Criminality is a super-obvious theme for The Godfather. The whole thing is about a criminal enterprise and the problems that arise from running it. The Corleones aren't anarchistic criminals—they're not randomly torching buildings and poking peoples eyes out with pencils (like The Joker in The Dark Knight).
They're criminals with their own idea of order. Don Corleone objects to dealing drugs because it's a "dirty business"—and he doesn't want to compromise his political connections. He treats crime like a business, and he has ideas about more acceptable and less acceptable business practices. Killing a horse and cutting its head off to terrorize a movie producer? Acceptable. Making a dope deal with the unscrupulous Sollozzo? Not so much.
Questions about Criminality
- Does Don Corleone have real limits to what he's willing to do? Or is his refusal to deal drugs merely practical and political? What about Michael?
- Does The Godfather depict running a criminal enterprise as being the same as running a business? What are the similarities and differences?
- In The Godfather's world, what makes someone a successful criminal?
- According to the movie, does crime ever pay?
Chew on This
"Thieves respect property. They merely wish the property to become their property that they may more perfectly respect it."—G.K. Chesterton
"Behind every great fortune there is a crime."—Honor de Balzac (the epigraph to Mario Puzo's novel, The Godfather)