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The Godfather is the answer to everything. What are the days of the week? "Sunday, Tuesday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday..." How do you shop for things? "Leave the guns, take the cannoli." And what do you do in business? "Go to the Mattresses."
— Tom Hanks, You've Got Mail
"Leave the gun. Take the cannoli."
— Clemenza
is a film series about a fictional Mafia crime family, the Corleone Family. The first movie came out in 1972, and was based upon a book of the same name.
The plot of the first movie begins in 1945 with Michael Corleone, the youngest son of the Don of the Family, Vito Corleone, returning from World War Two and reuniting with his family at his sister Connie's wedding. The good times don't last long, however: shortly after the wedding a captain from a rival crime family tries to interest the Don and his Hot Blooded eldest son, Sonny, in the new up and coming moneymaker: heroin. The old fashioned Don is not interested, believing that selling drugs would wreck the political connections vital to the family, but when Sonny shows interest the rival family decides on a new course of action: kill Don Vito, and try to make a bargain with Sonny afterwards.
The assassination attempt on the Don fails to kill him but puts him in the hospital and Michael, who has never been interested or involved in the Family business before, thwarts a second attempt while visiting his father at the hospital. At a truce meeting Michael kills both the captain from the other family and a police captain that was involved in the second attempt at his father before going into hiding, and Sonny, furious at the attempts at his father's life, declares an all out mob war.
Eventually Sonny is ambushed and killed, and Michael is forced out of hiding to try to take over the family. Michael pretends to be helpless at first, but after his father dies and he becomes the head of the Family, Michael ruthlessly purges The Moles within the family and his enemies in the other major mob families, leaving the Corleone family as the most powerful force in the mob scene.
The second film both continues Michael's story and gives flashback accounts of Don Vito's troubled childhood and his eventual turn to crime and rise to power. In the present Michael is having many difficulties, as he and Jewish gangster Hyman Roth both do business with each other and trade doublecrosses and assassination attempts, his personal life with his wife and family crumble, and the Corleone family tries to survive an investigation from the US government.
Eventually Michael manages to overcome everything, but the film ends on a theme of Pyrrhic Villainy: Michael's actions have destroyed his family, ended his marriage, he's killed his sole remaining brother, Fredo, after finding out that Fredo made a deal with Hyman Roth, and ends the movie utterly alone.
Most fans prefer to disregard the third film, which picks up events 20 years later in the timeline, where an ailing and guilt stricken Michael increasingly attempts to make the Corleone family legitimate, but in doing so becomes less and less involved with the functions of the crime family, giving more and more leeway to unscrupulous and unprincipled associates. The long dead Sonny's grown bastard son, Vincent, speaks up about this and is taken under Michael's wing and groomed to replace him. There is one last round of assassinations, internal fighting in the Corleone Family before Michael dies and Vincent becomes the new Don.
The first film was also loosely adapted by EA Games into a free-roaming action/adventure game that lets you create your own mobster (with a feature called Mob Face, based on EA's Tiger Woods Game Face) who starts out as the low man on the Corleone totem pole and experiences events from the first movie (he helps deliver the horse head to Jack Woltz's bed, for example) while rising through the ranks of the family, eventually becoming Don of New York. If you're looking for a spot-on adaptation of the movie look elsewhere, but think of it as " Grand Theft Auto: Cosa Nostra" or something to tide you over until Mafia 2's release and you should have a pretty fun time with it. The second film was also adapted into a videogame by EA, where you play the protagonist from the first games replacement becoming Don of NYC, focusing on Hyman Roth’s attempt to control Cuba.
The film series provides examples of:
- An Offer You Can't Refuse: The Trope Namer
- Adaptation Displacement: The original novel by Mario Puzo is less well-known than the films. The way that the films are titled "Mario Puzo's The Godfather" were actually an attempt by director Francis Ford Coppolla to avoid this.
- Adaptation Distillation: The original novel was considered rather average, while the first Godfather movie is considered one of the greatest films of all time, in part because it drops a lot of meaningless subplots.
- And the fact that although the book tells a good story, it's not particularly well writen, telling a story rather than showing.
