Analysis of The Godfather - By Kirsten Barman

I have chosen to review the first 15 minutes of probably the best known mafia film of all time: The Godfather. Consistently refer to as one of the best films in cinematic history; The Godfather won 3 Oscars at the 1973 Academy Awards and won a further 19 other awards. Based on the novel of the same name by Italian –American author Mario Puzo and directed by the also Italian-American Francis Ford Coppola.

The film opens with a quiet but striking soundtrack, again a very recognisable theme from movie history. A black screen appears, with contrasting white writing upon it for the titles. The screen stays black for a moment, and then we hear the voice of a man, with a heavy Italian accent. The picture fades from black and we see a dull, badly lit close up of a man, obviously the one talking. The camera begins to pull out to better establish the man; the music has stopped by this point. The man is clearly very distraught. He tells a story of his daughter being attacked by some American boys. We also do not know who he is talking to, the camera is still pulling out and in the bottom left of the screen a shoulder of another man begins to appear, we can now see this is an over the shoulder shot.

The man is handed a drink, and at this time we can see some of the setting, and it looks to be like an office, old wooden furniture and pieces of paper are across the room. The man finishes talking “For justice we must look to Don Corleone” And the second man talks. We assume that he is Don Corleone (Marlon Brando), his voice does not sound sympathetic or concerned. The first time we see his face, is around three and a half minutes into the film with a close up shot, he is fairly old, with grey slicked back hair, there is a solemn look across his face, he is dressed in a dinner suit and bow-tie which suggests he is at a formal event and also suggest importance. We then see a long shot to establish the room; they are not alone as there are two other people with them. This also suggests some form of importance. Could these people be here for his protection? The man has now stood up, and we see a shot of Corleone from waist height of the man, not looking down on Corleone. Corleone has a cat sat in his lap, stretching its paws and rolling about, Corleone strokes the cat affectionately continuously, this suggests a caring and loving side to Corleone. He talks for a moment to the man, referring to himself as “The Godfather” and talks about justice and respect, this implies he is powerful. We also learn that this is Corleone’s daughter’s wedding day, this is the reason they are dressed so formally. Next we see a medium shot of the man and Corleone talking, the camera is tilted slightly upwards in Corleone’s direction to show power and respect; the audience literally has to look up to him. Corleone agrees to “bring justice” to the boys who attacked the man’s daughter, and the man extremely thankful of Corleone leaves in a hurry. We assume that “Justice” is a kind of code word for violence and this makes the audience wonder what will happen.

In contrast to the dark room the audience now sees a long high angle shot of a huge garden, filled with people. Snappy, upbeat diegetic music is playing to the crowds. We see mid shots of people dancing and generally having a good time. There is also a shot of the Bride having a family photo including Corleone. The family is quite large and this adds to the idea that he has a caring side to him. In amongst the shots of happy guests dancing and singing there are a few shots of Corleone and the two other men that were with him before, greeting other men at the gates of the house, these men are also very formally dressed, but we get the impression that they are not strictly there for the wedding. These men are shown again, sat around a table smoking cigars not joining in the festivities and heavily surrounded by other men. But no women. A photographer with an old camera takes their picture, and the man at the head of the table clicks his fingers and instantly two men retrieve the film and hand it to him, which he rips up. This implies that these men are not wanted to be spotted here, or most likely don’t want the press to know they are there. To me it suggests that the men are obviously criminals and printing their picture would result in trouble for them.

A long shot follows a young man hurriedly walking towards the gates of the house. This is Sonny Corleone (James Caan), the son of Don Corleone. He shouts at some men that are wandering about in front of the house, and walks over to a man in a black car, a medium shot shows the man pulling out a badge, we assume he is a police officer, Sonny is instantly silent, then spits onto the ground. This shows disrespect for the law. He angrily walks back to the house cursing under his breath, there is another photographer taking pictures of the men stood at the gate. Sonny pushes him up against a car, for no apparent reason and throws his camera to the floor. Realising his outburst two men grab Sonny to calm him down. He regains his composure, and throws dollar bills to the floor where the camera lay and then leaves. This action shows two characteristics to the audience one, that Sonny thinks that he is better than the photographer because he throws the bills to the floor, And two that he has no regard for money; he simply grabs whatever and throws it about carelessly. The idea that the Corleone’s have a huge house also enforce the idea that they have a wealthy background.

