The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather: Part II (1974) might seem like movies about crime, but they are actually films about business and capitalism.
Robert Evans, producer of The Godfather, has said (The Kid Stays in the Picture, 2002), that though he wanted Coppola for the movie just because he was Italian (and therefore presumably could bring authenticity), Coppola did not want to do an “Italian” movie that emphasized the mob. Rather, he wanted to do a movie about “the story of capitalism in America.”
The Godfather was, indeed, the first film that showed the mob as genuine protagonists, basically like everybody else, including business people, except for the minor point that they killed people. The Corleone family moves from Vito’s sole proprietorship stage, built on personal relationships and trust, to Michael’s coldly efficient capital-driven model.
Coppola’s less-than-favorable view of capitalism and how it ultimately distorts the creative process is on display elsewhere. Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988) is really about Coppola's efforts to make his own films without interference from money men like Evans, and build his own studio. In The Conversation (1974), Harry Caul (Gene Hackman) does an unsavory eavesdropping job for a shadowy businessman called "The Director" (Robert Duvall), but gets in trouble when he doesn't stick to his assigned task.
Coppola got his point about capital across in The Godfather although that was far from Evans’ mind. As I argue in my article, the money people cut the filmmakers slack about the message as long as the message doesn't get in the way of making money.
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