The Godfather

The Corleone Family and the World of Italian-American Organized Crime

The story takes place in New York in 1945. Vito Corleone, patriarch of one of the city's five most powerful Mafia families, governs his criminal organization with a blend of authority, pragmatism, and a code of honor all his own. His power rests not solely on violence, but on a network of favors, loyalties, and obligations that make him a reference figure for the Italian-American community. Vito operates out of Corleone Olive Oil Importers, a legitimate business used as a front, and from his mansion in the Long Island neighborhood known as the family "Mall."

The film opens with the celebrated scene of Vito's study during the wedding of his daughter Connie Corleone to Carlo Rizzi. Honoring the Sicilian tradition that no man may refuse to hear a request on his daughter's wedding day, Vito receives a series of petitioners. Among them is Amerigo Bonasera, a businessman seeking revenge for an assault on his daughter. Vito grants the favor, but reproaches him for never having treated him with the respect due a friend, establishing from the very first moment the rules of his world: loyalty and respect are currency as valuable as money.

Outside, in the gardens, Vito's sons are introduced. Sonny Corleone, the eldest, is impulsive, violent, and passionate; he aspires to inherit his father's power but lacks his restraint. Fredo Corleone, the second son, is warm-hearted but weak, incapable of taking on greater responsibilities within the organization. Tom Hagen, the family's adopted son and trusted lawyer, serves as adviser and diplomatic liaison for the clan. And finally Michael Corleone, the youngest son, newly returned from World War II as a decorated hero, who attends the wedding with his American girlfriend Kay Adams. Michael presents himself as explicitly outside the family business: he tells Kay that he is not like his family, making clear his intention to remain apart from the criminal world.

The Inciting Incident: Sollozzo's Proposal and the Attempt on Vito's Life

The equilibrium is shattered by the arrival of Virgil Sollozzo, nicknamed "the Turk," a drug trafficker backed by the Tattaglia family, one of the Corleones' rivals. Sollozzo meets with Vito to propose an alliance: he needs the financing and, above all, the political and judicial protection the Corleones can provide through their contacts. In return, he promises substantial profits from the narcotics trade.

Vito refuses. His refusal is not strictly moral, but strategic and pragmatic: he believes the drug trade is too dangerous, that it will corrupt the judges and police officers on his payroll, and that it will ruin the political goodwill he has worked so hard to build. Sonny, however, had shown interest during the meeting — a mistake that Sollozzo and the Tattaglias interpret as a crack in the Corleone leadership.

The response is swift. Shortly afterward, Vito is ambushed in the street while buying fruit at a market. He is shot several times and rushed to the hospital in critical condition. The attack shakes the family to its foundations: the patriarch is incapacitated at the moment he is needed most, and power falls to Sonny, whose impulsiveness is precisely the weakness Sollozzo intends to exploit.

The central conflict is thus laid out on several simultaneous levels. On the external plane, the Corleones must identify their enemies, protect Vito, and decide how to respond without triggering an open war that will destroy them. On the internal plane, the family must reorganize itself without its authority figure, with a hot-headed heir, an adviser who carries no Corleone blood, and a youngest son who still rejects his destiny. And on the individual plane, Michael is drawn toward a world he had tried to escape, beginning the process of transformation that forms the spine of the entire narrative: the man who swears he is nothing like his family will end up becoming its most perfect embodiment.