Gender Roles In The Godfather

1056 Words5 Pages
an unmatched success. While this essay focuses on the demarcation of gender roles between men and women in The Godfather, it could be said to represent the struggle that Italian-American families go through in their pursuit of the American dream. The Godfather allows Italians families to see the reflection of their families for the first time and Americans were allowed to see them too. It might not have been a pretty image but it was not a dull one either. The film is also a depiction of a large amount of cultural values that portray Italian American families. Films that were made prior to The Godfather portrayed gangsters as cruel and murderers but The Godfather showcased men in the Corleone family as family men who attend weddings and baptisms;…show more content…
After the release of The Godfather, Francis Coppola was accused of glorifying crime and representing an anti hero in a way that charmed the audience. The Godfather was intended to chronicle a Sicilian family that came to the US to pursue their dreams. The movie was not primarily obsessed with crime and violence as is the tradition in gangster movies. It lays a lot of stress on loyalty, friendship and family (Haskell 1). Thus categorising The Godfather as a film posited on the gangster movies genre is ambiguous. Although superficially knowing the movie naturally and undoubtedly suggest the making of a gangster movie, deep analysis of the background and consideration of every particular detail is a challenge to the gangster genre in its basis. A review of the film comments that Coppola filmed the movie in a personal way. However, the newness that is The Godfather is in the contribution rather than reinvention. There is a high degree of emphasis on family that cannot be seen in many gangster films. The family and familial piety cannot be taken by any means as new to the…show more content…
The setting is in an urban underworld and it stresses a certain cultural milieu involving contradicting crime and law. The Godfather does not, however, take this typical path. The sequels of Michael’s career take this path because Coppola wanted the audience to see it. Nonetheless, Vito Corleone is not an example of the typical fall of a gangster that we know. Although the rise of his career exemplifies the rise of a gangster, his death is peaceful in a garden playing with his grandson. The emphasis is on family again and the typical endings in a gangster movie where criminals are punished either through a tragic death or morally are evidently missing in The
Show More
Related

  • Gender Roles In The Godfather

    916 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Godfather, however, places a lot of importance on the theme of gender roles. It is one of the themes in the conventional gangster genre that is considerably emphasised in the movie. Audiences are capable of recognising a gangster film when they see one. Some of the familiar icons that this genre is associated with are a jungle setting, a brutal gangster hero who has loyal and over-ambitious henchmen and for the sake of this essay, women as ornaments, mothers and sisters who uphold stereotypical

    Read More

  • Stereotypes In Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather

    1926 Words  | 8 Pages

    Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather, a 1972 crime film, has in due course engrained itself within American pop culture, and is often deemed as a pinnacle of achievement in the film industry. Nevertheless, what copious oglers do not comprehend is that The Godfather is grounded upon various sociological leitmotifs, which in turn are seamlessly employed to immerse an audience into the realm of the Corleone Family. Furthermore, this motion picture exemplifies how all of its characters have been constructed

    Read More

More about Gender Roles In The Godfather

Open Document