Power and The Godfather: How the Underworld is the real Overworld
“Behind every great fortune there is a (perfect) crime.” -Honore de Balzac
Some 30 years or so ago, I had a college history professor named Ralph Raico. He was a scintillating and scholarly lecturer. Professor Raico was the type of teacher who made learning about history enjoyable because of his ability to make the past relatable to the present. One day recently when I was watching The Godfather for about the thirtieth time, I thought of him, so I decided to research his bio on the internet. I discovered that although he had passed in 2016, his legacy has lived on through several influential thinkers of our day. Professor Raico was highly esteemed in the Austrian School of Economics, which has guided the libertarian views of contemporaries ranging from the likes of Vitalik Buterin although the way to Andrew Yang.
In retrospect, that doesn’t surprise me. In his lectures, time and time again, we would be discussing some historical event, like the rise of Napolean or the Spanish Inquisition, and he would pause (he used maps and a long pointer to lecture with a flair for the dramatic) and say, “you know, there’s really nothing in history that you can’t learn from watching The Godfather.” After the third or fourth time of him saying this, I figured it was a good idea to head over to Blockbuster (pre-DVD era) and see what all the fuss was about. That was how I was introduced to The Godfather.
My initial impression was that it was a highly entertaining movie simply on its gangster-action level. But as I revisited the movie (on average about once a year), I began seeing the bigger picture and understanding what my professor meant. The film offers infinitely practical wisdom for anyone choosing a career where political intrigue (and let’s face it, what career doesn’t have that?) is both an obstacle and an unfortunate necessity. I worked in the corporate world, and the rules and codes of conduct in the Godfather were as directly applicable to that field of competition as they were to a “criminal underworld”.
Indeed, what appears to be the “underworld” is actually the real world, hiding in plain sight. Most of us are not born with a road map on how to get from one position in society to another, so we have to learn by trial and error and hopefully gain the wisdom and insight to survive our capitalist system. To illustrate the effectiveness of the template in real world practicality that The Godfather offers, let’s look at two scenes in the first act: (1)the offer the movie producer can’t refuse and (2)the meeting with the drug trafficker, Virgil “The Turk” Sollozzo:
(1)In the first scene, Johnny Fontane, a fictional version of Frank Sinatra, has come to his Godfather, Don Corleone (the most powerful mafia crime boss in America), auspiciously to entertain at the wedding of the Don’s daughter. However, as Tom Hagan, the family consigliere (lawyer/counselor) and adopted son dryly puts it, “it’s been two years since he’s been back and he probably wants something.” He does. A new movie, based on a bestseller, is set to begin shooting and Fontane knows he would be perfect for the part, but the owner of the studio has a grudge against him and won’t give him the role. The Don has a soft spot for his famous godson so he sends Hagan to Hollywood to negotiate with the studio head who is blackballing Fontane.
This scene is depicting what actually happened historically when Sinatra tried to get cast in the lead of From Here to Eternity in order to resurrect his floundering career in the 1950’s. The studio head of Columbia Pictures at that time was Harry Cohn, named Woltz in the movie, and like all the movie moguls of his day he ruled his company with an iron fist and was well protected by the US government for providing cinematic propaganda throughout the war. In the film’s fictional account of events, Woltz’s prize possession is a great racing horse, of which he says, “not even a Russian tzar had such a horse.”, a direct reference to the fact that he, a Jew, whose grandparents left Russia to escape the rape and murder of Tsarist pogroms, has reversed the roles. It is he who now possesses the power. But in his hubris he is revealing to the consigliere, sent with the impossible task of convincing him to let the Don’s godson in the picture, his weakness. He possesses something that means more than money to him. Woltz believes he has vanquished an enemy who has stood in his way and this is power to him. He believes he has escaped violent and barbaric tormentors for good in America. Woltz brazenly challenges Hagan and says he won’t give Fontane the role because his power is essentially greater than that of Don Corleone. Hagan leaves immediately to personally deliver the bad news back in New York.
At this point there is a bit of backstory in the book that wasn’t in the movie. When Hagan returns from California, the Godfather asks him, “Is he (Woltz) a Sicilian?”. He means by this, to use rather crude terms in forming this assessment: “does this man have steel balls that are unbreakable?” Hagan shakes his head no. The Don now knows that despite Woltz’s bombastic threats and outward toughness, he really lacks the one quality all men of real power possess: the ability to do whatever it takes to squash their enemies, even if that means risking everything. Once the weak link is established, it’s only a matter of showing Woltz that real worldly power is achieved by those with the strongest wills. For those who have never seen the film, I don’t want to spoil the surprise Woltz gets for refusing the Don’s offer. Needless to say, the scene climax is one of the greatest sequences in cinematic history.
(2)The second scene I wish to discuss is the Don’s meeting with Sollozzo, a ruthless and menacing mobster. Because of his connections to heroin trafficking, a very lucrative enterprise, he is backed by other New York crime families. The scene in which he meets with Don Corleone to discuss a potential partnership is a master lesson in the ins and outs of negotiation. Sollozzo is an upstart, with much ambition and the means to rise up in the underworld. He has established a drug trafficking operation that will bring tremendous wealth to the New York mafia families, but needs Don Corleone’s blessing because it is the Don who has real political power with the legitimate world through his alliances with politicians and judges. (*On a personal side note here, it is interesting that the interstate distribution model for transporting goods, which is the backbone of our modern corporate structure, was established during prohibition by the bootleggers. They developed a highly efficient means of transference from producers to suppliers to buyers.)
The Don ultimately rejects a potentially very profitable arrangement with Sollozzo because he surmises (in historical fact very accurately) that the morality code of the legitimate anglicized institutions will reject an alliance with heroin dealers. There would be too much pressure put on the legitimate political institutions to enforce the written laws.
In one last effort, Sollozzo makes an attempt to convince the Don that his investment money would be guaranteed by another Crime family. Sollozo is crafty, this may have been simply a tactic to elicit a knee-jerk reaction from the Don out of hubris and pride. The Don is much too wise to take the bait and he politely but firmly says his answer is final.
It is at this point that the Don’s hot-tempered son, Santino (“Sonny”), commits a grave error in judgement. He blurts out that he doesn’t believe the other family is a reliable partner. For a brief moment there is a gleam in Sollozzo’s eye. He instantly recognizes that Sonny has a difference of opinion with his father. There is a chink in the Corleone armor after all. The meeting concludes and as the capos and family members disperse the Don calls Sonny aside. He is furious and slaps his son. He admonishes him by saying, “What’s the matter with you? Never, ever let anyone outside the family know what you are thinking!” This turns into a pivotal moment in the first act and leads to the inciting incident for the second and third act, as a short time later Sollozzo will attempt to assassinate the Don and force Sonny to make a deal.
Epilogue
From my own personal experience, the Don’s warning to his son is critically important advice in the business world, or in any situation for that matter where individuals are competing with one another. Information is the most important commodity. That’s why Sun Tzu in the Art of War emphasizes the need for deception and Macchiavelli in The Prince advises to remain stern and tacit as a leader of others.
These are just two scenes, but in reality, I could have literally picked any scene, especially the later ones when the Don’s son Michael proves to have inherited his father’s genius for political game theory. I hope others find this movie a useful template for their own journey through the pitfalls of this thing we call life. Thanks to a wonderful history professor, my appreciation for the film continues to grow with each viewing.