- Aloof Big Brother: subverted, as the younger Michael is the leader of the family, while Fredo is reduced to go-fer jobs
- Affably Evil: Vito behaves like - and, in some ways, is - a family-oriented leader of his community, doing favours for the weak and punishing the wicked (when it doesn't interfere with Business)
- Badass: This film sets one of the major markers of manliness in cinema. The emphasis on the strength and love of the father, his need for respect, his willingness to fight ruthlessly to protect his people, and the need to live according a code of honour, all play directly into the core of manhood. Vito sets the standard: his successor and son Michael tries - and, despite his intelligence and ruthlessness, fails to meet it. Michael gets the power, but loses his family, completely.
- The glory of the Godfather is this profoundly tragic element of the story.
- The failure of Godfather III is its unnecessary and clumsy attempt to beef up the tragedy, ending in a mere rehash of the classic ending of Godfather II.
- Being Evil Sucks :If you wish to be be a mob chief after watching this, then you are crazy.
- Big Applesauce
- Big Screwed Up Family: And how...
- Big Brother Mentor: Turns out badly in The Godfather Part II
- Butt Monkey: Fredo.
- Catch Phrase: All sorts of great dialogue can be found in the first two Godfather films, and even the third film has a few fine lines
- The Chessmaster: Michael in all three films. He occasionally flirts with becoming a true Magnificent Bastard, but lacks the raw charisma to truly clinch the deal.
- Confessional: The Godfather Part III
- Contested Sequel: The Godfather Part III
- Crowning Music Of Awesome: The Theme.
- Daddys Girl: Mary. Boy, does she pay hard for that.
- Darker and Edgier: Coppola, the director of the Godfather films, felt that the first movie showed the Mafia in too warm and sentimental a light. So, Godfather II was made darker and edgier
- Deal With The Devil
- Damn It Feels Good to be a Gangster: Not the Trope Maker, but close.
- Decoy Protagonist: Vito.
- Dirty Cop: Both in the films and the games. The games even have G-men on the take.
- Dis Continuity : The first and second films are regarded as some of the best films ever created. The third one on the other hand...
- Downer Ending
- Dropped A Bridge On Him: Clemenza dies offscreen between I and II because of a contract dispute with the actor. Frank Pentangeli is actually his Jonas Quinn.
- Drugs Are Bad
- Even Evil Has Standards: Vito Corleone refuses to get involved with the drug trade. Also, in the book, one of the factors that led to Vito ordering Woltz's horse killed was Woltz's molestation of a little girl who had her audition during Tom Hagen's visit, an act which Vito declared infamità.
- Family Business: the ultimate variety
- Generational Saga
- Hot Blooded: Vinnie
- If I Wanted You Dead
- It Was His Sled: It is basically impossible to watch this movie without already knowing some of the major plot twists, due to Popcultural Osmosis and Memetic Mutation. In fact, if you're on this website, reading these words, it's already too late.
- Kick The Dog: Decapitating a man's horse because he won't cast a guy in a movie, a guy who cheats on his wife and beats her, and a guy who kills his brother-in-law on the same day as becoming the Godfather of his son, after telling him he won't kill him. And that's just in the first movie.
- Kick Them While They Are Down (Or better said, Shoot Sonny Many Times When Defenseless And Then Some More).
- Well, this trope is played straight. Some nameless mook kicks him in the face after after he gets shot thirty bazillion times.
- Kissing Cousins: Mary and Vinnie
- Kiss Of Death (The Godfather Part II)
- Lawful Stupid Chaotic Stupid: Fredo
- Luca Brazzi Sleeps With The Fishes: Trope Namer
- The Mafia
- Mafia Princess: First Connie, then Mary.
- Memetic Mutation: "An offer he can't refuse", the horse's head, "the day of my daughter's wedding", and many more.
- Mob War
- Moe Greene Special: the first film is the Trope Namer.
- More Dakka: In the third movie, a meeting between prominent families is interrupted by a helicopter with a machinegun. It's a bloodbath.