Two characters then enter the scene, a man and a woman arm in arm. The man is dressed in what looks to be a military outfit, and again we see neither of their faces. Medium shots show them walking through the crowded garden with people greeting them. This shows he is important to the story and family. A point of view shot from Corleone looking through blinds show the man’s face, he has dark brown hair, parted neatly to one side and bears a striking resemblance to Corleone himself, all around the we can hear guests saying “Michael!” or “ Mikey!”. The use of a nickname suggests he is quite young, as shortened names are often given to children by parents or close relatives at young ages. The couple sit down, and we see a shot reverse shot conversation between the two. We learn that the man’s name is in fact Michael.

A blonde man walks into the shot and the camera pans across to the left with him. The two hug each other and Michael refers to the man as “My Brother”. This shows some family links. The blonde man, Tom Hagen, was also in the room earlier with Corleone, this also suggest so further links between Michael and Corleone. Then Tom tells Michael (Al Pacino) his father wants to see him, and we learn that this must be the son of Corleone.

Michaels date then questions why Tom has a different second name to Michael even though they are brothers. And Michael replies with a story of how Tom was found by his older brother Sonny when they were younger, and he had nowhere to live, so Corleone took him in and called him his own. This explicitly shows that despite a violent and bloodthirsty side to Corleone he has a soft gentle side to him. The woman is amazed. Michael also goes on to say that he “Is a good lawyer, and will go on to become Consigliere” the fact that he has become a lawyer suggests that he has been sent to school which again shows financial stability, and even more so to consider the fact that he is not actually a proper son of the Corleone’s. This also shows that Tom is a smart man.

Out of all the mafia/gangster style films that exist, I would say The Godfather is a perfect source of inspiration to look to but there are some differences between the two. Its plot line is linear. But in contrast The Godfater II has a non-linear narrative with flashbacks to the younger days of Vito Corleone. The film is also male dominated with only females as the wife/girlfriend characters.

Analysis of Pulp Fiction - By Connor Asquith

I choose to review the opening of 'Pulp Fiction' because it is on a similar wave length to our film 'Omerta'. This film was made by Quientin Taratino in the year 1994, and won many awards for best writing, best action film best actor and so on. It is similar to our film as it uses flashbacks to tell the story, and is in a non linear narrative.

The opening of the film starts with a black background, and a description of the word 'Pulp' appears on the screen, this is slightly similar to our title sequence because when the word 'Omerta' appears on screen, the words 'The Code of Silence' appears afterwords, and that is what Omerta is.

The first scene opens into to a well light diner called, Hawthorne Grill, and we see two people sat at a table, dressed in civilian clothes, but the camera is just slightly looking up at the two so this suggests that they have a part to play in what is to come. We hear the man, called Pumpkin, say ' Forget it, its too Risky, I ain't doing that shit' with the women, Honey Bunny, replying with ' You always say that, you say that every time, I am through never again, its too dangerous'. The camera stays in a medium shot of both of the characters sat at the table discussing the pro's and con's of robbing banks. A waitress comes to the table and the two stop discussing the bank robbing, and the camera moves to a close up of the waitresses face as she asks if they want coffee. Honey Bunny asks for coffee and the camera follows the coffee mug to the cup, and we see a close up of Honey Bunny's face as we had only seen it slightly from the side.

Further on into the conversation, we cut back to the same shot from the beginning as Pumpkin is explaining why they should attempt to rob the bank as he thinks it will be easy. From this scene alone you cannot exactly tell this is a mafia style film, as in our film, starting with a poker scene, with some men sat round a table dressed up, you cannot tell it has mafia links into until one of the poker members is poisoned.

As Pumpkin starts to get Honey Bunny interested into the idea, the camera slowly cuts to the characters perspective, point of view, to show their reactions to what is being said, and it continuously uses shot reverse shot between them both. You can tell by the way Pumpkin and Honey Bunny talk they have done things like this before, because of all the swearing and the stories Pumpkin tells Honey Bunny to try convince her to go along with him. Then it starts cutting from the original medium shot of the table to a shot from over the shoulder of each character as Honey Bunny is starting to like the sound of Pumpkins plans. The camera's cuts seem to speed up because the two characters are starting to get excited about what they have planned and are getting ready for it.

