I would like to analyze two scenes that in a way relate to one another. The first scene is when when Vito Corleone witnessed his mom being shot by Don Ciccio in the beginning of the film before running to save his own life and the second scene is when Michael Corleone and his wife were being shot at in their own bedroom and the second scene is. Both scenes were similar because that they started a trend of great violence in the Corleone family. When one faces such violence, it sparks fear, anger and feeling of vengeance that will forever be with them. Vito turns out to be a fearless character who constantly is killing enemies like Dan Fanucci in the beginning and ordering many more to be killed during his reign as the “Godfather”. Michael also turns out to be this harsh character who sees what needs to be done and does it with no regrets. Both of them end up leading lives that revolve around constant terror and violence.
In the first scene, Vito has an extremely lost but fearful expression as he is being dragged by his mother to surrender to Don Ciccio so that he could spare their lives. The camera in this scene is emphasizing the power that Don Ciccio has as the camera makes him look big compared to Vito and his mother. Once the violence begins, the camera begins to move quicker back and forth between Vito and his mother which creates fright and tension as the audience gets scared for Vito’s life. This scene, to the audience, shows the beginning of the life on the run and a life of violence that Vito will live and soon enough pass onto his son, Michael.
Likewise, in the second scene, the camera is moving back and forth from Michael and his wife as Michael is getting ready for bed. Then, the camera keeps switching from Michael to his wife until it finally pans out to show us the view of the entire room and how Michael is shielding his wife after al the chaos. Also, after that the camera is pretty much zoomed out when it shows their children all huddled around in their mother’s arms or in their blankets on the couch as Michael is still in shock. This scene instigated fear in the audience as we went through the trauma that the Corleone family went through after that shooting. These young kids probably were not too aware of what was going on but they were definitely scared. This fear will remain with them since they are growing up in such a tense and violent environment and this will impact them greatly, if not as much as Vito witnessing his mother being murdered. The camera shots definitely had a great impact on the tone of these scenes because when the camera is being moved around very quickly from one person to another, like in the shootings, this creates fear and suspense that keeps us on the edge of our seats. This method also allows us to feel the fear that the children and the adults were feeling and makes us feel this vengeance that the shooters need to face.
Both of these scenes are crucial turning points in somone’s life. The scenes show how much violence and fear can impact someone. Vito lived a life of violence while trying to escape a similar ending to his father’s. The scenes show how sooner or later, one becomes similar to their parents and they try to learn from their mistakes but often fall into the same traps. Both men had good intentions of starting families and keeping them safe while keeping themselves alive as well. The similarities in these scenes explain so much and, in a way, foreshadow that Michael’s kids will grow up to be the same since this will become the norm for them and because they will also grow without a mother around like Vito as Michael keeps pushing Kate away from his kids.
History repeats itself as we see that Vito and Michael are constantly fighting to keep a family in tact but always end up alone like emphasized in the last scene. This movie definitely emphasizes the phrase; like father, like son because the stories of both Michael and Vito are almost identical from beginning to end.
