They do love The Godfather, all those men—and it’s almost universally men—who quote the film’s well-worn lines, as if Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo’s masterpiece of movie making, is also a darkly comic guide to creating and wielding power in America.
I once interviewed a “former” mobster—if such a person exists—who described seeing The Godfather with a group of fellow criminals who were so pleased and excited afterward that they felt compelled to go out and hijack a truck to celebrate. Well, of course they loved The Godfather: It reinforces every sentimental cliché held dear by the members of a cult devoted to criminal enterprises performed by sociopaths who destroy lives and spread corruption… you know, fun stuff.
As the torrents of reverential prose praising the film upon its fiftieth anniversary flood newspapers across America, it’s instructive to look at the individuals who inspired the film, their self-serving myth-making, and the ways The Godfather perpetuates those myths.
