When something happens there is always a chain reaction of effects. Some actions results in physical changes and some result in noises, sounds or smells. The Godfather is a movie and the ability to smell television still hasn’t had the technology developed; the main way to emphasize the scene that is taking place is either by picture and sound. The use of picture is evident though out any movie or scene on television because it is heavily relied upon but the use of sound to add to a scene is what sets different scenes and situations apart. When someone walks into a room, the scene changes but how does a producer show an emotional or environmental change?
One of the ways that Francis Ford Coppola uses sound to add the movie is very affective and it is one of the elements that make the first part of The Godfather such a rich and in-depth film to watch and enjoy. Coppola could have easily put a series of images together and he could have tried and portrayed his message that way but he decided to add certain, carefully chosen elements to make The Godfather come to life. Sound has been one of the elements that have really stood out me in the short amount of film that we have watched.
When Michael Corleone is at the hospital to visit his father and he goes outside with Enzo (the baker) and the police come into the scene there is an immediate change in the mood of the scene; why and what did this? It was not just the arrival of the police, who are portrayed as the “bad guys”, but there is something else. When I watch the scene for the first time I did not notice what it was and not until Mr. McGuigan stop the film and we re-watched it 2 times, was I able to determine what had affected the mood so much—it was the added sound that had set this scene apart from the one before. The sound that Coppola had added was thunder—how over rated right? Adding thunder when a bad guy comes in, how could we have not picked up on it when we first saw it? Francis Ford Coppola does such an amazing job of changing the mood by adding sounds that are unexpected but recognized; this adds an element to The Godfather that set it apart from any other B rated film. In the short amount of the film that we have seen, Coppola uses sounds to enhance a scene 2 distinctive times and in both cinereous he does it beautifully and has a lot of success.
I do agree with everything you have stated in this post, although I would like to pose a question is the sound in this film used to magnify a scene, or rather to intensify it. An example of this is in the scene between Michael and the police captain, at the restaurant, the director uses the sounds of the train in the background with the addition of the very dark music; to help the reader feel the intensity of that scene and to elp them to make a connection with Michael. This connection is vital as learned prior to this, because it is said connection that allows the successful conveying of ideas from the author/directors to his viewer/readers.
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