The Oscar Project #45: The Godfather (1972)

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.”

The Oscar Project #27: On the Waterfront (1954)

by Chris Marshall:

Even after all the amazing accomplishments in Elia Kazan’s career, I still can’t help but immediately associate him with his 1952 testimony before the HUAC, in which he outed several of his colleagues as Communists or Communist sympathizers. It’s not like he even did any real harm; all of the people he named were already “known” Communists. But it’s the principle of the thing, and he worked for the enemy.

Many people in Hollywood never forgot or forgave him, either. When Kazan received his honorary Academy Award in 1999, several actors refused to stand to applaud him. I do forgive him (as if that mattered), but it’s hard not to associate that event with On the Waterfront, which won Best Picture two years after his Congressional testimony.

Why? Because On the Waterfront is a story about evil unions, those corrupt bastions of Communist iniquity. Terry Malloy just wants to live a peaceful life and have a nice job, but like so many of the longshoremen around him, he gets dragged into the unsavory world of organized crime. And once you’re in, it’s hard to get out.