Frank Coppola uses the organ music and dialogue in the baptism scene of The Godfather to juxtapose Michael’s clashing identities as the former war hero and the head of the Corleone family, ultimately conveying Michael has chosen to reject his past honorability and accept his position as Don wholeheartedly. The organ music connects the baptism scene to the preparation and execution of multiple assassinations. Coppola uses it to create a montage, intentionally contrasting the purity of a baby’s baptism to the indecency of murder. Unlike the opening scenes, where Vito’s business and family were separated by location, color palette, sounds, and lighting, Coppola intentionally blends the lines between the two with the sound of the organ music. By connecting the scenes, Coppola forces the viewer to internalize Michael’s perceived good and bad traits as intertwined, rather than compartmentalizing them. Furthermore, Coppola allows Michael’s words “I do,” to also thread diegetically through the baptism, and non-diegetically through the assassinations. These words are in nature a response to the priest’s questions, but also an affirmative, no-nonsense assertion. Thus, the assassinations his words echo over are both a response, but also a cut-throat and aggressive excision, establishing Michael’s new reign. Ultimately, the organ music serves to highlight the conflict between innocence and manipulation within Michael; however, his affirmations establish his decision to accept his new self as an orchestrator of crime.
Coppola uses montage/cutting back and forth from the both the baptism and the murders to suggest that both occurrences are significant rights of passage in Michael’s life. Coppola uses the baptism ceremony and the murders in order to illustrate Michael’s new role as the Godfather, both in the religious sense, and the mob sense. When Michael affirms his belief in God by saying “I do,” he also commits himself to a life as the traditional Catholic religious leader for his nephew, but more importantly, the new head of the family. The back and forth of the montage parallels the ceremonies as purges, the baptism purges the baby of original sin, while the murders purge the Corlione’s of their enemies. Even though both scenes represent purges, Coppola uses ominous background music to emphasize Michael’s new position as Godfather, and the impending murders that must be associated with his new role. Similarly, Coppola accentuates Michael’s hypocrisy by overlapping Michael’s voice during the baptism service, with the murders. The audience hears Michael not only accept God, but also renounce Satan, all while he executes tens of people in the mean time, thus affirming his false virtue. Through montage/cutting, Coppola intertwines the ritual of the baptism with the systematic murders, so that he could reveal the hypocrisy and duality of Michael’s new role as Godfather of the Corleone family.
Coppola’s primary visual technique in the baptism scene is his use of montague. He cuts between scenes of the other mafia families being murdered, and the baptism of Michael’s godson. In the christian religion, baptism is the way the church welcomes a newborn into the world. It serves as a mark of the beginning of the child’s life in the church. Coppola uses the montage to show the same “beginning” in the killings. Those killings mark the birth of a new age in both the family, as well as in the New York mafia. In the way the baptism is the start of one’s life as part of the church, one could argue that the arranged killings of all the other mafia heads marks the start of Michael’s role as Don Corleone; he is now the Godfather in the religious sense, but also in the mafia sense. The dialogue in the scene also contributes to the duality of Michael that Coppola creates in this scene. The priest asks Michael if he believes in God, and will protect the godson, to which Michael responds “I do.” Coppola then jumps to a murder scene, suggesting that Michael not only affirms his religious role as Godfather, but also his mafia role as the new Don.
Capolla uses montage and color throughout this scene from the whiteness of the babies cap, which is supposed to represent purity and goodness, to one of the hit men's white shirt as he assembles his gun. This shows the hypocrisy of what Michael is doing by accepting the role of Godfather to his sisters child. Hearing Michael answer the priest over the series of murders reenforces this idea, pointing out how he does not "renounce Satan", as all these people are being murdered at his request.
This montage is a juxtaposition of life and death. As Michael's new godson's is baptized, a new life is beginning, one that almost is effected by the repercussions of his father's profession, and his mother's close relationship with underground mob figures: this scene is soon followed by the death of the child's father, Carlo, and his mother's subsequent mental breakdown. In between the shots of the baptism, as the priest blesses the child and Michael renounces Satan, Michael's soldiers are committing a series of carefully planned murders to rid the Corleone family of their enemies. In essence, Michael's choice to be the child's godson is arbitrary, as he knows what the church expects of him in that position, yet simultaneously is responsible for acts of sin.
