The 1972 film, The Godfather, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, is a perfect example of feudalism. With Vito Corleone as the king pin and the rest of his family as major players in the New York mafia. The Godfather is not the normal gangster film or a film about Italian immigrants. Two social movements occur in The Godfather, the aristocratic court, and the coup. While the film takes place mainly in the United States in the 1940s and 1950s, there are no democratic institutions seen. There are no public schools. People don’t vote. The mob controls unions. We never see a strike. There are no town meetings. The world of The Godfather is the old feudal, European system transplanted to the United States.
Feudalism is a political and economic system
Feudalism is a political and economic system