- Also the death of Sonny in the first film, who was more or less machine gunned from all angles until the bullets ran out.
- Neighbourhood Friendly Gangsters — Compare The Corleone family to the Tattaglias.
- Never Live It Down: The notion that Frank Sinatra used the mob to get his role in From Here To Eternity (that he got his Academy Award for) is not based on any evidence from Real Life, but this book and movie.
- Nightmare Fuel: For this troper, the scene in which Woltz (the movie director), after actually refusing an offer he couldn't refuse, wakes up in bed the next morning with the bloody head of his favorite horse. *shudders* She had great difficulty sleeping the night after she saw this.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Johnny Fontane is Frank Sinatra (the resemblance is clearer in the novel but still visible in the film).
- There are some other examples. Billy Goff (a minor character in the novel) is a thinly disguised Jimmy Hoffa, Moe Green is obviously Bugsy Siegel, Hyman Roth is based on Meyer Lensky, and Johnny Fontane's alcoholic friend Nino Valenti (in the novel) is probably based on Dean Martin. Jack Woltz and various gangsters (including the Corleones) also resemble one or more real-life well-known persons.
- Not Using The Zed Word: Or the "Mafia" word, in this case.
- That may be due to the fact that the title of "Mafia" is largely an American invention—the organization is actually called "Cosa Nostra" (which means "our thing"). Real mafiosos during this time period wouldn't have called themselves that.
- "Cosa Nostra" and "Mafia" actually aren't used because of a long campaign by the Italian-American Civil Rights League led by mafia boss Joe Colombo
- Nothing Personal: Perhaps the most famous use of this Stock Phrase
- Oscar Bait: Both DeNiro and Brando won Oscars for playing Vito Corleone, the only actors to ever accomplish this.
- Pretty In Mink: Connie and her mother wear mink coats in the second film.
- Pyrrhic Villainy: The ending of the second film, possibly the most devastating use of this trope ever.
- Reality Is Unrealistic: A minor case, but the use of the word "Don" was so impacted by this film that most people are unaware of the proper form of address. In real life, the word "Don" is used in conjunction with a persons first name rather than their last. Thus, "Don Corleone" should be "Don Vito" or "Don Michael." This is of only minor importance in the movie itself, and there is occasional use of the proper form of address, but public perception of the the Mafia in particular (And Sicilian/Italian culture in general) was so defined by this move that most people are unaware of the correct usage.
- The Scrappy: Sofia Coppola's performance as Mary in the third film is hated by nearly all.
- Shown Their Work: In the first movie, the spaghetti sauce instructions are actually usable and a new 1946 Cadillac can be seen with wooden planks as bumpers early on (due to steel shortages, bumpers on very early post-World War Two cars were supplied some time later, to be installed by the dealer).
- Stuffed In The Fridge: Appollonia.
- Surprisingly Improved Sequel: This series has what most critics consider to be the definitive trope example, II vs. the original. III, on the other hand...
- Suspiciously Idle Officers: According to Tom, Mc Cluskey is providing bodyguard service for Sollozzo round-the-clock, making him untouchable. You would think that an NYPD captain would have a few official duties, but you would evidently be wrong.
- Sympathetic Murderer: Michael
- Thicker Than Water
- The Unfettered: Michael. In the first film, he kills of the other heads of the senior Mafia families in New York, in the second film he kills his brother and in the third film senior members of the Roman Catholic Church are killed, some by Michael, some by rivals. Including Pope John Paul I
- The Purge: Michael orchastrates a final purge in all three movies as the climax to each film. The final purge in the final film fails to protect Michael Corelone's daugher, Mary
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Poor Sonny...
- Trademark Favourite Food: Italian. Definitely. The way Mama made it.
- Vigilante Execution
- Villain Protagonist: Michael
- Viva Las Vegas: Where Michael sends Fredo to get him out of his hair, and where the family attempts to become legitimate in II.
- What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic: Roth and his Cuba-shaped birthday cake in II. A slice to the mob, a slice to the United Fruit Company, a slice to Roth himself, etc. It's a blatant metaphor for pre-revolutionary Cuba.