Francis Coppola's use of montage in this scene makes the moment extremely dramatic. A baptism is a time of innocence and purification. As the scene goes from an innocent baby surrounded by a loving family to a shot of a man loading a gun it makes us as the viewer on edge. As we see a gun being loaded, as the organ continues to play in the background, it reminds us of the beautiful ceremony going on as these men set out to kill. Due to the organ, we feel like we are still at the baptism, just waiting for a shot to be fired. A baptism is a very significant time in ones life and the juxtaposition between such violence and a time of innocence is very unsettling. Although these men are going and shooting men when they least expect it, in their eyes they feel like this is a significant moment in their own lives as well, similar to a baptism, as they kill in honor of those they love.
This scene in The Godfather shows how Coppola chose to use very dark and faded colors in the film, including blacks, browns, whites, and reds. Coppola's use of contrasting events make the scene that much better. During the baptism, which is calm, spiritual, and lifting, there is a murder scene going on as well. Coppola's choice to contrast these two scenes greatly represents how violent the film and time period of the film really are, no matter if positive things are going on as well. This montage also strongly signifies the idea that even when there is birth, there is alway death. As Michael responds "I do" to the religious blessings at the baptism, Coppola cuts to the murder scene, which shows Michael approving and saying "I do" to death by murder as well. Overall, the montage that Coppola shows in this scene is rightly famous for its extreme contrast in life, death, spiritual and religious baptism, and sins.
In this scene, Coppola uses montage to set up a clear contrast between religion - and the morality we associate with it - and the bloodshed of the mob war. Part of his use of montage is to create a sense of irony. When Michael is asked whether he renounces Satan and all his works, and replies "I do" the bloodshed commences. Additionally, the killings are accompanied by the sound of the baby crying, which subtly reinforces the violence of the murders. Coppola's montage, however, is used for more than merely painting a contrast between church and violence. Throughout the movie, we saw how Don Vito was able to keep family and business separate. In this climatic baptism scene it becomes apparent that Michael is unable to separate the two. He is quite literally becoming a Godfather, but the baptism is more for him than for the baby. He is being baptized by blood and bullets into the family business. And when the ceremony ends, and the priest tells Michael to "go in peace," he knows that he will only have peace when he has crushed all his enemies.
Coppola's use of montage here juxtaposes religion with mob activity, portraying the many threats to innocent, young life. He acutely overlaps audio, revealing the stark contrast between the religious music and dialogue and the gunshots. Michael is, ironically, asked if he believes in God and if he renounces Satan, and answers yes to both questions. After the camera zooms in on his nervous expression, Coppola cuts to more murders, showing Michael's hypocrisy. He claimed he would never get involved in his family's mob activity, but couldn't keep that promise.
Coppola uses the same dominating colors throughout the film--red, black, brown and white. The baby at the baptism wears all white. As a symbol of the future and the family's hopes and dreams, he is innocent. But every other time we see white throughout this montage, it becomes bloodied. The montage suggests that too many dangers exist for young, pure life to prevail, for dreams for the future to become realities. Throughout the film, Coppola has emphasized the American dream. The baby cries in this scene, however, because he knows his purity will soon be tarnished as mob activity, the nature of America, and the nature of humans prevent the American dream from becoming the American reality.
Coppola uses the organ music throughout the montage of the baptism and the multiple assassinations. The music does not change in the background, juxtaposing the purity of the baptism and the impurity of the assassinations. A baptism is a sacred ceremony that is supposed to celebrate pure life. There is nothing more innocent than a baby, and to hear the cries of this baby during the ceremony while we see handfuls of men being murdered is unsettling. Not only can the viewer hear the organ music and the cries from the baby from the baptism while the assassinations are occurring, but you also here Michael being asked the question "Do you renounce satan?". It is ironic that this questions is being asked as these murders are happening, and that the viewer is hearing both this question being asked and the guns being fired at the same time. The way that Coppola constructed the montage made the scene very intense and climactic.
The juxtaposition Coppola employs is his primary technique for conveying the incongruence between the oaths Michael recites at the baptism ceromony and the decisions he has made. His use of contrasting colors, white for birth and purity and black for corruption and death, sound, formal Church music and biblical reading, the sound of water, and the simultaneous sound of gunshots, and the shots of the baptism paired with the shots of the assassinations, create a rich and detailed montage. Although Michael agrees, in this scene, to be baptized the montage suggests not the pure rebirth baptism most often implies, but a darker reinvention after which Michael officially assumes the role of his father and adopts a life of crime, having given up his untainted civilian life. Coppola's careful pairing of sound, color and image equate each aspect of a baptism with an opposite aspect of Michael's new life, black replaces white, gunshots replace the sounds of church, and death replaces birth.
