The depiction of gender roles in the 1972 film The Godfather \
Francis Ford Coppola took a best-selling novel, The Godfather by Mario Puzo; that was based on a less than common subject (the mafia); that involved an isolated section of a particular ethnic group (first and second-generation Italian- Americans) and made one of the most brutal and moving chronicles of life in America. The Godfather is a trilogy that tells the epic saga of a mafia family, the Corleones (Haskell 1). The Godfather is a film that supports traditional views of gender and portrays men as the stoic provider and women as the caregiver. These are obvious portrayal but looking beyond them reveals the use of women to fully characterise their male counterparts. This depicts specific ethnic stereotypes and serves to fully support the conventional view of male and female roles. Alternatively, since the movie takes place in the 1950s, people have no problem with the disturbing portrayal of genders taking it as a ‘historical accuracy (Haskell 1)’. The Godfather however is part of the media and it is one of the main reasons why these harmful stereotypes are still prevalent in the society. The …show more content…
Thus the crucial question is; what in The Godfather is the repetitive theme? Is it crime or violence? Gender stereotypes? Or is it the importance and security of the family? Viewers know what The Corleone ‘family businesses entailed, does this necessarily translate to the business being the most important thing? The answer is in the movie when Vito Corleone says “Doesn’t make any difference to me what a man does for living, understand (Puzo 251).” Similarly, when replying to Kay, Michael says “My father is no different than any other powerful man. Any man who’s responsible for other people, like a senator or a president (Puzo 300).” For a keen observer, there are a lot of these hints that challenge the idea of
Francis Ford Coppola took a best-selling novel, The Godfather by Mario Puzo; that was based on a less than common subject (the mafia); that involved an isolated section of a particular ethnic group (first and second-generation Italian- Americans) and made one of the most brutal and moving chronicles of life in America. The Godfather is a trilogy that tells the epic saga of a mafia family, the Corleones (Haskell 1). The Godfather is a film that supports traditional views of gender and portrays men as the stoic provider and women as the caregiver. These are obvious portrayal but looking beyond them reveals the use of women to fully characterise their male counterparts. This depicts specific ethnic stereotypes and serves to fully support the conventional view of male and female roles. Alternatively, since the movie takes place in the 1950s, people have no problem with the disturbing portrayal of genders taking it as a ‘historical accuracy (Haskell 1)’. The Godfather however is part of the media and it is one of the main reasons why these harmful stereotypes are still prevalent in the society. The …show more content…
Thus the crucial question is; what in The Godfather is the repetitive theme? Is it crime or violence? Gender stereotypes? Or is it the importance and security of the family? Viewers know what The Corleone ‘family businesses entailed, does this necessarily translate to the business being the most important thing? The answer is in the movie when Vito Corleone says “Doesn’t make any difference to me what a man does for living, understand (Puzo 251).” Similarly, when replying to Kay, Michael says “My father is no different than any other powerful man. Any man who’s responsible for other people, like a senator or a president (Puzo 300).” For a keen observer, there are a lot of these hints that challenge the idea of