The Godfather Conventions

The Godfather set the standards upon which all gangster films were judged from. This can be considered unfair given The Godfather is in the category of the few films that showcases amazing performances, powerful direction, a rather tight script and characters that are multilayered. If The Godfather goes against the generic conventions of gangster genres and focuses on family and less violence, Once Upon Time in America (1983) is the epitome of gangster films (Browne 26). Sergio Leone made an increasingly dramatic and rather beautiful film that presented an episodic tale of the lives of a New York Jewish that spanned forty years. In the years that followed the release of Coppola’s The Godfather, a considerable number of gangster films were realised but few depicted the healthy influence that The Godfather had. Martin Scorsese is, however, among the few filmmakers who had the freedom, occasionally, and a constant mindset that an auteur had. He depicted the theme of family ties that were being torn
The truth is The Godfather is set apart from conventional generic features of gangster films, its predecessors and successors, by the fact that it did not subvert the gangster genre but it gave it an innovative and invigorating twist. The Godfather underlines the theme of family and business, regardless of the business the family is into, unlike conventional films that emphasise violence and gang rivalry, it is greatly underplayed in The Godfather (Altman 45). Most importantly, The Godfather portrays demarcation between the male and female sexes. The masculinity and femininity of the characters can be evidenced from various scenarios making gender stereotypes one of the generic conventions that The Godfather can be said to have upheld; the male is dominant and the female is submissive and the