The Godfather Takes Out Bin Laden

Al Pacino as Michael Corleone

Film Friday

When the details of Bin Laden’s assassination came out, I was struck by the resemblance to an action adventure movie.  I see that Maurine Dowd of the New York Times was thinking along the same lines when she filled a column about the president’s performance with film references.

For instance, she notes that top generals refer to the president as “Cool Hand Luke.”  Then she cites the famous crosscutting moment in The Godfather where we see scenes from a baptism alternating with scenes of Michael’s men killing his enemies. Here’s Dowd:

After giving the order for members of a Navy Seals team to execute a fantastically daring plan to, let’s be honest, execute Osama bin Laden, Barack Obama put on a tuxedo and gave a comedy speech Saturday night in a Washington ballroom of tippling journalists and Hollywood stars.

If we could have seen everything unfolding in real time, it would have had the same dramatic effect as the intercutting in the president’s favorite movie, “The Godfather,” when Michael Corleone calmly acts as godfather at his nephew’s baptism at church, even as his lieutenants carry out the gory hits he has ordered on rival mobsters.

Just substitute “Leave the copter, take the corpse” for “Leave the gun, take the cannoli.”

Incidentally, I didn’t know until reading Dowd that The Godfather was Obama’s favorite film. (In an interview with Katie Couric, he mentions parts I and II of The Godfather as topping his list, followed by Lawrence of Arabia, Casablanca [“who doesn’t like Casablanca] and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

I suppose there are opponents who would argue that he identifies with Michael, the promising son who turns into the ruthless patriarch who will do anything to get his own way.  A more positive reading is that he appreciates the warning the film offers: power can corrupt and rob us of our souls if we are not careful.  Obama makes this observation in The Audacity of Hope.

But okay, let’s say that that Dowd’s Michael comparison is apt, whether one applauds him for it (as she does) or attacks him.  It clues us into other parallels.  Though not a mobster at the time, Michael pulls off a daring assassination in the course of the first film, killing the man who tried to kill his father.  The scene surprises us as  Citizen Obama surprised us with the Pakistan raid.   “It’s not personal, it’s business,” Michael assures his older brother before embarking on the killing, and there is a sense that Obama also separates out his personal feelings from the job that he undertakes.

And look at how the Bin Laden killing influences the way we see the following conversation between Michael and Kay during the opening wedding scene:

Michael: “My father is no different than any powerful man, any man with power, like a president or senator.”
Kay: Do you know how naive you sound, Michael? Presidents and senators don’t have men killed.
Michael: Oh. Who’s being naive, Kay?

On the other hand, liberals have been arguing that Obama has not been a tough enough negotiator, conceding too much to Republicans rather than offering them deals they can’t refuse. No severed horse’s heads.  Then again, certain Republicans feel that they’ve sometimes gotten rolled by the president, so maybe it all depends on one’s perspective.

I’m sure there are other parallels as well.  Send in any you can think of.  I’ll keep looking.

Added Note

Here’s something that has become (what none of us could have predicted) outdated.  In one of the first two Godfather films, Michael is visiting pre-Castro Cuba and witnesses a revolutionary suicidally give up his life to attack some police.  Struck by such devotion to a cause, Michael predicts that dictator Jose Bautista will lose.  Now, of course, suicide bombers have become almost routine in some parts of the world.

Go here to subscribe to the weekly newsletter summarizing the week’s posts. Your e-mail address will be kept confidential.