Winner of three significant Oscars, The Godfather (1972) is easily considered a cinematic masterpiece combining modern and classical forms of filmmaking through cinematography and storytelling. Between the years of 1972 and 2009, The Godfather received a total of 31 awards, three of them being Oscars: Best Picture (Albert S. Ruddy), Best Actor in a Leading Role (Marlon Brando), and Best Writing-Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium (Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola). Brando declined his award in protest of the poor treatment of Native Americans in the entertainment industry, while Puzo also did not attend the awards ceremony for an unknown reason; however, his daughter accepted the award on his behalf. James Caan, Robert Duvall, and Al Pacino also received nominations for their performances as Supporting Actors. Pacino did not attend the ceremony in protest of category fraud. His performance as Michael Corleone reflected a greater screen time than his co-star Brando; therefore, Pacino believed he should have received a nomination in the Best Actor in a Leading Role category. Based on the book by Mario Puzo, it was adapted into a screenplay by both Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola, the director of The Godfather trilogy. Coppola's success with The Rain People (1969) and Patton (1970), his reputation was solid by the time the opportunity for co-writing and directing The Godfather had come about.
The film stars the late Marlon Brando as Vito Corleone with the supporting cast of James Caan, the late Richard Castellano, Robert Duvall, the late Sterling Hayden, the late John Marley, the late Richard Conte, and breakthrough actors Diane Keaton and Al Pacino, who were both new to the film world, having starred in one film before. Approximately 90% of the movie was shot in New York City and its surrounding suburbs, using over 120 different locations. The remaining 10% was filmed in California or on-site in Savoca and Forza d'Agrò in Sicily; however, insufficient funding meant that the Las Vegas scenes could not be shot on location, against Coppola's request. The Godfather is wildly popular and ranked number two on IMDb's Top 250 Films List and AFI's Top 100. The movie follows the Don Corleone and his youngest son, Michael, as they navigate the suddenly complicated dealings of the underground world of the Mafia. As with all great movies, The Godfather uses colors and exposure settings to let the viewer know the mood and tone of the scene. How does the intricate and planned use of color accents throughout the film bring out the hidden messages of The Godfather?
First, let us take into account Vito Corleone's red rose in the opening scene. We are first introduced to the Mafia boss through the memorable image in his tuxedo in a dark room, with a bright red rose on his lapel. Your eye is drawn to the source of color, which is contrasted against the dark tuxedo. This scene is the introduction of one of the most important symbols throughout the film. Traditionally, the red rose represents love and romance; however, its placement over the Don's left breast, over his heart, may represent passion and the foretelling of the spilling of blood. This is especially telling when we find out that he died of a heart attack. Towards the end of the first scene, you'll notice that the rose begins to fall apart. This might just be a film fluke, as the rose is most likely a real one and was probably just dying, but if you look at it in hindsight, it was a (for lack of better words) dead giveaway of the character's demise. In this scene, you'll notice the rest of the frame is set in the warm oranges and browns, with the flame image of the rose being smack in the center of the frame sported over the Don's heart. The rose's importance shows that Vito presses all of his love for his family into a single center: his heart. At another angle, you could say that the entire family centers around Vito or that the passion and love of family derived from Vito's ideas and priorities. Towards the end of the movie, at Vito's death, the family members and mafiosos all leave a red rose on his grave at his burial. Vito's enemies (Barzini and the other heads of the families) haphazardly threw the roses on his coffin, showing no remorse or emotion in their actions. At this point, the color palette changes from its warm and inviting orange to a cold and calculating blue. The center of love in the family is no longer there as it was at the beginning of the film.
The second most important symbol in The Godfather is the inclusion of oranges. There are a lot of scenes that include oranges (see Image 1), but I have decided to specifically talk about Vito Corleone's shooting scene in the market. In Image 2, you'll see that this single frame exemplifies the entire scene. Pay attention to the composition. The warm tones that we were used to in the previous scenes have been replaced with the harsh cold, with the oranges and the upper right corner providing the last bit of warmth before it fades away completely. Its composition and artistic nature mimic a realist painting, like the Nighthawks painting by Edward Hopper. After this, the last time we see warm tones is when from a bleeding Vito Corleone. He is then suffocated in blue tones, misleading the audience to believe that he's dead. Just like Vito slipped on the dark pavement, the film slips into a dark tenor. The oranges throughout the movie serve as a symbol for blood being spilled. It's seen in the dinner scene with Tom Hagen and Jack Woltz before the prize horse is beheaded, at the meeting with the five families of New York, and when Vito Corleone dies. After Vito's death, the movie no longer uses warm tones. The palette shift tells the audience that Michael doesn't plan to run the Corleone Familia with Vito's same warm embrace. Those days are over. Vito had the red rose on his lapel, but Michael wore a bright white shirt under his layers of dark jackets. While white is usually interpreted as 'pure,' this white is far from it. It's harsh and uninviting, the center of attention. The warm orange and brown that the viewers had become accustomed to are now sucked out, leaving Michael's cold blue and black exterior.
The use of oranges and roses throughout the movie allows the audience to be more conscious of the actions shown on screen, making them watch the film from a deeper and more critical perspective. I was annoying to my parents when we watched the movie and kept pointing out the oranges in the scenes, especially when Vito Corleone died after stuffing his lips with the orange peels to amuse his grandson. The oranges are always seen as centerpieces, never eaten by any characters, whether they live or die. This leads me to believe that the oranges not only represent bloodshed, but more specifically, the familial ties that Vito Corleone created in his role as the Don of Familia Corleone. When he eats the orange, it's shown that his warm and approachable way of running the family business dies with him.
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