The montage is used here to show a very innocent part of the movie, the baptism and mix it with the violent crimes done by the mob members. This montage is very important because it is used to emphasize the violent acts that mobs do upon innocent people. It also shows how the son is being put into the family, and while he is getting baptized, and becoming part of the church, he is going to be a part of this violence and these mob crimes. It is a welcoming into the cruel world in which Michael has grown up in, and has had to deal with, now being spread upon this child. The common colors are also used, the brown, white, black and red. The baptism is white, which shows purity and the innocence of a newborn, and then the men involved in the violence are wearing brown, and black representing the violence that is dominant within the film and the mens lives. This montage and scene is overall used to convey the religion and mob, as well as the innocence that is taken away due to the violent crimes.
In this scene, Coppola uses montage to note similarities between situations that may otherwise be pegged as completely unrelated. Each of the scenes outside of the baptism are of characters preparing for something, just like a baptism is preparation for one's entrance into the world as a Christian. Coppola also enhances those similarities by using the same organ music throughout the montage, tying all the scenes together. Although Coppola creates a similarity, there is also contrast present between those scenes. The pureness and innocence of the baby's baptism, a religious ceremony that's pure in itself, contrasts with the preparation of murder, loading guns, one of the men shaving his face, etc.
Firstly, the church, a holy place that should be filled with light and the color white to represent purity, is dark. This, along with the slightly foreboding organ music, foreshadows what is to come. The baby is in white, obviously, for baptism and to represent purity. Despite being born into the mafia, the child has not yet been corrputed by the lifestyle his family embodies. Michael, however, is wearing a dark suit, and represents the darker side of the family. While the priest is reciting, there is a montage of guns and the same dark organ music. What the family is about to do is unholy, yet they do it anyway and consider it their way of life. As Michael says his "I do"'s, each person who is about to die and those carrying out the hits are shown. This shows that each order for each hit was approved and put in motion by Michael, who used to reject the lifestyle that his family takes part in. He is now fully a member of the mafia. When the priest holds his clothing up to the baby, it is red. This contrasts with the white and the purity of the baby, for the red represents the blood that this baby will one day spill as a part of the "family business." The baby is then heard screaming as everyone dies, the screams the victims would yell if they had time to react before they died. The whole scene is a dark montage of blood and death, and it illustrates the mafia perfectly, with foreboding music and dark colors and the screams of the baby.
Coppola's visual technique in this scene is a montage of all of the deaths of the heads of the five family's as well as the baptism of the newborn baby. Throughout the montage the color palette stays the same as it has been for the whole movie. The montage consists of brown, red, white, and black. The baptism is symbolic of Michael's transition to the role of Godfather and the world of violence. This is ironic considering that a baptism is meant to cleanse the baby of sins and allow it to enter Christianity, however, in Michael's case, he is being submerged into the mob life and entering a life full of sin. Also, after all of the five family heads have been killed, there is a point where the water is being poured and the audience can hear it, yet the sound continues to be heard while the audience is showed the bloody bodies of the family heads. This gives the viewer the idea that the water sound being heard could be blood or water, further emphasizing the new life that Michael is being officially brought into.
Coppola uses the sounds of the baptism (prayer, and organ music) in juxtaposition with the violence going on outside the church. This juxtaposition emphasises Michael’s double life, and how he is having an inner struggle with figuring out the man he wants to become. In the scene his claims he is a person who has christian values and who does not sin, but in his other life all he does is sin. This idea emphasis the hypocrisy of religion within the film. The color palette used in this scene is standard with the colors throughout the film. the dominant colors are white, brown, red, yellow, and black. Coppola uses these colors to keep the visual aspect of the film standard. The colors tie the action of the film back to all the other violent scenes in the movie. By keeping the color palette simple, Coppola allows the audience to focuses on the larger messages of the film. the montage of the film aliens the prayer in the church with the violent acts taking place elsewhere. the words stated in the prayer contradict the assassinations and brutal deaths occurring while the baptism is taking place. This technique of filming allows for the audience to see the faults in what Michael and his family are doing, and foreshadows a tragic end to the film.
