Hero's Journey: Michael Leaves Home

       Throughout Francis Ford Coppola's "The Godfather", Michael undergoes the Hero's Journey. While at some times it is quite obvious where Michael is in the Hero's Journey, at other times, it can be quite difficult. For example, when Michael kills Sollozzo and McCluskey and has to flee to Sicily, it can be debated that he is at different stages in the Hero's Journey. Personally, I believe that he is at Stage Four: The Innermost Cave. This is due to the fact that I believe that when Michael is in Italy, he is there to become more in tune with his Sicilian roots, and, through this, he learns what he needs to learn in order to save his family back in New York. This fits with stage four because in stage four, "the hero changes interanlly", and I believe that through all his experiences in Italy, Michael gains the knowledge and experiences he needs to become the Don of the Corleone family.

Week Three Notes

-It says Louis' Restaurant in orange, which is where Solazzo and McCluskey are killed
-The orange sign is visible from the inside of the Restaurant
-Scarlet woman
-Sonny and Michael are foils of each other
-No orange when Sonny was killed
-Carlo might have lured Sonny there

Question: What part of the Hero's Journey is happening when Michael left?

Doors

       As I'm sure a lot of other people have said, doors are a recurring idea throughout the Godfather. Personally, I believe that Francis Ford Coppola has utilized these doors to create a sort of portal from the families mafia or business life, and the families family life. There are distinct differences between these two lives that the family leads, which I think that Coppola has tried to portray more in order to make this distinguishable; however, I do believe that, when Vito Corleone is sent to the hospital, those two lives begin to merge, and the family starts to go into chaos, and confusion. This is shown in the scene when the family is having dinner, and Sonny starts talking about business. This begins a slight feud between Sonny and everyone else, as the women pick up on the fact that Vito never talked business at the table.
       Another time when the family begins splitting up is when Sonny starts taking charge. Tom Hagen states that there should be no decisions based on personal matters, and that everything should remains strictly business.

The Colour Orange

       Throughout the film, Francis Ford Coppola utilizes the colour orange to portray danger, or death that is soon to come. For example, right before getting shot several times and being sent to the hospital, Vito Corleone was purchasing oranges from a fruit vendor. Another time when orange predicts danger is when Sonny is beating Carlo. At that time, Carlo is wearing the colour orange. This happens later in the film, and will be quite obvious in showing that the colour orange is present in dangerous scenes, or places. Also, during the scene when Michael kills Sollazzo and McCluskey, the sign outside of the restaurant, which is blatantly visible from inside the restaurant, seems to be almost glowing and radiating inside the restaurant.
       Although there is all this proof of orange predicting danger, during the scene when Sonny is killed, there is no orange visible anywhere. This slightly brings me off of the topic of orange, due to the fact that I believe that if Coppola had been trying to depict orange as danger, then he would have included orange in every important scene with danger, and, seeings how this is a major scene in the film, I believe that orange is not an exceedingly important colour in this film.

Camera Angles

-The horse's head was placed to look like Woltz' legs while he was asleep

-In the horse's head scene, the camera slowly scans closer to Woltz, then slowly retreats, showing piece by piece the answer to the "mystery"

-During the business meeting with Solazzo, my first impression was that they were in a courtroom, which was a similar idea that Ms. Shepard had during the first scene.