Assignment: The Godfather

Woops this is really late.

Before I watched the film, The Godfather, my knowledge of organized crime was limited to that of the Crips, Bloods and the Latin Kings however I do not know if that counts as organized crime but more so street mobs. My idea of organized crime was something very much to that of the gangsters in the film, family hierarchy oriented with professional manner of acting dress and carrying things out with the stereotype of them being Italian or Cantonese. I also had this idea that they had such government and authoritative influence from a vast connection of people. Other than that I assumed they dealt with drugs, prostitution and gambling which turned out to be false because they only do the last two on top of money laundering and "protection" fees like a big bully.

The Mafia is criminal organization that has a type of hierarchy power system. Originated from gangsters in Italy. Or the early Jersey Shore days.

The Don offers Bonasera the service of carrying out the revenge for his daughter through ambiguous means but most likely involving violence, threats or even death. Such services are not available from the police. Don Corleone operates like corporate America because in order to have "favors" or things done for you, not only must you are on good terms with the corporation (most notably the boss) but also have done things for it or returned the favor at some point. One does not see large corporations handing out freebies all the time, henceforth the same attitude from Don Corleone keeping it professional and classy. They diverge because of simply the things that Don Corleone's "buisness" does in contrast to that of an ordinary company, unless it is a hardcore ruthless corporation.

Michael is set apart from his family because he decided to make something for himself out of his own volition by joining the army and earning glory on his own. His brothers on the other hand simply stepped into their positions and enjoyed what came with it without ever really doing anything up to that point. Michael transforms relatively quickly in a drastic degree when he becomes ruthless like the rest of his family. Seeing the power that killing someone can have he readily utilizes it and later really uses it when he kills all the other family leaders, a degree of brutality that possibly surpasses that of his family and very contrasting to the nice and noble man he once was. He becomes his father because he gains this kind of wisdom that tells him what’s right and wrong, although hard to explain, he knows who to trust and who not to trust and when to do things very much like how his father knew exactly what and when to make things happen. Santino failed because he let his rage guide him to ultimately his death. Michael differs from his father because he seemingly is more brutal, getting "peace" that his father wanted by killing every other family head with no mercy.

1. I don’t really know about organized crime in the United States. I only know gangsters kill and threaten people they do not like.

2. From Dictionary.com, “A criminal organization that originated in Sicily and was brought to the United States by Italian immigrants in the late nineteenth century. The Mafia is also called the Syndicate, the Mob, and the Cosa Nostra  (Our Thing). The Mafia built its power through extortion (forcing tradesmen and shopkeepers to buy Mafia protection against destruction) and by dominating the bootlegging industry (the illegal production and distribution of liquor) during Prohibition. Members of the Mafia often lead outwardly respectable lives and maintain a variety of legitimate businesses as a front, or cover, for their criminal activities, which include extortion, gambling, and narcotics distribution.”

3. The Don, Vito Corleone, offers the justice that public court can not offer to the people who need it. The Don will send people who benefit from him to help others.

4. I think what sets Michael apart form the other Corleones is that he received different education, he went to war and became a hero. After Michael’s father, Vito Corleone, did not received proper justice from government, Michael started to get justice in other way, the way Corleones always offer others. I think the differ from Michael and his father is that Vito did not see family as enemy, but Michael thinks even if family member prostitute oneself to the enemy, he or she can not be forgiven.

1. Organized crime in United States had been know through out centuries,even in the time when there are banned of alcohols and cigarettes, the Mafia provide those accesses. It has been increasing as youngsters and teenagers who were orphans or had no close family relation were recruited.

2. Mafia is an organized international body of criminals, operating originally in Sicily and now especially in Italy and the United States having the ruthless behavioral code.

3. The Don offers "justice" to America minorities (in this case, Italian immigrants). Vito Corlenes and his organization diverge from corporate America by opening brothels, illegal trafficking, and other illegal business to gain its finance and follow a set of principle when dealing with "business".

4. Michael serve in the military and don’t do crimes like how other family members do in killing people. At first, when the marriage occurred, Michael is all pure . But when Vito Corleones was injured, this triggered Michael to revenge for his father and to make him killed the police and Bruno Tataggali. He become like his father by being not rash and considerate on the strategy to deal with things, that what make them not suffer the same fate as Santino. However, he is differed from his father by being more ruthless, he orchestra the murder of all of the family’s enemies including his brother in law Carlo, who played a part in Santino’s death.

1. I didn’t know that much about organized crime in the United States, since I was living in Houston, which has an exceptional rate on public security.
2. A mafia is a hierarchically structured secret organization allegedly engaged in smuggling, racketeering, trafficking in narcotics, and other criminal activities in the U.S., Italy, and elsewhere.
3. Don offered “justice” to people who seek for his help because of being treated unequally during the trial. However, the way the Corleon provided “justice” was by threatening the opponents of its pursuers, which was illegal.
4. At the beginning of the film, Michael had nothing to do with his family business. He was a war hero. However, all of this changed after Michael sought for revenge of his father tempted assassination placed upon by another mafia family. From that point on, Michael was a part of the criminal family. Both Michael and Don were very careful; non of their plans or decisions were made impulsively. However, I believe Michael was even sharper than his dad was. At the end of the movie, he himself executed the plans of eliminating all the heads of other mafia families successfully, which I don’t think Don had the ability to accomplish.

1. um… a bunch of African American working for a white man

2. A secret criminal organization operating mainly in the United States and Italy and engaged in illegal activities such as gambling, drug-dealing, protection, and prostitution.


3. The Government could be corrupt, and not fair to American citizens. Don will use his knowledge give back their justice in a different way.
Don’s organization is similar to the real government, but is smaller and the way they run the organization is more violent.