- You Can Never Leave: Michael tries to avoid joining the Family in the first film, discusses his attempts to leave it in the second film, and cries out that attempts to leave in the second film, and conclusively fails in the third film.
- You Killed My Brother: Sonny.
- Youngest Child Wins: Michael becomes the Godfather: Fredo tries to get his own action and defy his Godfather, with fatal consequences
- Wicked Cultured
The video game provides examples of:
- And Now For Someone Completely Different: You start off controlling Johnny Trapani, but he's gunned down within minutes. The real main character is his son after a Time Skip.
- Authority Equals Asskicking - As Don, your character is practically Made Of Iron. Higher-ranking enemy mobsters are also more powerful.
- Badass - While it's very difficult, your character is capable of taking down an enemy warehouse, trainyard, shipyard or even a compound swarming with Mooks all by himself. That's manly.
- Beef Gate - If you can't "persuade" a shopkeeper despite doing almost everything possible, including beating him/her almost to death, or have problems with a warehouse, you need to grind more.
- Bling Bling Bang - The level 3 snubnose has gold and ivory on it.
- Character Customization / RPG Elements
- Copy And Paste Environments
- Coup De Grace - At least one Execution Style has you get in close to a weakened enemy and take him out this way.
- Demonic Spiders - Damn Tommygun and shotgun mobsters will tear you a new one for a lot of the game.
- Dude Wheres My Respect - In cutscenes, your former bosses will still call you "kid" and treat you like an underling after you become Don.
- Every Car Is A Pinto
- Finishing Move - Some of the Execution Styles involve these.
- Healing Potion
- Invincible Minor Minion - These sometimes show up.
- Karma Meter - "Heat" for cops and "Vendetta" for other gangsters.
- Law Of Chromatic Superiority - Averted. Your black-clad Corleone comrades start out in the worst position, and it's the green Barzinis, not the red Cuneos, who are considered the strongest.
- Mook Chivalry - Averted. The members of the other four families don't know or care about fighting one-on-one like gentlemen.
- Neck Snap - One of the Execution Styles.
- No OSHA Compliance - Various places have conveniently low railings to knock people over for the Watch Your Step Execution Style.
- One Man Army - You will run up at least 250 kills just taking over Little Italy, and with four more areas to cover, over 1000 is expected.
- Optional Sexual Encounter - You get respect points for "negotiation".
- Railing Kill - The Watch Your Step Execution Style is this.
- Rewarding Vandalism - You don't directly get money from this, except maybe a token sum from cash registers, but it helps when extorting shopkeepers.
- Short Range Shotgun - Averted to the extent that you do wish it was not.
- Sorting Algorithm Of Weapon Effectiveness - While you can get the full selection of weaponry quite early, upgrades to the better weapons are available later and cost more.
- Storming The Castle - Taking over enemy warehouses, hubs and eventually compounds.
- Take Your Time
- Timed Mission
- Unskippable Cut Scene - Far too many, unfortunately.
- Videogame Cruelty Potential - With the exception of your girlfriend and fellow Corleones, you can hurt or kill everyone in the whole city in a wide variety of ways, such as throwing them off a roof or even into an oven. Then there's the extortions. While killing the shopkeeper is highly discouraged (as you'll have to wait a while before trying to extort the business again), and you have to be careful not to push them too far so they don't try to fight back, you still have access to quite a few methods to "convince" them to sell out to you. Each shopkeeper even has a specific thing that particularly irks them, such as damaging their store, killing customers in front of them or threatening them with your gun.
- The original three-platform release has 22 "execution styles", which is increased in the Wii version to 52;you get bonus points for carrying out all of them. Some hit contracts give you extra money for killing the target a certain way, but it sometimes gets ridiculous. For an example, trying to take out the Tattaglia second-in-command by throwing glass bottles.
- Villain Cred
- Violence Is The Only Option - Averted. Sort of. The game manual actually recommends bribing cops instead of shooting at them.
- And, getting sufficent respect (accomplished by many varied ways) means shopkeepers capitulate with little to no violence.
- Wide Open Sandbox
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