Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Michael Carleone


There are numerous characters that affect each other and perspective of viewer in the movie Godfather by Francis Ford Coppola. One of these characters is Michael Corleone, youngest son of Don vito Corleone who presented to viewer in Conny’s wedding. He is a distinguished war hero that has a completely different attitude, belief and personality than other members of Corleone family, specially his other two brothers Sonny and Fredo. As the movie began Michael’s character develops and by the end of movie observer would fully feel the change in his behavior. At the begging Coppola portrays Michael as calm and weak character by showing his delay on his sister’s wedding or choosing an outsider as his girlfriend. He also illustrates Michael as a character who does not have desire to participate in family’s business. “Luca Brasi held a gun to his head, and my father assured him that either his brains or his signature would be on the contract. That's a true story. That's my family Kay, that's not me”. Clearly, the dialogue indicates Michael is different from his family and he rejects what they are doing. However, as the movie goes on not only Michael gets involve in his family’s business, he also becomes an effective part of it. Initiation of this change is when the youngest child of the family went to visit his father in the hospital and feels his father is in risk of being killed. Therefore, he changes Godfather’s room and assures him that “I’m with you pop”. This is a clear example of a dynamic character that entirely changes by the end of story.

1 comment:

  1. Great ideas here. I wonder if you can link Michael's characterization with 'The Hero's Journey'.

    ReplyDelete