by Chris Marshall:
“I believe in America.”
This line, spoken by Amerigo Bonasera in a prelude to his
request to Vito Corleone, opens The
Godfather, and in a way, it is a summation of the film’s theme. America has
been good to the Corleones. They have gained power and riches, even if they
have had to resort to, shall we say, underhanded means to obtain it.
But it is a time of transition for the family. Vito is
getting old, and the burgeoning drug trade threatens to destroy the existing
paradigm. Vito wants no part of it; it’s a dangerous, dirty business. Unfortunately, that’s the way of the future.
Sonny understands this, and it seems like Tom Hagen understands it, but the Don
refuses. And his word is law.
I’m breaking one of my general rules in this post by
referring to characters without any introduction or any actor names, but I
believe that for most people, they need no introduction. Even Roger Ebert has
said that, despite knowing Robert Duvall well in real life, his first reaction
upon seeing him on screen in this film is “Hey, that’s Tom Hagen.”
