Have you ever been stung by a fictional character? I mean every child fancies to be a Tintin, Sherlock Holmes,
Batman, Superman or the like. Why only minors, history have often bore examples where adults and quite famous ones have been so engrossed by imaginary characters that they have altered their accent, attire or hairstyle in tune with the character. President Kennedy was fascinated with James Bond. Edward Rutherford took to writing after being heavily inspired from the Mark Twain character Tom Sawyer. Many have been affected by the Malboro’s man charm of puffing the smoke. The tomboyish spirit in girls have been inspired to some extent by the Nancy Drew series. In a psychological survey, it has been observed that Barbie does set high standards for girls.
I too have once been trapped by the charm of a fictional character. Although at that time I was not a school kid but a college goer. The fascination though unusual had a profound impact. My first rendezvous with the character didn’t happen in print but on celluloid. A friend of mine gifted me a DVD of a movie about which I expressed the desire to see. I was aware about the plot outline as I had watched many movies which were clearly inspired from this one.
Before I watched it, I had already adored the Kamal Hasan-Mani Ratnam inaugural venture in Nayakan (adapted in Hindi as Dayavan starring Vinod Khanna), loved Feroz Khan’s Dharmatma and the Ramgopal Verma movie Sarkar where Amitabh Bachchan donned the lead role which also sported a reflection of the Ex-Shiv Sena Supremo and Founder Balasaheb Thackeray.
Before I watched it, I had already adored the Kamal Hasan-Mani Ratnam inaugural venture in Nayakan (adapted in Hindi as Dayavan starring Vinod Khanna), loved Feroz Khan’s Dharmatma and the Ramgopal Verma movie Sarkar where Amitabh Bachchan donned the lead role which also sported a reflection of the Ex-Shiv Sena Supremo and Founder Balasaheb Thackeray.
I can still vividly remember the DVD cover. It bore the name of the movie along with the names of the two lead
actors who are often regarded as one of the very best the World has ever seen in the sphere of acting. The director's name was also shining prominently - Francis Ford Coppola.Since one among the actors was Al Pacino whom I revered after visualizing his stunning act in ‘The Scent of a Woman’ (for which he won an Academy Award in 1992), I felt the necessity of giving the film an immediate go. The movie started with an iconic scene. The dialogue which marked conviction “ I believe in America” was succeeded by a submissive and disgruntled mustached man. The man was narrating the painful tale of his daughter’s torture and the pathetic state of the law which allowed the offenders to walk scot-free. Since the law denied him justice he has decided to plead the matter in the parallel court of “Don Corleone”. The initial scene set the tone for what was to follow. The man who commanded such respect was in fact the patriarch of the largest crime family of New York, the Corleone family. The supremo, played by the legendary Marlon Brando, immediately grabbed my attention. I watched the movie in a state of stupor being awed by the presence and reactions of the character addressed as Vito Corleone or more often by the title of the movie “The Godfather”. What this influence did to me was I did watch the next two movies of the trilogy in which the yesteryears of Vito reappeared through Robert De Niro on screen and I also gobbled the novel on which the movies were based - The Godfather - written by the American author of Italian descent, Mario Gianlugi Puzo. Vito gained on my senses even more. It may sound funny now but I started to use the name Vito as my middle name in social media.
The opening scene - The Godfather listening to the plea
Who was Vito Corleone?
The novel and the second part of the trilogy depicts Vito’s story in the initial days. He was born as Vito Andolini in a small town and commune named Corleone in the province of Palemo in Sicily, Italy on December 7, 1891. Vito was a reclusive young boy who hardly spoke a word and was docile to his mother’s orders. He was often referred to as “dumb”. His Father Antonio was brutally murdered by the local Mafia Don Cicio as the former refused to pay tribute to him. Vito’s elder brother Paolo swore to avenge but he too was killed by the Don’s henchmen. Vito’s mother went with the little Vito to Don Cicio so that the cruel Mafia would at least spare the little one. The shrewd Don refused the request on the pretext that one day this little boy will try to extract revenge. At this point the movie shows that Vito’s mother holds a knife to Cicio’s throat allowing the little boy to escape. According to the movie,Vito’s mother got killed. However the novel shows she was subjugated to torture but her life was spared. Family friends smuggle Vito out of Sicily and he was deported in a ship along with a host of other immigrants traveling to America. In the film, the Ellis Island immigration officials renamed him as Vito Corleone mistaking Andolini to be his middle name and his village name to be his surname. Vito as usual remained mute. The novel though states that Vito used the surname Corleone to associate his existence with his origin in a far away land all alone.Vito was then taken in by the Abbandando family, who were a distant relative of his in an Italian colony on New York’s lower East Side. He wept alone in his room at night as he missed his family dearly. However he was indebted to the Abbandando family and grew very close to them. He was particularly fond of their son Genco and regarded him as his own brother. Vito also worked at the Abbandando family’s grocery store and earned an honest living. He also met his lady love Carmela, an Italian immigrant, who spoke in a broken English, and the two got married.Things were going well but one day Don Fanucci, a local blackhander and padrone threatened Senior Abbandando to fire Vito and hire his nephew instead. Seeing his patron in a state of dilemma, Vito himself resigned assuring the Senior Abbadando that he has always taken care of Vito like a Father. “I will never forget you” were his parting words to a weeping store-owner.
