Representation of Italian Americans

The Godfather uses many stereotypes of the Italian American, the first shot of the film is a close up which tracks backwards to a medium close up, this makes us identify with the character and feel his emotions, which are anger and sadness, the frame tracks further to a over the shoulder shot, this leaves us in suspense because we want to see who is so powerful that people come to plead to them. The messages that come up in this are friendship, traditions, and justice, the Italians in this are very traditional.

The scene where Michael proposes to kill Solozzo and Mclusky shows that with no male role model, traditions go out of the window, and there is no backbone, as Don Corleone doesn’t want to get Michael mixed in his family business. The shot while he says this is a medium shot, it is shot from low angle, which connotes weakness, and he is portrayed as weak at the start because he is the youngest brother. The shot slowly tracks in to Michael; we start identifying with Michael. This shows the loss of tradition as the family is diminished. People eat round the table, there is no talking, Sonny has a vest on and Michael is smoking, this shows the mess of family because they are always seen eating round a table as a family.

These couple of scenes have told us that Don Corleone is a influential and powerful character, it shows as soon as he is away the family's traditions are lost.