Just as young people in the Sooner State are educated about the Five Civilized Tribes in classes on Oklahoma history, people in the East Coast are told about what may be termed the Five Civilized Families in New York City who founded the Mafia gangs there in the early decades of that last century. And in recent years there has been a holiday tradition on the AMC Channel of running “The Godfather” movie on the day after Christmas which serves to acquaint young people with the Italian mobs that were flourishing there in the immediate Post-war era . That film revitalized the career of Marlon Brando, who played the father of the family, Don Vito Corleone, and won him an Academy Award for best actor. But film critic Roger Ebert faulted him for “his whispery and wheezy voice” and the fact that he “seems to have stuffed a little too much cotton in his jowls, making his lower face immobile”.
It is possible that Brando’s voice was partially a result of his efforts to imitate the voice of Frank Costello, the mobster who was often described as “The Prime Minister of the Underworld” in New York City. Costello was a popular and powerful figure in the Big Apple, and it was said that he often helped celebrities obtain coveted tickets to Broadway shows and was also influential in obtaining judgeships for attorneys. The frequent references made in the film to Don Corleone’s friendship and relations with many judges and politicians may have been inspired by Costello’s influence in that regard. Costello, who had assumed that Irish surname in his youth, had been successfully treated for throat cancer, and made a memorable appearance before a U.S. Congressional Committee investigating organized crime. It was said that Brando studied the tape made of his testimony there when he began to prepare for his role as Don Corleone.
The film’s director, Francis Ford Coppola, had not directed many memorable or moneymaking films before that time, and movies about gangsters were not thought to be popular with the public, and efforts were made by the studio to minimize the costs of its production. In the one memorable scene in which Michael Corleone, brilliantly played by a young Al Pacino, goes to visit his wounded father in the hospital seems to have been filmed in an apartment building, since the Don’s room is denoted by a small metal number with a piece of paper in place above it with his name on it.
One also hears echoes from that film that are applicable to some of today’s events. When then candidate Donald Trump was criticized by a reporter for his support of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and reminded that Putin has had reporters and journalists who were critical of him murdered, Trump replied that “we kill people to”. Towards the end of the Godfather, Michael Corleone tracks down his old girlfriend Kay, played by Diane Keaton, and tells her that he was now working for his father and asks her to marry him. When she points out that he had previously told her that he wanted to stay away from the violent family business, he responds that his father is like many other powerful men who are responsible for the well being of others. Kay replies that he is being naïve since senators and presidents don’t kill people, and Michael replies “now who is being naïve”?
Against the Grain 