Coppola juxtaposes the two seemingly unrelated situations to suggest greater implications in the Film. Firstly, the baby crying in the background of the montage highlights the brutality of what is happening. This scene highlights the difference between purity and impurity. Purity, which is seen through the baptism and the church, and impurity, which is seen in the murder. The color palette also shows the difference between the two, in the church, there were lighter colors, whereas outside of the church, there were darker colors. Furthermore, this scene represents a transformation in Michael. It is almost as though through this baptism, he is adopting a lifestyle of impurity and crime in his family business, which is why Coppola put these two scenes together in a montage.
When the baptism scene starts, there's a solemn organ music playing in the background. In a close- up of Michael we see he appears to be emotionless. Although it doesn't appear to be an inappropriate look during the baptism, it shows his growing harshness towards the other men being shot in between the baptism. While the baby is being baptized, the actions are then paralleled by the men who are to be killed. The irony in Michaels renouncing Satan and sins is the men he has killed at that very same moment. Within the church the colors are dark suggesting Michaels final transformation into the other side of the Corleone family. Meanwhile, the baby's cries line up with the other men being shot showing the suffering going otherwise.
Francis Ford Coppola's famous baptism scene is not only famous for its morally questionable splicing of a baptism and the visicious murder of multiple individuals. The shocking use of montage and accompanying score and sound effects accent the contrast between family and violence. Don Vito always separated the two worlds between business and family, however, in this final scene Coppola makes certain to convey the person Michael has become. Not only has he adopted the ways of his family that he used to try so hard to avoid, but he has surpassed the ruthlessness of his ancestors. The montage flashes between the sermon for the baptisim and the brutal murders of Michael's enemies. The bleeding of the sound of the service over the death of the mobsters, espeically the crying of the baby, adds additional immoral subtext to the scene and symbolizes the birth of the new Michael. The new Don that cannot separate his two worlds.
Frank Coppola uses the organ music and dialogue in the baptism scene of The Godfather to juxtapose Michael’s clashing identities as the former war hero and the head of the Corleone family, ultimately conveying Michael has chosen to reject his past honorability and accept his position as Don wholeheartedly. The organ music connects the baptism scene to the preparation and execution of multiple assassinations. Coppola uses it to create a montage, intentionally contrasting the purity of a baby’s baptism to the indecency of murder. Unlike the opening scenes, where Vito’s business and family were separated by location, color palette, sounds, and lighting, Coppola intentionally blends the lines between the two with the sound of the organ music. By connecting the scenes, Coppola forces the viewer to internalize Michael’s perceived good and bad traits as intertwined, rather than compartmentalizing them. Furthermore, Coppola allows Michael’s words “I do,” to also thread diegetically through the baptism, and non-diegetically through the assassinations. These words are in nature a response to the priest’s questions, but also an affirmative, no-nonsense assertion. Thus, the assassinations his words echo over are both a response, but also a cut-throat and aggressive excision, establishing Michael’s new reign. Ultimately, the organ music serves to highlight the conflict between innocence and manipulation within Michael; however, his affirmations establish his decision to accept his new self as an orchestrator of crime.
ReplyDeleteCoppola uses montage/cutting back and forth from the both the baptism and the murders to suggest that both occurrences are significant rights of passage in Michael’s life. Coppola uses the baptism ceremony and the murders in order to illustrate Michael’s new role as the Godfather, both in the religious sense, and the mob sense. When Michael affirms his belief in God by saying “I do,” he also commits himself to a life as the traditional Catholic religious leader for his nephew, but more importantly, the new head of the family. The back and forth of the montage parallels the ceremonies as purges, the baptism purges the baby of original sin, while the murders purge the Corlione’s of their enemies. Even though both scenes represent purges, Coppola uses ominous background music to emphasize Michael’s new position as Godfather, and the impending murders that must be associated with his new role. Similarly, Coppola accentuates Michael’s hypocrisy by overlapping Michael’s voice during the baptism service, with the murders. The audience hears Michael not only accept God, but also renounce Satan, all while he executes tens of people in the mean time, thus affirming his false virtue. Through montage/cutting, Coppola intertwines the ritual of the baptism with the systematic murders, so that he could reveal the hypocrisy and duality of Michael’s new role as Godfather of the Corleone family.
