Godfather
The Book and the movie of The Godfather have
their similarities and differences
that I will be focusing on. The Godfather
is the best selling phenomenon - a
classic of our time. The Godfather story
was written before the movie came out
approximately 30 years ago. At first
glance, the book and the movie appear the
same. Upon further investigation,
however, the two forms of media do possess
certain differences. Although they
are different in the areas of characters,
setting, and dialog, they are
similar in the areas of violence, Don Vito
Corleone, and Michael
Corleone. These differences in the movie and the book are
very minute. The
plot for both were intense to read and watch. Gangster action
is my forte.
There seems to be nothing better than acknowledging a character
that plays a
role that is highly respected and feared. The plot was very
interesting and
easy to follow. The literature to this book as opposed to The
Rainmaker
is that Mario Puzo is better at describing a setting vividly to get a
good
mental picture as to what is going on. The characters in both the movie
and
book are easy to relate to because of the Italian side of my family.
Whenever we
have family get togethers and our "Mafia" picnic, I see the
same
socializing/ conduct that happens in the story/film. There is one single
person
that is in my family that is assumed to be the Godfather. I guess I
can say that
is because my parents strongly urged that I foreclose myself
from talking about
it to the other people in the family. Acting in the movie
including Marlon
Brando (Don Vito Corleone), Al Pacino (Michael
Corleone), Robert Duvall (Tom
Hagen) and Diane Keaton (Kay Adams) all had
contributed to a great life-like
effort. With those mentioned and along with
a handful of others was their acting
debut. The only thing I feel was not
well thought out about the movie is the
characters picked out to play the
parts. Some of them were not considered to
look like they were Italian. Along
with that the sons of the Godfather did not
resemble each other, the father,
nor the mother. The setting in both the movie
and the book were accurate. A
lot of the Italian families that just got off the
boat resided in New York.
The reason for that is because it was the direct route
from here to Europe.
The dialog throughout the film/book was not that of the
native Italian
language. The story was in a sense, wasAmericanized. The Italian
names were
there and the Italian culture was there, but the dialog was in
English
for the most part. The dialog in the story was done in a
hierarchical
structure; the most important of people were spoken to
accordingly. The main
focus in this paper is to discuss the differences
between the novel and the
film. I would like to reiterate that the
characters, setting, and dialog are all
topics of interests that are
different. Opposite to that the violence, Don Vito
Corleone, and Michael
Corleone are similar in both mediums. With those six
main
differences/similarities I will provide four supporting occurrences for
each
topic. The characters in the book were more put into detail. The ones to
be
mentioned that were not in the movie may not reflect that they might have
had a
one second part that could easily be passed up. The characters that
were not
included on the movie but not in the book are Nazorine, Margot
Ashton, Enzo,
Katherine, Filomena, Anthony Cappola, and Billy Goff. Of
course there are more
to be added to the list, but I am simply making a
statement. The idea of listing
and describing all of them would be tedious.
Nazorine is a baker that is
described as a pudgy and crusty as his great
Italian loaves, still dusty with
flour that scowled at his wife. Katherine is
Nazorine's daughter. Enzo was
Nazorine's baker helper. Filomena is the
one that Nazorine scowled at his wife.
Margot Ashton, along with being
Johnny Fontaine's wife, was described as a
beautiful woman with an angelic
face, soulful violet eyes, and delicately
fragile but perfectly formed body.
Anthony Coppola was a son of a man Don
Corleone had worked with on the
railroad yards in his youth. Billy Goff was the
most powerful man in the
movie labor unions. All in all the book is more likely
to describe in detail
about the characters. The scene where Genco Abbandando has
cancer and is
visited by Don, Johnny, Sunny, Tom, Michael, and as well as others
in the
hospital is also excluded in the movie. Three days later Genco
Abbandando
dies. The book started out with Amerigo Bonasera in New York
Criminal Court
Number 3 for a case involving his daughter. The case was
based on vengeance on
the men who had cruelly hurt his daughter. After
thinking about why the book
started out with the case and its significance, I
didn't find any evidence in
its connection with the book. The case was not
included in the movie, which
comes to my second difference between the
literature and the film. Other setting
that differs from the film is that the
book lacked mentioning of Don Vito
Corleone's wife. In general, I feel
that women were not important to the
characters and the outcome of the story.
Still the theory of women not having
rights holds to be true with Mario
Puzo's work. Mary Kay was really the only
female character in the novel that
has much bearing as to what goes on. If I
were the one to write the novel I
would have stressed more women roles. Could
there be any conflictions with
the wives of the male characters as to how and
why they killed other people?
Those type of issues were not addressed in the
book that could be very likely
to happen in those type of situations. Paulie
Gatto was on the
Godfather's hit list now. Paulie Gatto was one of the
Godfather's
caporegimes (bodyguard) and was being replaced by Rocco Lampone.
