Blog #4 Parallel Editing in The Godfather

"The Godfather" one the greatest movies of American cinema largely owes its greatness to its brilliant editing techniques. The baptism scene in which Michael Corleone has agreed to become Godfather to his nephew, largely illustrates this point. As we see shots of the Corleone family at the baptism in a cathedral, sounds of prayer, and organ music fill the cathedral. As the baby is being prepared to be baptized we see crosscutting shots of Michael's henchmen preparing their guns to murder enemies of the crime family. As the music builds the crosscutting as well as the action becomes faster and the assassins move closer to their targets. This builds up until the priest asks Michael, "do you renounce Satan?." At this point the organ music climaxes, and we crosscut to the murders being carried out. We then cut back do Michael, who hypocritically responds, "yes I renounce him." We then crosscut to the assassins fleeing the scenes of the murders as the organ music continues to play. The priest then asks Michael if he will be baptized, and Michael responds that he will as we crosscut to bullet riddled bodies lying dead on the ground.

The brilliant editing technique of these adjacent shots, convey to the viewer the duplicity and duality of the character, Michael Corleone. On the outside he is a religious family man attending a baptism, but the adjacent shots of the murders being carried out concurrent with the baptism, expose the contrasting sides of Michael Corleone to the viewer.