ReplyDeleteCoppola’s primary visual technique in the baptism scene is his use of montague. He cuts between scenes of the other mafia families being murdered, and the baptism of Michael’s godson. In the christian religion, baptism is the way the church welcomes a newborn into the world. It serves as a mark of the beginning of the child’s life in the church. Coppola uses the montage to show the same “beginning” in the killings. Those killings mark the birth of a new age in both the family, as well as in the New York mafia. In the way the baptism is the start of one’s life as part of the church, one could argue that the arranged killings of all the other mafia heads marks the start of Michael’s role as Don Corleone; he is now the Godfather in the religious sense, but also in the mafia sense. The dialogue in the scene also contributes to the duality of Michael that Coppola creates in this scene. The priest asks Michael if he believes in God, and will protect the godson, to which Michael responds “I do.” Coppola then jumps to a murder scene, suggesting that Michael not only affirms his religious role as Godfather, but also his mafia role as the new Don.
ReplyDeleteCapolla uses montage and color throughout this scene from the whiteness of the babies cap, which is supposed to represent purity and goodness, to one of the hit men's white shirt as he assembles his gun. This shows the hypocrisy of what Michael is doing by accepting the role of Godfather to his sisters child. Hearing Michael answer the priest over the series of murders reenforces this idea, pointing out how he does not "renounce Satan", as all these people are being murdered at his request.
ReplyDeleteThis montage is a juxtaposition of life and death. As Michael's new godson's is baptized, a new life is beginning, one that almost is effected by the repercussions of his father's profession, and his mother's close relationship with underground mob figures: this scene is soon followed by the death of the child's father, Carlo, and his mother's subsequent mental breakdown. In between the shots of the baptism, as the priest blesses the child and Michael renounces Satan, Michael's soldiers are committing a series of carefully planned murders to rid the Corleone family of their enemies. In essence, Michael's choice to be the child's godson is arbitrary, as he knows what the church expects of him in that position, yet simultaneously is responsible for acts of sin.
ReplyDeleteFrancis Coppola's use of montage in this scene makes the moment extremely dramatic. A baptism is a time of innocence and purification. As the scene goes from an innocent baby surrounded by a loving family to a shot of a man loading a gun it makes us as the viewer on edge. As we see a gun being loaded, as the organ continues to play in the background, it reminds us of the beautiful ceremony going on as these men set out to kill. Due to the organ, we feel like we are still at the baptism, just waiting for a shot to be fired. A baptism is a very significant time in ones life and the juxtaposition between such violence and a time of innocence is very unsettling. Although these men are going and shooting men when they least expect it, in their eyes they feel like this is a significant moment in their own lives as well, similar to a baptism, as they kill in honor of those they love.
ReplyDeleteThis scene in The Godfather shows how Coppola chose to use very dark and faded colors in the film, including blacks, browns, whites, and reds. Coppola's use of contrasting events make the scene that much better. During the baptism, which is calm, spiritual, and lifting, there is a murder scene going on as well. Coppola's choice to contrast these two scenes greatly represents how violent the film and time period of the film really are, no matter if positive things are going on as well. This montage also strongly signifies the idea that even when there is birth, there is alway death. As Michael responds "I do" to the religious blessings at the baptism, Coppola cuts to the murder scene, which shows Michael approving and saying "I do" to death by murder as well. Overall, the montage that Coppola shows in this scene is rightly famous for its extreme contrast in life, death, spiritual and religious baptism, and sins.
ReplyDeleteIn this scene, Coppola uses montage to set up a clear contrast between religion - and the morality we associate with it - and the bloodshed of the mob war. Part of his use of montage is to create a sense of irony. When Michael is asked whether he renounces Satan and all his works, and replies "I do" the bloodshed commences. Additionally, the killings are accompanied by the sound of the baby crying, which subtly reinforces the violence of the murders. Coppola's montage, however, is used for more than merely painting a contrast between church and violence. Throughout the movie, we saw how Don Vito was able to keep family and business separate. In this climatic baptism scene it becomes apparent that Michael is unable to separate the two. He is quite literally becoming a Godfather, but the baptism is more for him than for the baby. He is being baptized by blood and bullets into the family business. And when the ceremony ends, and the priest tells Michael to "go in peace," he knows that he will only have peace when he has crushed all his enemies.