As the two characters settle on robbing the diner they are in, Pumpkin pulls out a gun from his pocket, and the camera cuts to Honey Bunny's perspective, as Pumpkin slams the gun to the table, the camera cuts to a match on action just before the gun hits the table. The camera then quickly cuts to a close up of the window next to the table the two characters are sat at. Pumpkin and Honey Bunny lean into the cameras view and start kissing before they attempt to rob the diner. The camera then slowly cuts to a long shot if the two saying they love each other. As Pumpkin quickly jumps on to the top of his seat the camera tilts upwards at an high angle to show he is now very powerful with his gun in his hands as he yells 'Everyone be cool, this is a robbery'. Then Honey Bunny then jumps into the middle of the screen, also with a gun in hand screaming orders to the customers and staff, the camera is looking up at both of the two but with Honey Bunny in the foreground, which could suggest she has a bigger role to play in the film but also has a lot of power.

Once Honey Bunny finishes yelling, the music kicks in and a freeze frame happens of the two holding up their guns, the music is non diagetic and is for the title sequence, it is very fast and up beat to build up tension for what is to happen after the title sequence. The title 'Pulp Fiction' slowly slides up from the bottom of the screen, written in huge yellow font.

The title sequence fades to black and the music dies down, but can still be heard, buy only very quietly. Then we see two men smartly dressed in suits, similar to the costumes we will use in our film, and now we start to see the mafia traits coming in. The two men in the car, Jules Winnfield, the one furthest away from the camera, divining, and the one closest to the camera, Vincent Vega. They are both talking about Vincents return from Amsterdam. They both are just casually talking to each other about what is different between where they are now and Amsterdam. The camera shows the two to begin with with a medium shot inside the car, but as Jules starts to talk, it does a close up of his face, and as Vincent talks it does the same to him, slowly cutting between the two as they are just talking like any two normal people. You can just hear the radio of the car in the background, but the sounds of the two men's voices overpower it, so that suggests they are talking about something important.

The camera then cuts to a dark place, as the boot of the car is lifted, we realise that we are within the boot with a high angle shot of the two looking into the boot and taking out two guns. The way the camera looks up at the two men is suggesting this two are very important in this film and hold quite a bit of power.

This now show that this is a mafia film as they are out on some sort of a 'Hit' which is very common in Mafia films.

The boot close and the camera fades back to black, then fades back in to see the two hit men going into an apartment building. As they walk to the door they are talking about their bosses wife being in a TV show. Jules grabs the door and pulls it open, the camera then cuts to the other side of the door to a match on action of the two men walking into the building. The camera tracks in front of the two men as they go looking for the apartment they are here to visit, still talking about the bosses wife and what happened to the last guy who touched her

Further on in to this scene they make it to the apartment they have come to visit, the camera cuts to an over the shoulder shot of the two men looking at the door. They keep mentioning a lot of Mafia phrases like 'take her out' meaning to kill her, as Jules indicates with fake gun made by his hand, held to his head, as this is not what Vincent meant, it still shows that this has mafia traits.

The two men enter the apartment, and after talking to the three men inside, Jules brings up what they were talking about in the car to try and settle down the three men in the apartment, while Vincent is looking around in the background. Once Jules explains why they are here, that these three men had betrayed their boss, Jules puts his gun to one of the men's head and says 'Where is it?' the man tells Vincent to look inside the cabinet next to his feet.

Vincent come out of the cabinet and the camera zooms in on him as he pulls out a brief case with a number lock on it. The camera then quickly cuts to an extreme close up of Vincent inputting the numbers '666' as the code, which suggest whatever is inside the case is something bad as '666' is the sign of the devil. The camera then goes to a medium shot of the Vincent opening the briefcase, and a golden light shines out of it and onto Vincent's face.

The camera cuts to a medium shot of Jules and the man in the chair, yelling at him saying 'You think Mr Marsellus Wallus is looks like a bitch?' and that they are here to send a message that Mr Marsellus is not a force to be reckoned with. Which is similar to our film as that is why Joe Messina is sent to deal with Leo Ramone as Leo toke advantage of Alexandro Messina.

Now they have got what they have come for, the camera does a close up of Jules once more as he repeats a verse from the bible, before both Vincent and Jules execute all of the men showing no remorse, the camera quickly cuts from Vincent to Jules continuously, as they violently slaughter these men. The scene ends by the camera slightly looking up at Jules as he lowers his gun, and the screen fades to black.