Rocco
Lampone worked for the Godfather as an internship for a little while.
The
scene consisted of Clemenza, Rocco Lampone, and Paulie Gatto. The
Godfather
found out that Paulie Gatto was getting paid by Sollazo and didn't
want an
unfaithful man as his bodyguard. The difference lies in that Clemenza
made a
stop to eat at an Italian restaurant before killing Paulie. The book
has its
differences with the dialog from the movie. The first reference to
that is when
the book basically states that the laws don't work for
justification purposes,
but the Mafia does. The Mario Puzo uses a couple of
words that are not used in
the movie, for one being caporegime. As mentioned
before, a caporegime is any of
the bodyguards of Don Vito Corleone. My
assumptions are that it is an Italian
word. Another word used in the book,
but not in the film is pezzonovante.
Pezzonovante is a word that means
gun. Just like caporegime, it is also an
Italian word. The time in
Michael Corleone's life after he shot Solazzo and
Captain McCluskey where
he is hiding from the police presents another difference
in dialog. While
being in Italy, there is some conversation in the movie where
others are
speaking in Italian. The book is strictly written in English so
the
Americans can understand it. The Godfather written by Mario Puzo and
the film
directed by Francis Ford Coppola have more similarities than
differences. The
similarities can't all be pointed out, however some can be
brought out. The main
topics of interest for similarities are violence, Don
Vito Corleone, and Michael
Corleone. The way that Jack Woltz's horse,
Paulie Gatto, Sonny Corleone, and
Luca Brasi were killed in the same
fashion from the movie to the book. Jack
Woltz's horse Khartoum is a
retired bred that was purchased for six hundred
thousand dollars. The reason
the horse came about was because Tom Hagan was
there to visit/request that
Johnny Fontaine get the part for the next movie.
Being that Jack Woltz
was the most powerful man in the movie industry, he could
be very resourceful
for Johnny Fontaine to become famous. Jack Woltz denied the
grant for
Johnny's part in the movie so Don Vito Corleone had Jack's most
precious
thing killed. Jack Woltz could only wish that his horse be more head
strung.
Paulie Gatto was killed like mentioned before; the simple fact that he
was
being paid off by ( Solazzo ) one of the Godfather's enemies. Rocco
and
Clemenza took Paulie to a field and killed him where Clemenza
supposedly had to
go to the bathroom. Sonny Corleone ( Santino ) was killed
and set up after
Connie Corleone and Carlo Rizzi got into a fight. Sonny
when finding out that
Carlo Rizzi had hit Connie, he went to go after
him. There was prior animosity
between Carlo and Sonny because Sonny had beat
the heck out of him for hitting
his sister before. Sonny on his way to get
Carlo, he was blocked in to a
security gate and shot at. Luca Brasi, one that
was feared by all but only
feared the Godfather, got erased by Tattalia and
Solazzo. Luca Brasi was brought
to a meeting with Tattalia and Solazzo to be
offered a more generous dividend
for his efforts. The two thought that such a
brute force on their side would be
a benefit to them. Luca Brasi's life ended
when they had strangled him to death.
Don Vito Corleone, the Godfather of
the Corleone family, reflected the same
person in both forms of the story.
"Don Vito Corleone was a man to whom
everybody came for help, and never were
they disappointed.", verbatim from
the book. Words of "I'll give them an
offer that cannot refuse" were
mearly a reference to a part of his
personality. He made no empty promises, for
he didn't let anyone down. Don
Corleone would take other people's problems to
heart. The things that he did
for people were looked at as a favor. He didn't
look for pay out of a deal,
at least not directly. Don Vito Corleone believed in
the theory that you
scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. Between the two ( book
and the movie )
there was a happy medium in how the Godfather was shot by
Solazzo and
others not mentioned. Solazzo shot the Godfather because he did not
want the
family to do anything with dealing drugs. Solazzo being pro drugs,
thought he
could get his way if he killed the Don. Michael Corleone was the
youngest son
of Don Corleone and the only child who had refused the Godfather's
direction
with the business. The description of the physical appearance matched
that of
the book. The literature and the film were also both synomous
with
Michael Corleone in regards to his personality, how he killed
Solazzo, how he
killed Captain McCluskey, and how he became the Don. In
summation of the book
and the film, I feel that each has their entities. The
vivid descriptions that
Mario Puzo uses to effect the readers' minds
could not brought to life without
Francis Ford Coppola's film version.
Reading the book was sincerely my first
positive experience I have ever had
with reading a book. Honestly, I have opened
myself for the first time to
reading books. That is why I am happy that the book
and the novel are so
closely related. I liked the book more because I will
always look back at it.
To sum it all up the differences are certain specifics
of the characters,
setting, and dialog. The similarities consist of violence,
Don Vito
Corleone, and Michael Corleone.