The Corleone couple faced acute financial distress. By that time, Carmela had already given birth to three children. Vito was struggling to make ends meet. During this time he meets Peter Clemenza and Salvatore Tessio, who teach him the art of survival through petty crimes and performing favours in return for loyalty. In 1920, when the police were desperately in search of the culprits of a robbery, Don Fanucci blackmailed the trio for a share in the illegal profits. During an Italian festival where there was enough of a pomp and show in the neighbourhood, Vito trails Fanucci through the rooftops as the latter was walking home. He ambushes Fannuci outside his apartment and guns him down. The sound of the fire shots was being subdued by the sound of the crackers. Vito then became the local padrone but with a greater degree of admiration among the populace. He also earned himself a name - “The Godfather”.
A young Vito (played by Robert De Niro) killing Don Fanucci
Vito and Genco then started an Olive Oil importing business - Genco Pura (simply known as Genco Olive Oil in
the films). This business acted as a legal facade for Vito’s growing organized crime syndicate.. Between Genco Pura, which also became a mighty company in its own right and the illegal operations in the prohibition era, Vito becomes rich. In 1923, he returns to Sicily with Don Tommasino and clinically eliminate Don Cicio’s men who were involved in murdering the Andolinis. Vito then arranges a meeting with the senile Cicio where Vito carves
open the Don’s stomach with a knife avenging his Family tragedy.
By the year 1930, when the prohibition era was at its peak, Vito was already overseeing a huge business founded on gambling, bootlegging and union corruption. The Corleone family became the largest crime family in the country. Abbandando became the Consigliere (in simple terms legal counsel) and Clemenza and Tessio became the Caporegimes (Comrades). Vito’s eldest son, the hot headed Santino “Sunny” became the apparent heir. However he had a troubled relationship with his youngest son, Michael (played by Al Pacino) who had just returned from the army and who despised the filth and squalor of the family business. However in the end it was Michael whose proximity increased with Vito and he ultimately succeeded to title of the Godfather and took charge of the empire.
Why was a Mafia influencing?
Despite being a Mafia supremo, Vito was well known for his generosity who lived by a strict moral code of loyalty to friends and above all his family. His every act demanded respect and he never deviated from his set of ethics. When the heroine trafficker Virgil Sollozo backed by the Tattaglia crime family seeks Vito’s political influence and legal protection, he refused sternly stating that “Drugs is a dirty business”. When he was urged to kill two molesters, he does not lose his rationality mouthing the dialogue “That’s not justice. Your daughter is still alive.”. He valued his words more than anything else. That is why when the Don brokers a peace accord between the leading crime families and assures that if his family is not harmed he won’t ruffle a feather, the others accept his assurance without the slightest of doubts. Even Don Emilio Barzini who was the mastermind behind the killing of his son Sonny and also directed the assassination attempt on Vito was confident about the latter’s declaration.
But what distinguishes Vito above everything else is his extreme protectiveness and care for his family. He came into the dark alleys of crime for his family. He avenged his parent’s and elder brother’s death. His maxim of “Keep your friends close but your enemies closer” was just another facet of his persona which made him ever-cautious in respect of any upcoming danger towards his family. He reminds his own godson Singer Johnny Fontane to spend time with family by quoting “a man who does not spend time with his family can never be a real man”. Not only was he concerned and worried about his family, he could go up to any extent for their sake. When Johhny wanted to get released from his bandleader, Vito offers to buy him out. When the bandleader didn’t accede to the proposal, Vito made him an offer “which he could not refuse”. The result was that Fontane became independent immediately for a much lesser sum than what was earlier offered to his former boss. Later when the Hollywood Mogul, Woltz denied Fontane a role that could revitalize his waning career, Vito after an unheeded verbal warning had Woltz’s champion horse Kahrtoum killed and its severed head was placed in Woltz’s bed as a final warning.
We also see a soft side of Vito later on. He never wanted his younger son Michael who was in the army to be a part of this illegal business. But destiny had other plans and Michael took over as the operating boss. Vito lamented the move and the helpless grief evident in his words and gestures resembled a Father - a common man who could not give his child the future he dreamed of.
Al Pacino as Michael and Brando as Vito - The iconic grief
Why to revere a Goon?
No matter how much generosity The Godfather displays, how much intuitiveness he had the fact remains that Vito was a hardcore criminal. Modern society will automatically ask the question that how can one idolize a wrong-doer? How can a smuggler, a killer, a Don be a role model? The criticisms may appear valid but if one takes a more careful look, the answers are engraved in the tale itself. It’s a saying that lotus thrives in a dirty pond. The character Vito Corleone epitomizes certain qualities which his own World and also the world beyond lacks severely in today’s era. He stands as a sharp contrast to a society which has forgotten the value of ethics, companionship, family ties for the sake of mundane pleasures or mere materialistic gains. To him his family and friends occupied pole priorities and then came the secondary objects of pleasure. A generation which has probably never realized the importance of living up to one’s word will find Vito as a distinguishing figure. He remains an ideal son, an ideal husband, an ideal Father and an ideal friend all rolled into one.
But the fact still remains that he is a gangster. A person whose very presence is detrimental to the society. But then again one has to remember that man is a product of circumstances. Vito was thrust into the World of crime by pathetic twists of fate. The orphaned immigrant from a distant continent was thrown into an era of depression, poverty, inequality and ultimately crime. Despite losing chastity, the soul remained unscathed. Even when luck had robbed him of nearly every chance of remaining civic, he did not give up on his virtues. The character acts as a strong reminder that one can be destroyed but not defeated and there lies its beauty. Even after being immersed in the filth of crime, he remains divine to a large extent. This constant state of righteousness also aids him to remain
prudent till the last day of his life despite bearing extreme personal losses. On July 29th, 1955, Vito dies of a heart attack in his garden while playing with his grandson, Michael’s son Anthony. In the novel, his last words were “Life is beautiful.”.