In this film we see a lot of violence which is what is normal to a mafia film, and this is what our film would involve if we were to film it all, however in our first scene there is some violence as one member gets poisoned at the table but this is much more subtle than the violence in Pulp Fiction.

Also our films are quite similar in the way we both use Nicknames to cover certain characters identities, for example in 'Pulp Fiction' the first two characters we see are called 'Pumpkin' and 'Honey Bunny', and in our film Luciana will be using the alias 'Miele' to cover her tracks. Furthermore both of our films use a non linear style story telling, both done by using flashbacks. In 'Pulp Fiction' we start in the Diner, then flashback to what happened leading up to what is going to happen in the Diner. Whereas in our film 'Omerta' we will also be using a flashback in the opening to show what Joe Messina means when he says 'He wont be a problem anymore', but if we were to finish the entire film we would also use many more flashbacks.

Analysis of Reservoir Dogs - By Josh Nutt

I chose to review the first 15 minutes of 'Reservoir Dogs' because it is along similar lines to our film. Reservoir Dogs was the first film of Quentin Tarantino, yet was criticised for it's violence throughout the film. The notorious 'torture' scene, caused many people to walk out of the cinema, as they found it too sickening. Our film, is not similar to Reservoir Dogs in the amount of violence and blood it has in it, yet does contain violence and blood which is expected in a mafia film. One way in which it is similar is that 'Reservoir Dogs', is that it has a non linear narrative, in which it is depicted through flashbacks, similar to which our film would be, if we were to make the entire film.

As for the story, there are other ways in which 'Omerta' is similar to 'Reservoir Dogs'. In Reservoir Dogs, we see that Mr Orange is an undercover cop, similar to Luciana Messina helping out Marco Ramone to take down the mafia.

In the opening of the film, we see conversation taking place in a black scene, to which it cuts to a shot of men at a breakfast table, talking. A panning shot around the table and over the shoulders of some characters, establishes who is at the table and what they are doing. We see in the first minute, that it has familiar traits of a mafia film, suits and cigars being the main ones. The camera continues to circular pan around the table as Mr Brown is telling the rest of the people at the table, his theory on Madonna's song 'Like a Virgin'. A close up of Mr Brown while he is telling his story, gives the impression that he's not very smart.

As Mr Brown finishes telling his story, we see a medium shot establishing 3 characters and a conversation pursues. The cutting is quite slow, and has no fast paced about it, and seems to be just men sat at a breakfast table having a conversation. Apart from the suits and the cigars, there is no real evidence to show that this is a mafia film. Over the shoulder shots are continued to be used as conversation continues. From what the audience has seen so far, the film could lead in to anything.

In the first opening minute, we see a lot of swear words used. This is common for an 18 rated film but also for a mafia film. The swearing is used so much, that after a while it seems to blend into the conversation. Another common camera shot included up to this point, is that whenever we see a Medium Shot of characters, 3 characters are always in the shot.

One line that seemed to strike me when watching the opening 15 minutes is when Mr Blonde asks if he should shoot Mr White. Mr White replies "If you shoot me in your dream, you better wake up and apologise". This struck me as an important line as it could be foreshadowing in what is going to happen in the rest of the film.

The conversation goes back to normal banter after the original joke of being shot in the dream. We see that these set of men, are enjoying a conversation with each other and seem to be in good company. As the conversation comes to an end, we see "Joe" stand up and he is focused on a medium shot. As he stands above everybody else, he seems to have authority over the men sat at the table, and the camera is a low angle shot, slightly looking up at Joe. Again, 3 men who are at the table, are in the shot. Joe tells everybody that they all owe a "buck" for the tip, before leaving, he asks someone to shoot Mr White, only jokingly. We see a close up or Mr Blonde pretending to shoot him, which looks somewhat menacing.

As everyone throws in a dollar, close ups are used on some characters and we see that Mr Pink does not put in a dollar. Conversation follows of Mr Pink telling the fellow men at the table, that he does not believe in tipping. A lot of close ups are used as characters talk, and we see that Mr Pink seems to be the stray one of the group, and likes to stand up to society and play by his own rules. Again, with the close up of characters, they are over the shoulder shots. The characters at the table again share a joke about the waitress 'sucking his dick'.