ReplyDeleteCoppola's use of montage here juxtaposes religion with mob activity, portraying the many threats to innocent, young life. He acutely overlaps audio, revealing the stark contrast between the religious music and dialogue and the gunshots. Michael is, ironically, asked if he believes in God and if he renounces Satan, and answers yes to both questions. After the camera zooms in on his nervous expression, Coppola cuts to more murders, showing Michael's hypocrisy. He claimed he would never get involved in his family's mob activity, but couldn't keep that promise.
ReplyDeleteCoppola uses the same dominating colors throughout the film--red, black, brown and white. The baby at the baptism wears all white. As a symbol of the future and the family's hopes and dreams, he is innocent. But every other time we see white throughout this montage, it becomes bloodied. The montage suggests that too many dangers exist for young, pure life to prevail, for dreams for the future to become realities. Throughout the film, Coppola has emphasized the American dream. The baby cries in this scene, however, because he knows his purity will soon be tarnished as mob activity, the nature of America, and the nature of humans prevent the American dream from becoming the American reality.
Coppola uses the organ music throughout the montage of the baptism and the multiple assassinations. The music does not change in the background, juxtaposing the purity of the baptism and the impurity of the assassinations. A baptism is a sacred ceremony that is supposed to celebrate pure life. There is nothing more innocent than a baby, and to hear the cries of this baby during the ceremony while we see handfuls of men being murdered is unsettling. Not only can the viewer hear the organ music and the cries from the baby from the baptism while the assassinations are occurring, but you also here Michael being asked the question "Do you renounce satan?". It is ironic that this questions is being asked as these murders are happening, and that the viewer is hearing both this question being asked and the guns being fired at the same time. The way that Coppola constructed the montage made the scene very intense and climactic.
ReplyDeleteThe juxtaposition Coppola employs is his primary technique for conveying the incongruence between the oaths Michael recites at the baptism ceromony and the decisions he has made. His use of contrasting colors, white for birth and purity and black for corruption and death, sound, formal Church music and biblical reading, the sound of water, and the simultaneous sound of gunshots, and the shots of the baptism paired with the shots of the assassinations, create a rich and detailed montage. Although Michael agrees, in this scene, to be baptized the montage suggests not the pure rebirth baptism most often implies, but a darker reinvention after which Michael officially assumes the role of his father and adopts a life of crime, having given up his untainted civilian life. Coppola's careful pairing of sound, color and image equate each aspect of a baptism with an opposite aspect of Michael's new life, black replaces white, gunshots replace the sounds of church, and death replaces birth.
ReplyDeleteThe montage is used here to show a very innocent part of the movie, the baptism and mix it with the violent crimes done by the mob members. This montage is very important because it is used to emphasize the violent acts that mobs do upon innocent people. It also shows how the son is being put into the family, and while he is getting baptized, and becoming part of the church, he is going to be a part of this violence and these mob crimes. It is a welcoming into the cruel world in which Michael has grown up in, and has had to deal with, now being spread upon this child.
ReplyDeleteThe common colors are also used, the brown, white, black and red. The baptism is white, which shows purity and the innocence of a newborn, and then the men involved in the violence are wearing brown, and black representing the violence that is dominant within the film and the mens lives. This montage and scene is overall used to convey the religion and mob, as well as the innocence that is taken away due to the violent crimes.
In this scene, Coppola uses montage to note similarities between situations that may otherwise be pegged as completely unrelated. Each of the scenes outside of the baptism are of characters preparing for something, just like a baptism is preparation for one's entrance into the world as a Christian. Coppola also enhances those similarities by using the same organ music throughout the montage, tying all the scenes together. Although Coppola creates a similarity, there is also contrast present between those scenes. The pureness and innocence of the baby's baptism, a religious ceremony that's pure in itself, contrasts with the preparation of murder, loading guns, one of the men shaving his face, etc.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, the church, a holy place that should be filled with light and the color white to represent purity, is dark. This, along with the slightly foreboding organ music, foreshadows what is to come. The baby is in white, obviously, for baptism and to represent purity. Despite being born into the mafia, the child has not yet been corrputed by the lifestyle his family embodies. Michael, however, is wearing a dark suit, and represents the darker side of the family. While the priest is reciting, there is a montage of guns and the same dark organ music. What the family is about to do is unholy, yet they do it anyway and consider it their way of life. As Michael says his "I do"'s, each person who is about to die and those carrying out the hits are shown. This shows that each order for each hit was approved and put in motion by Michael, who used to reject the lifestyle that his family takes part in. He is now fully a member of the mafia. When the priest holds his clothing up to the baby, it is red. This contrasts with the white and the purity of the baby, for the red represents the blood that this baby will one day spill as a part of the "family business." The baby is then heard screaming as everyone dies, the screams the victims would yell if they had time to react before they died. The whole scene is a dark montage of blood and death, and it illustrates the mafia perfectly, with foreboding music and dark colors and the screams of the baby.