4. Don is his father is the fact, and he knows that he has his judgment of doing things.
When his father got shot and that anger Michel and made him want to join the family. The anger inside Michel comes out hard and in the end he kill all the bad guy of the enemy.

1. I don’t know much about organized crime family, all I knew was that there are organized crime families that have certain rules of their own and they don’t just kill and bully people around like gangsters.

2. A Mafia is an Italian American crime organization that works on it's own business like other families.

3. The Don offers justice that the court did not give to the people who needed them, the Don will judge whether he or she needs justice and then send people that work for him to do the work. The organization has some parts that are parallel to America, they all have their own rules, and they give justice and settle adjustments for people.

4. Michael is a hero in a war, which makes him different from his family, and in the start of the film, he isn’t very interested into his family business. Through the movie, Michael has changed and starts to get involved with family business; the main change was when he decided to kill the two people that hurt his father. He becomes more like his father as the film goes on, he starts to learn how to run the family organization and I think he is even better than his father, he thinks a lot about making his move like his father. I think the part his is different from his father that he is a more violence man, his father wanted peace between the families, but Michael just kills everyone who gets in his way, and he is even more powerful than his father.

1. bad Italian immigrated people who deals with big crimes and kills people.

2. a family of gangsters who does "business" with the "society" in a "friendly way"

3. Don helps people who are did not end up fairly in federal court, and he will help as long as it is possible. Vito Corleone usually does his job illegally which may involve murder and or black mailing

4. He is a "civilian" which has nothing to do with the mafia while still have good connection with them. Throughout the film, as his father getting constantly attacked, Michael stands up for the family and gets involved in all sorts of business, including murdering corrupted sheriff in league with the opposing mafia family. Both has a perspective in their family's good, but Michael prefers all the family business to be legal instead of a dark way.

1. Before watching this movie, I didn’t know much about the organized crime, I thought the organized crime in the United States tends to have black people involve in, tends to be really violent and there is always a head who organizes everything, also I thought there is no negotiation between families. After watching this movie, I noticed the organized crime is really well structure and organized, it is like a big family and everyone has a different role, if everyone does their job perfectly, the family would become really powerful and unstoppable.

2. The mafia is a secret criminal organization mainly in the United Sates and Italy and engaged in illegal activities such as gambling, drug dealing, protections, and prostitution.

3. The Don deals with the people who feel they have been treated unfair by the federal court. Those people could pay money and ask Don to do certain things for them; even illegal things, and Don would do it if he feels he is satisfied with the amount of money he would get by doing those people’s favor.

4. Michael was in the military service, he thoughts were pure and he wasn’t allowed to do illegal things, he wasn’t involved in the family business like his other brothers do. His father wanted Michael to stay out of the family business, but after his dad got shot; Michael felt like he needed to step up for his family and join the family business. I would say Michael is as smart as his father, even smarter, but Michael’s desire is way bigger than his father’s, he wanted to become the only one who survives in this kind of organized crime business, he used his intelligent to killed all the other family leaders.

1. Before you watched the film, what did you know about organized crime in the United States?

I did not know any thing about the organized crime in the United States. I only knew that they were scary.

2. What is the Mafia?

Mafia is an Italian-American criminal society originating from the Sicilian Mafia. It had no formal name and is a secret criminal society. Each group has its own territory and its own business.

3. The first words of the movie, “I believe in America,” are uttered by Amerigo Bonasera, who has not been well served by American justice. What alternatives to the American establishment are offered by the Don? To what extent do Vito Corleone and his organization diverge from corporate America or operate along parallel lines?

The Don offered “justice” to the people who are not fairly treated by the federal court. He would be willing to help, if the offer is approachable to him. However, Vito Corleone usually applied illegal ways to solve the problems. Sometimes, they used fear or murder to approach their attempts.

4. In the opening wedding scene, Michael tells Kay about his father’s strong-arm tactics and says “That’s my family, Kay. It’s not me.” What sets him apart from the other Corleones? How do you explain his transformation in the course of the film? In what ways does he become like his father? In what ways does he differ from his father?

At the beginning, Michael did not want to get involved into any of his father’s business. He thought that the things that his father was doing are immoral and wrong. He was a war hero, who represents the righteousness of human at the beginning of the movie. However, after facing the assassination of his father and brother, Michael was forced to change, so to take care of his family business. He killed two men for the revenge of his father. Also, he discarded his loyalty to his love to a foreign woman, so to have another life. He became as strong as his father. Michael wanted to provide the best shelter for his family. Yet, with this convicted belief, he became more violent and cruel than his father. At the end, he chose to kill all of other group leaders. I think this is the main tragedy of this film. Through the transformation of Michael, the audiences clearly understand the brutality of the criminal society.

Before I watched the Godfather, actually I knew almost nothing about the organized crime in the United States, and I never tried to figure out how they work. However, the only thing I knew was about every organized crime have a group, and there is a leader upon this group. Everyone listens to this leader, and when the leader is murdered, everyone will become mad and try to get revenge.

The Mafia is a criminal syndicate, is an association of criminal groups, which share a common organizational structure and code of conduct.

The Don offer the justice in American is unfair. Basically, Corleone’s organization and typical American organization are treating their jobs as business. However, for the Corleone’s business, they do something illegal; for the typical American business, they follow the rules and laws. That’s the huge different from these two organizations.

At the beginning, Michael didn’t want to get involved in his family’s business. Maybe he didn’t like the way of the business, or he thought that his family’s business was wrong because he was a war hero so that he saw this business as a criminal. However, after he got the news of his father got five gunshots, he started to change. Then, his brother was assassinated; Michael became the Godfather, who was the head of the family. But, Michael was different from Vito, his father. He used more violent way to defend his family. He killed the two important guys of two families. His way was basically about killing people, but Vito was not.