Movies reflect the changing roles of men in the 21st century. Here is what our community says about a classic one.
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This post is the third in our new series on “Movies and Manhood” that gives our regular writers a voice to share their views on how movies have impacted their thinking about men, as well as the culture at large. Our objective is to find the intersection between these films and the themes and topics we address here at The Good Men Project. Be sure to check out the first post on Dead Poets Society and the second post on Field of Dreams.
It’s hard to imagine a series of films having more impact on the concept on modern manhood than The Godfather series. The first two films, based in part on Mario Puzo’s 1969 bestseller The Godfather, chronicled the life of mafia boss Vito Corleone (the Godfather), as well as the rise and fall of his youngest son Michael, who took his place. Filled with memorable quotes and classic scenes, the movies singlehandedly introduced a whole new lexicon of manhood into mainstream culture. (The third film in the series is inferior to the first two but still recommended viewing if you’re interested in seeing the conclusion to the Corleone family saga.)
As you’ll see below, not all of our GMP panelists agree that the impact of The Godfather films has been positive. We challenge you to watch the films (if you haven’t seen them already), decide for yourself, and share your thoughts in the comments.
Here are the GMP Perspectives:
This series depicts a dark side to traditional male values of family, honor, and loyalty—namely, that beliefs are both a fortress and a prison. Michael Corleone begins as a good man but when good men succumb to illicit means they are ultimately destroyed. It’s a timeless message.
Spencer Dryden, The Good Men Project Author
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The family business. If you’ve ever grown up working with your father and brother, you know what it feels like to be in The Godfather.
As an Italian family from New York with a heavy-handed Dad who ruled with an iron fist, my brother Vince and I grew up learning the hard way. Two rebels who were sure we could do it better than the old man, we fought with him and each other every step of the way.
Although we had to place honor and loyalty above all else, we knew in our bones that if we just had the chance, we could do a better job.
Michael has to make all the tough decisions just like all of us each day. And yes, they are life and death. When my Dad passed unexpectedly at age 53, my brother had his shot to run the family auto body shop. And he did a great job, growing the business and improving systems and profits. I also had my shot years later before we sold it to move on to bigger and better lives.
I now have two sons and look at them more like I wanted to be seen, as capable, resourceful young men, ready to take over from me on any given day.
Thinking back on the moments when Michael had to be patient and wait his turn to be the Don, I still feel the urge to break out.
Rick Gabrielly, The Good Men Project Author
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The Godfather series portrays how the reactivity of anger is passed along like a disease everywhere it goes.
Feelings Detective, The Good Men Project Author
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Someone, somewhere, decided that The Godfather movies (and virtually every other gangster media) represented a quintessential masculine wish-fulfillment, and audiences have downloaded this as a cultural norm ever since. The machismo, the unrestrained violence, the self-righteousness, and the patronizing objectification of women is glorified in the mafia world portrayed here, without apology, irony, or much self-awareness. Any disgust or apprehension we might feel watching such characters is clearly meant to fall away in light of how cool they and their lifestyles are.
Someone, somewhere, decided that The Godfather movies (and virtually every other gangster media) represented a quintessential masculine wish-fulfillment, and audiences have downloaded this as a cultural norm ever since.
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Like everyone in the film, we are meant to fear and respect the Godfather, because we, as men, are all supposed to want the same combination of fear and respect. It is utter nonsense, yet it has become so conventional that it is hard to even approach the self-defeating concept of masculinity the film presents. It would be easy to dismiss the film as dated, a snapshot of a different era, if it weren’t hailed as timeless and virtually rebooted with every modern imitator covering the same subjects with the same ham-fisted devotion to obscenely stereotypical male self-indulgence.
Edgar Wilson, The Good Men Project Author
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The death of Fredo always stays with me as one of the most telling moments of Michael’s descent. He commits fratricide at the hand of honoring his toxic masculinity. Michael, so deep in the mask of male bravado, has “no choice” but to kill his brother.
Wilhelm Cortez, Executive Editor at The Good Men Project
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The Godfather trilogy (which won Best Picture at the Academy Awards for Parts 1 and 2 … forget 3, which was an afterthought) is an extremely complex prism through which we view a broad spectrum of NOT GOOD men. The themes of the American cultural stamp are revealed with layered nuances in father-son, husband-wife, and brother-brother with such staggering naturalism, we are never quite sure if the violence on screen is a portrait or a metaphor. Director Francis Ford Coppola and writer Mario Puzo achieve the impossible in getting us to look past organized crime as something purely immoral, to something that is more amoral and not unlike the emerging legitimacy of the all vicious business enterprise filling in the landscape.
I believe the movie has helped define our popular culture not because it carries any easy lesson, but because it forces us to see the darkness we share in achieving wealth, success, and legacy.
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When the torch is passed from father to son—and not the son the father intended, but a reluctant son struggling with his own American identity aggravated by duty and loyalty—we easily see the struggles of generational compromise filtered through human pain and alleged progress. I believe the movie has helped define our popular culture not because it carries any easy lesson, but because it forces us to see the darkness we share in achieving wealth, success, and legacy. The parallels between what is good and what is right in the legal vs. illegal worlds peel back the onion of our life’s justification. Just as there is a Church supposedly above it all, we cannot escape the revelation that our intentions and actions are no more aligned than those of Vito or Michael. Thus we are unable to condemn them without condemning our own hypocrisy, and that’s a pretty weird place to sit in a dark theater for a lot of hours thinking about family, history, and mortality. Magnifico!
Ken Goldstein, Board Member and The Good Men Project Author
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In addition to being one of the greatest movies of all time, The Godfather is also a great example of the complex relationship between fathers and sons. Throughout the first part of the film, we watch Michael, the clean-cut war hero, work through his conflicting feelings of being a “good man” as society sees him and being a loyal son. I always remember the scene where Michael visits his father in the hospital after he was shot as a pivotal moment for his character. You can almost feel the moment that the “switch” in Michael’s mind is flipped to being loyal to the “family,” instead of society. This is a powerful scene in the film, and it is a perfect illustration of how powerful the connection between fathers and sons are.
Scott Drotar, The Good Men Project Author
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A superb, faultless film about good and evil and loyalty to both family as well as group, and the conflicts that arise between these cornerstones of life.