ReplyDeleteCoppola's visual technique in this scene is a montage of all of the deaths of the heads of the five family's as well as the baptism of the newborn baby. Throughout the montage the color palette stays the same as it has been for the whole movie. The montage consists of brown, red, white, and black. The baptism is symbolic of Michael's transition to the role of Godfather and the world of violence. This is ironic considering that a baptism is meant to cleanse the baby of sins and allow it to enter Christianity, however, in Michael's case, he is being submerged into the mob life and entering a life full of sin. Also, after all of the five family heads have been killed, there is a point where the water is being poured and the audience can hear it, yet the sound continues to be heard while the audience is showed the bloody bodies of the family heads. This gives the viewer the idea that the water sound being heard could be blood or water, further emphasizing the new life that Michael is being officially brought into.
ReplyDeleteCoppola uses the sounds of the baptism (prayer, and organ music) in juxtaposition with the violence going on outside the church. This juxtaposition emphasises Michael’s double life, and how he is having an inner struggle with figuring out the man he wants to become. In the scene his claims he is a person who has christian values and who does not sin, but in his other life all he does is sin. This idea emphasis the hypocrisy of religion within the film. The color palette used in this scene is standard with the colors throughout the film. the dominant colors are white, brown, red, yellow, and black. Coppola uses these colors to keep the visual aspect of the film standard. The colors tie the action of the film back to all the other violent scenes in the movie. By keeping the color palette simple, Coppola allows the audience to focuses on the larger messages of the film. the montage of the film aliens the prayer in the church with the violent acts taking place elsewhere. the words stated in the prayer contradict the assassinations and brutal deaths occurring while the baptism is taking place. This technique of filming allows for the audience to see the faults in what Michael and his family are doing, and foreshadows a tragic end to the film.
ReplyDeleteCoppola juxtaposes the two seemingly unrelated situations to suggest greater implications in the Film. Firstly, the baby crying in the background of the montage highlights the brutality of what is happening. This scene highlights the difference between purity and impurity. Purity, which is seen through the baptism and the church, and impurity, which is seen in the murder. The color palette also shows the difference between the two, in the church, there were lighter colors, whereas outside of the church, there were darker colors. Furthermore, this scene represents a transformation in Michael. It is almost as though through this baptism, he is adopting a lifestyle of impurity and crime in his family business, which is why Coppola put these two scenes together in a montage.
ReplyDeleteWhen the baptism scene starts, there's a solemn organ music playing in the background. In a close- up of Michael we see he appears to be emotionless. Although it doesn't appear to be an inappropriate look during the baptism, it shows his growing harshness towards the other men being shot in between the baptism. While the baby is being baptized, the actions are then paralleled by the men who are to be killed. The irony in Michaels renouncing Satan and sins is the men he has killed at that very same moment. Within the church the colors are dark suggesting Michaels final transformation into the other side of the Corleone family. Meanwhile, the baby's cries line up with the other men being shot showing the suffering going otherwise.
ReplyDeleteFrancis Ford Coppola's famous baptism scene is not only famous for its morally questionable splicing of a baptism and the visicious murder of multiple individuals. The shocking use of montage and accompanying score and sound effects accent the contrast between family and violence. Don Vito always separated the two worlds between business and family, however, in this final scene Coppola makes certain to convey the person Michael has become. Not only has he adopted the ways of his family that he used to try so hard to avoid, but he has surpassed the ruthlessness of his ancestors. The montage flashes between the sermon for the baptisim and the brutal murders of Michael's enemies. The bleeding of the sound of the service over the death of the mobsters, espeically the crying of the baby, adds additional immoral subtext to the scene and symbolizes the birth of the new Michael. The new Don that cannot separate his two worlds.
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