The rest of the characters at the table, seem distressed that Mr Pink is refusing to tip the waitress, over the shoulder shots are continued being used. From this scene we can see some friction between the group, but it's over nothing really. We see one of the characters asking for his dollar back, yet he is not allowed. As Joe returns, again stood up to show his authority, to ask for the tips, he asks who has not payed. Mr Pink eventually gives Joe a dollar after Joe says he paid for the entire breakfast.

As the scene comes to end, we see that a voice over is used as we go into the next scene, as the scene fades to black, bouncy music begins to play. As we cut into the next scene, we see the characters from the previous scene, walking in slow motion, a long shot is used to establish this. We then see close ups are used to establish characters and which actors are playing them. In the close ups, we see the characters looking sinister, smoking cigarettes ad engaging in conversation, even though none of this can be heard. As we see all the characters in the centre of the screen walking towards a road, the title 'Reservoir Dogs' moves up the screen and stays at the top, above the back of the characters. This shot has connotations that they are the centre of attention.

A black screen follows this scene and names scroll upwards similar to the title. Important roles within the making of the film are then displayed at the centre of the screen, as the music continues to play. Talking from the next scene talks over the title and the music, we see when we cut into the next scene, one of the men who was at the breakfast table, Mr Orange, is in the backseat of the car with Mr White driving. Mr Orange is bleeding from the abdomen. This comes as quite a shock to the audience, as the previous scenes were general banter, so it goes from one extreme to another. As the car is driving, we see close ups on both character and particular distress is shown from Mr Orange. For the entire film, this is quite ironic as Mr White is keen to find out who is the rat in the operation, and it's in fact Mr Orange, the man who he saves and the man who worked with and trusted.

All in all, Reservoir Dogs uses a lot of characteristics that we plan to use in our film. For example, the costumes of the film are similar to what we would want to feature in ours, and any sort of mafia film. Also, we see that in Reservoir Dogs, they use aliases to cover there identity, much like Luciana does with her name 'Miele'.

There are some other characteristics that we may think about using when we are filming. The one that i paticularly liked was the over the shoulder shots used in the breakfast scene. I feel that this could be used well in our poker scene, and could help establish the characters and the setting. We will also use the obvious things such as close ups on characters and nice slow paced editing.

Our film is similar to Reservoir Dogs in quite a few ways. Apart from the obvious reference of the mafia, the costumes are very similar within the 2 films. The Reservoir Dogs are all dressed smartly in suits, which is similar to our film. If we were to carry on making our film, then it would be similar to reservoir dogs as it would contain weapons and mild swearing. Another way in which our films are different is the nicknames we use, we see that in Reservoir Dogs it is revolved entirely around nicknames. In our film, they use the nickname 'Miele' to protect Luciana Messina.

Music By Kirsten Barman

Obviously there is more to a good film that just the video. It is also very important that it has a good soundtrack. Films such as The Titanic, Pirates Of The Caribbean, Star Wars and The Godfather all have very iconic soundtracks and have all achieved a lot of recognition for them.

Its quite hard for us to create something of this high standard as we don't have either the resources or the money to do so. And we cannot use any existing music because of copyright laws, so that rules out pretty much any song or soundtrack that we can come up with, however perfectly they would fit into the film. So there are a number of ways we can over come this problem.
One way is to search the Internet for a piece of open-source music that would be suitable, something with no copyright issues. This however could be tricky, as the quality that we are after could be compromised if we download from the Internet.
Another way is for us to create our own. But only one of us can actually play an instrument or has any relevant experience or qualification in music, so on this basis, this method could be quite hard.
The best option we have thought of is to ask one of our friends to create the piece of music for us. We have quite a few friends that take music courses at college and that play a variety of different instruments. For example anyone who plays piano would be a great help! I happen to also have a friend that has alot of technical equipment that allows him to create his own music, and he has agreed to either borrow us some of his equipment, or make us a piece of music himself. So this could also be a great help!

Props by Kirsten Barman

Here are the props we are expecting to use when we film;

1st Scene (Don's Office)

Chair And Desk - For the Don to sit behind, hopefully something large and wooden

Whiskey glasses

Whiskey bottle

Ashtray

Cigar/Tin of Cigars

2nd Scene (Poker Room)

Cards & Poker Chips

Ashtray

Martini Glasses

Whiskey Glasses

Cigars

Drinks Tray

Small Lipstick case or similar - To carry the poison

Sugar Capsule

3rd Scene (Graveyard)
Single Red Rose
Photograph