michael's chosen to be a "civilian" and not part of the family business.
Cláudio's choice at The Film Experience (article)
Ryan's choice on Twitter (thread) -- he'd never seen The Godfather before!
The cinematography by Gordon Willis is a marvel, though it wasn't embraced as such at the time even though the film itself was an immediate blockbuster and critical success. Though it's a handsome picture with many astute choices in lighting and composition, one of the things to admire most about it is how measured and calm it is for most of its three hours. For a picture with such a high body count it's incongruously sedate, the violence only coming in very short bursts and half the time obscured from our view (as in Cláudio and Ryan's choices above). Only occassionally is the violence in our full view. Either way the murders always feel shocking even if you've already seen the picture, because they disrupt such steady placcid images.
But the thing I personally find most fascinating about the picture is Michael Corleone's film-length character arc, and the way he is framed and lit throughout. Though he's never exactly hidden from our view (he is the lead, after all, despite Al Pacino's "Supporting" nomination) Coppola and Willis and the editors William Reynolds and Peter Zinner, do not give him many closeups or even really single him out as the lead character for the first hour of the picture. Sometimes when we're looking at him we're not even really looking at him since our view is obstructed. This is particularly true in scenes with Kay (Diane Keaton). In one of Coppola and Willis most brilliant touches they're continually showing us (rather than telling us as so many lesser films default to) that Kay doesn't really know Michael. And never will.
Joanne's choice (read her take in the comments after this post)
Cal's choice at Tumblr (images - read his take in the comments after this post)
Ben Miller at Ice Cream For Freaks (article)
Keisha at Cinema Cities (article)
Ben selected a moving shot in the last act in which we're asked to compare and constrast the two dons, father and son. The very ending of the picture (Keisha's choice) is about as perfect as any film's ending has ever been. Kay, out of focus, watches but doesn't see, and sees but doesn't understand (or does she?) that her husband is literally becoming his father in the next room. Both shots are expert examples of visual command, showing rather than telling us what is happening not just to the story but inside the characters.
But what of my own choice?
For my selection, though, I would like to retreat to the middle of the picture where suddenly the shots of Michael become direct and confrontational and hit much differently even if they continue to be obscured. The mob war which accounts for most of the plot of the movie, acts like a centripetal force and yanks Michael, who has always been purposefully on the periphery, to the center of the family business. After an attempt on his father's life something shifts in Michael (and in the imagery of him).
Best Shot(s)-- two ways of seeing Michael, neither are comforting.
The camera begin to stare directly at him; He glares back. Note how the dim light, smart production design / location work (that bright signage!), and the performance are all seeing red simultaneously. He's angry. He's already premeditated two murders. He excuses himself to go to the bathroom and after nervously finding the hidden gun, has a moment of collecting himself. We're denied a close-up or even his face. Will he change his mind or is he steeling himself to complete his mission? He smooths his hair. The anticipation is unbearable.
This, the best sequence in the film, is Michael's point of no return. I couldn't decide between these two shots, so let's call it a tie. Both offer close but not intimate ways of seeing Michael, neither of which are comforting. The longer we look at him the less knowable he'll become in this process of retreating from his humanity. The two men he's dining with won't make it out of this restaurant; neither will his soul.
Next Episodes
Thursday April 14th Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) streaming on HBOMax
Thursday April 21st The Last Picture Show (1971) streaming on Criterion Channel
Reader Comments (13)
Guilty as charged! I had never seen it, but now that I have, I feel I must jump into the sequel right away. And I love how you wrote up this post, incorporating our shots with your overall thoughts on the movie. Excellent!
And I very much agree that sequence you picked your shots from IS the best of the film and it comes pretty much at the halfway point of the movie. I know this because I actually saw the movie in two days and I ended the first day after this scene.
Keaton's face and the door closing.
Exactly the last shot.
It's true perfection.
Yours are all also my favourites Nathaniel!
I am not really a person who takes the time to write, but, as a reader, I must say again this is the best series this site has ever produced. And it brings the best of you as a writer, Nathaniel, probably because you're an illustrator too - it makes you look at images and you are about them gracefully.
I love this entry in particular because it says things I've always thought about the godfather movies but people rarely talk about: Coppola's patience. Michael's arc. This thing about hiding him. Exactly.
