The Godfather is a movie about powerful Corleone family, whose main business is crime. The movie analyses the structure and ‘organizational’ culture of Sicilian Mafia, which is very similar to any other gangster organization, but also differs from it in many ways. For the purpose of the comparison with Pulp Fiction I will pay attention only to general characteristics of the gangster genre in the movie, leaving out the facts that are typical only for Sicilian Mafia. The ‘boss’ Don Corleone (Marlon Brando) and his son Johnny (Al Pacino) are the heroes of the movie. They earn respect through ‘businessman’ style in dressing, good manners in public, or power they have. The power of a gangster is his gun, that makes him dangerous, the coldness of his face expression, as he never smiles, his good style and manners being his reference power, and his mysterious unpredictability and determination. Johnny and Don do not talk much, all the conversation is mostly about ‘business’ and there are no sufficient words, or jokes. This is one of the things that Tarrantino broke in his “Pulp Fiction”. Tarrantino’s heroes, Vincent (John Travolta) and Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) are not typical gangsters. They are dressed in black suits and have guns, but they rather earn laugh than respect. Jules and Vincent do not talk only about ‘business’ but about hash in Amsterdam, French language or foot massage. So, seeing them on the way to kill someone while talking about cultural differences between U.S. and Europe makes us very confused about their identity and the identity of genre in the entire film, and we laugh in disbelief.
Tarantino plays with the genre, not missing out the fact that these guys are dangerous as they cold-bloodedly shoot many people in the movie, but as well giving them the common-person characteristics and not making them ‘icons’ but familiar people. In this way he rejects to make Jules and Vincent gangsters from the cliche, or ‘absolute’ gangsters in any life situation. When they go out off-duty they wear shorts and funny T-shirt, Vincent is putting his belly out and loosing his authority and fearfulness among the viewers. Vincent and Jules are rather half gangsters-half comedians. The comedian side is emphasized, and the respect to Vincent is undermined more by the fact that he is on drugs most of the time. Unlike Don Corleone and Johnny who are soberly concentrated, serious and always alert, Vincent is dizzy, panicking and his mental detachment almost causes the death of boss’s wife (Umma Thurman).
Another material change within the genre between these two movies is the vividness of pictured violence. Martin Scorsese chooses to make the murders look ‘clean’ and his gangsters, when killing, stay in control over the situation. Little blood is shown, and the murder is well planed and driven by the utility of the organization. Tarantino exaggerates in violence and amount of blood Jules and Vincent even kill by mistake, so they look clumsy, unorganized, and comical. Yet again, the respect for the gangster is undermined and it looks like Tarantino mocks the genre.
The difference in the tempo of these two movies is substantial. “The Godfather “ has slower flow of actions and breaks between the scenes of crime are longer and contain the analytical description of the gangster culture. Scorsese is showing us that all illegal activity is carefully planed in front and by that, at the same time he slows down the action and builds respectful figure of the gangsters. “Pulp Fiction” is chaotic in tempo. It has faster turnovers from one murder to another danger, slows down for a while and unpredictably thrusts into another action. Vincent and Jules are not putting much intellectual effort into their crimes, and they fall from one action to a trouble and so on.
The background music in “The Godfather” is unnoticeable. It is mostly traditional music performed live on the weddings and funerals. It doesn’t serve like a tool to reinforce certain atmosphere of the scene or situation. Tarantino uses music to provoke certain feeling or to mock the situation and make us laugh. The music is loud and plays its role, it speeds up the dangerous situations and often at the same time with its comic lyrics turns the situation into grotesque.
The gangster genre is not dying. Its popularity is determined by the continuous existence of crime in reality. The transformation of gangster myth from “The Godfather” to “Pulp Fiction” doesn’t necessarily mean the devaluation of the genre but is purely individualistic variance of it. Both Scorsese and Tarantino are enriching the genre with its movies. Tarantino manages to balance between parody and seriousness of the gangster picture, on the other hand Scorsese provides us with in-depth, but traditional portrayal of the world of organized crime. “The Godfather” in 1972, was determining the genre in the reality of 70’s, and in 90’s Tarrantino liberates the genre in the spirit of the age.
