The Godfather Micro Essay.

The church is very grand and is full of warm, autumn colours such as brown and yellow. The whole atmosphere during this time in the church is joyful as they are gathered together for a joyous occasion, celebrating the new life that has been brought into the family and the world. It is an extremely religious moment and everyone is surrounded by family love. The church is fairly dark and the key lights shine down mainly on the priest and the baby. This could suggest that the two are the most purely innocent and are important. The music throughout this part in the church is quite slow and high pitched. The music sounds very religious by using an organ/piano to create such an atmosphere.

As the scene cuts to another man, he is seen assembling a gun. It looks as though it is a routine for him as he seems used to it and he also knows what he’s doing. The room he is sitting in is extremely bare and looks as though no one lives there. At this moment, the music suddenly becomes lower to signify that something bad and evil is happening/about to happen.

It then cuts to another man walking to his car, he is seen with a box and he wipes down his car a little before getting in. The outside, of what we can assume is his house, has been well looked after and gardened –it looks quite civilised. This suggests that the appearance is important.

The camera then cuts back to another man about to get shaved, also contributing to the message of ‘appearance is everything’. The non-diegetic music suddenly becomes extremely low once again, suggesting that this man is, along with the others, about to be involved in something.

The Priest’s voice can always be heard behind the music which is a constant contrast between something good and pure against a violent and evil act. As the audience, we also see the contrast between new life being brought into the world and the family, against the brutal taking of someone else’s. Michael’s eyes are often seen moving around or looking guilty, as if he’s got other things on his mind, this makes the audience realise that he has something to do with the men with guns.

The whole sequence has parallel editing as it shows two events happening at the same time but in different places. This makes the audience aware of everything that is going on and they automatically contrast the two events against each other. In this case some of the themes would be good versus evil, life against death etc.

The baptism has very low lighting and it creates a warm atmosphere and the murders and brutal acts of crime are committed in bright daylight. This shows that they do not care about the consequences they may have to face. The dark lighting in the baptism clips could maybe suggest that the baby has no choice but to enter a dark world full of murder and betrayal. It could also mean that the baby is now part of the darkness that the family holds.