That's why my favorite shot of the movie is the one in which Coppola decides to finally focus on Michael, when he decides to kill Sollozzo and tell Sonny, Clemenza and Tom his plans.
Ok, I've decided to post it because describing is not enough:
Here: https://calebroth.tumblr.com/post/680962299563999232/hitmewithyourbestshot
I was 5 when The Godfather was released and as the daughter of a Sicilian father and Anglo Australian mother, I had already been a flower girl at two Italian weddings. Of course I was too young to watch the film on initial release but I remember being mesmerised from the start when I stayed up late to watch it on TV in in the late 70’s with my older brother. I was about 11 or 12 and really, still too young. It became a yearly must watch movie of the week throughout the 70’s and 80’s and one of the first VCR’s our family owned.
My father though, was never really impressed with the film. He came to Australia when he was 16 and he’d had some experience with corrupt Mafia Don’s even on his little island of Salina - which is off the main island of Sicily. He considered il mafiosa to be nothing more than the criminal bullies and thugs they were and glad to have left it all behind. Still the side of the culture that focused on the importance of community and family was what me and brothers and my mother, who had married into the culture like Kay, saw reflected in the film.
It had been a while since I had seen it but when I saw you were doing The Godfather, I decided to revisit and try and find a best shot. I got caught up in the viewing and then went straight to Part 2 so really didn’t get around to screencaps. I did do a mental list of best shots though. There’s a shot at the wedding from behind Nonna Corleone as she looks up at the stage. The one with the car amongst the tall grass with the Statue of Liberty in the background (Claudio’s choice) stood out for me as well. But when Clemenza is making pasta sauce with the men all sitting around the table, there’s a shot with him at stove as Michael walks in to answer the phone that really hits me as a best shot and took me back to the my Nonna’s kitchen and my dad and uncles sitting around the table.
Cal and Joanne -- i've updated to include your choices. I looooove hearing multiple choices and why which is why i wish the series had more participation. It's so fascinating to see which images strike people most
I saw The Godfather in college… definitely due for a rewatch 😬
I love this post and the discussion in it! Still my favorite movie. Just unassailable. The cinematography and imagery doesn't get nearly enough attention in most discussion of it and all the points about Coppola / Reed obscuring Michael for the first part of the movie only to gradually--then suddenly--center him is so underappreciated.
That said, this post feels incomplete without including in my opinion the most arresting shot of the film - the overhead askew shot of the aftermath of the hit on Don Corleone, with oranges splayed across the street. It's the only shot in the film from such an unnatural angle and introduces the recurring motif of oranges surrounding death. It is also a brilliant use of color as Reed sprinkles throughout the film (c.f. the rose on the Don's lapel in the first scene). An idiosyncratic and iconic choice of framing to bring an operatic scope to the moment in the film when the action really begins to intensify.
Also, Joanne.. "I got caught up in the viewing and then went straight to Part 2". Been there!!
I've got to ask, Nathaniel: have you still not seen Part II? I remember you saying you hadn't a while back.
If you haven't, is there anything that might convince you to watch?
These are all great (love yours, Nathaniel!), but yeah, that ending is iconic for a reason. It may quite possibly be THE best final shot in film history.
Nathaniel, you should of course see Pt II, but I still think Pt I is better - which I believe is a minority opinion. And Pt III is better than its reputation suggests, though not as good as its predecessors.
Really looking forward to Seven Brides (one of my all-time faves) and The Last Picture Show (so many great shots to choose from).
I think Part III now re-edited and retitled Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone is much improved. .
I love this series, and I love this post in particular - because it's The Godfather, one of my most loved films.
I never post an image of my own, because I don't have any social channels where I can put it. But I always play along in spirit! And this time, I would go with the shot of father and son in the garden, the two of them in profile as they talk. We can see and feel the invisible transference of power, and the intimacy and love with which Don Vito talks to his favourite son. The film's final shot is my other favourite. Just the perfect ending.
My Dad, who died in 2020, loved The Godfather films. He had Italian heritage and appreciated the Italian aspects of the film. But really he just loved the whole thing. And got me into it too.
Thanks for posting my best shot Nathaniel. I wasn’t expecting that :) It’s an interesting way to view a film - thinking about what makes a good shot and why it appeals. Next time I’ll make more of an effort at screenshots and participate on Twitter. I do wish I had edited my stream of consciousness comment a bit better though. On read back I can see some glaring typos…