The movies of '72, Part I: Is Don Corleone...Richard Nixon?
Why "The Godfather" doesn't look very 1972...but really is
HARK!
I hear…an echo...
The Supreme Court, angering many and causing others to rejoice with a controversial ruling on abortion.
A tangled investigation involving the White House.
So-called “radicals” threatening violence.
A divided nation…
Thought I was talking about last week?
Actually, I’m looking at 1972.
That’s the year the Supreme Court heard oral arguments (and later ruled in favor of) “Jane Doe" right around the time the Watergate investigation picked up steam; meanwhile, nearly every city had protests over the Vietnam War and social issues.
Sound familiar?
With this in mind, it’s a good time to look at 1972 cinema, a batch of creatively-praised movies, many of which make “Best Movies of All Time” lists.
But how do they hold up, a half-century later?
The nominees for Best Picture released in 1972: The Godfather; Cabaret; Deliverance; The Emigrants; Sounder.
The Godfather won the big award, Marlon Brando taking Best Actor–but Bob Fosse won Best Director over Francis Coppola.
Getty Images
Brando played Don Vito Corleone, leader of a Mafia clan that included sons Sonny, played by James Caan, Al Pacino’s Michael, and the level-headed adopted son Tom, played by Robert Duvall.
Does it hold up?
As I’ve noted previously, just before The Godfather’s silver anniversary:
Is it blasphemy to call "The Godfather" overrated? A 50-year anniversary (it made theater owners an offer they couldn't refuse on March 24, 1972) sparked many to again dub it "best movie of all time"...Really? I ponied up $3.99 to Amazon Prime to take another look. Indeed, some great moments with high-octane action. But the wedding and baptism scenes (sure=symbolism) dragged on, the romance action was a little copy-and-paste, and some of the acting...Talia Shire? Please! And I'm a huge Marlon Brando fan--but he seemed to be dialing in a few scenes, and/or just screwing around (which he did to much greater effect, imho, a few years later in "Missouri Breaks"). For all the meandering Francis Ford Coppola allowed elsewhere, the "Sonny's Dead" scene is brief and utilitarian, with Mr. Cotton Cheeks offering only a few drops of emotion before moving on. Maybe Brando just wasn't feeling up to it, that day...Anyway, it's a good flick. But one of the best ever? I'll give it Top 25.
But what do we learn from The Godfather, within the context of its time–and what does it teach us about 1972?
Taking place mostly in New York, with some scenes in Italy, The Godfather is set in the 1940s. So the fashion is tame and dignified–hardly relevant to the wildness of Seventy-Two.
But I argue that there is relevance to the plot–even if Coppola and author Mario Puzo had no idea, at the time.
Who is the thuggish, intimidating Don Corleone–literally talkin’ out of both sides of his mouth, pledging peace but then “dropping bombs”...if not Richard Nixon?
Nixon would have run the Corleone family exactly like he tried to run the country; kissing up to enemies (China) while ordering “hits” (secret bombings of Cambodia).
And couldn’t you picture Tricky Dicky ordering a horse’s head to be put in Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg’s bed?
The resistance of Michael–Vito’s youngest son–to join the violent Mafia empire can be viewed as the youth of America’s rebellion against the Vietnam War.
Michael changing his mind after an assassination attempt on his father pulls him into “the family business”? For that, I switch gears–here, Michael is a stand-in for John Dean, a young idealist who tried to quit the Nixon Administration, only to be sucked deeper and deeper into the Watergate coverup.
As for hatchetman, loose-cannon Sonny: That’s G. Gordon Liddy.
And as for the even-keeled, slow-talking, deal-brokering Tom?
Kissinger!
(It might be a reach, but I see Diane Keaton’s Kay Adams, who persuades Michael to "rule in her favor" and go legit–only to be betrayed–as…Jane Roe.)
So The Godfather wasn’t very reflective of the year it was released on the surface–but bubbling below, it was very Seventy-Two.
Thus concludes today’s lesson of “Why 2022 is 1972–and Vice Versa.” Class dismissed…