Critical Analysis of the scene ‘Meeting with Sollozzo’, from The Godfather (Coppola, 1972)
During the sequence from The Godfather, Francis Ford Coppola rejected the notion of a traditional score in favour of exaggerated ambient diegetic sound to portray the psychological derailment and moral anxiety of Michael Corleone (Al Pacino), the War-hero son of The Godfather, Don Corleone. The sounds combine with close camera framings and wide shots to become part of the diegesis, repeatedly threatening to converge at a sync point before the tension recedes with a cut from close framing to wide and a dissipation of sound.
The scene opens with an establishing shot of a restaurant and location of a secret meeting between Michael and Virgil Sollozzo (Al Lettieri), the would-be assassins of Michael’s father. Michael arrives at the restaurant at night as a low, ominous tone plays under the scene that is punctuated by a single piano note at the start of each bar, sounding like a funeral bell ringing in the distance and signalling a murderous intent. Underneath the non-diegetic soundscape is a loud and uncomfortable acousmatic sound of train wheels grinding against tracks whose point of audition is an elevated railway line above the frame. The rumble of the train increases in fidelity and begins building towards a mechanical crescendo before it passes, traversing the first transition into a wide establishing shot of the restaurant’s interior. These recurring motifs are a central maker of meaning in the sequence and their use and development throughout the sequence mirror Michael’s moral anxiety.
Coppola establishes the interior of the restaurant with a high angle wide shot that frames Michael, Sollozzo and McCluskey centrally, surrounded by mostly empty tables and the waiting staff as the train passes after its first wave. It is replaced with an unsettling silence and stillness inside the room as every foot step, placement of crockery and cough is amplified, reverberating around the room as the exterior world fades in to irrelevance. A sensation that is made starker as the absence of sound begins to regulate the spectator's senses and parallel them with Michael’s heightened sense and psychological anxiety.
The voices of the three men reverberate around the silent room as they order food and are introduced in a series of close-ups and OTS shots that restrict space within the frame further establishing the tension at the table. A waiter begins opening a wine bottle and each turn of the corkscrew produces an uncomfortable and increasingly high-pitched squeal that we are forced to endure via on OTS shot of Sollozzo, until the cork ‘pops' and aurally releases suspense with a foreshadowing blast. Sollozzo then tells McCluskey that he and Michael will be speaking in Italian, to which he booms "Go Ahead". Both Michael and Sollozzo lean forwards in their chairs restricting the space between themselves and within the frame; a visual under pinned by the creaking of Michael’s chair as he leans in closer to his adversary with each sound shattering the stillness in the room.
Sollozzo and Michael converse in Italian, observing conventions of ‘Omerta'[i], positioning both McCluskey and the spectator outside of the secretive world of the mafia. Because of the language barrier the focus remains on Michael who is framed in a closeup with accompanying diegetic soundscape that underscores his moral and psychological anxiety. When Sollozzo begins speaking about Michael's father the acousmatic sound of the over-head railway returns at a lower level accompanying an OTS shot of Michael from Sollozo's perspective. The sound of the train increases in volume as Sollozzo sits forward, highlighting his growing aggression whilst simultaneously increasing the fidelity of the sound of wheels on tracks. The camera focuses upon Michael at this point and as the train gets closer the scene cuts to a CU of Michael as the next wave of steel wheels struggling to stay on a track increases threatening to wash away Michael’s morality as he contemplates the magnitude of the act.
For a few moments both Michael and Sollozzo stare at one another as the waiter returns with coffee, his every move punctuating the silence inside the restaurant before cutting back to the wide establishing shot of the restaurant as the train fades, and tension with it. Accompanied by a growing rumble of wheels on tracks, Michael retreats to the bathroom to retrieve a hidden pistol and here Coppola allows Michael a moment of isolation to contemplate his inner conflict. Inside the bathroom a running cistern merges with the sound of the train, juxtaposing the silent, tense environment of the restaurant with the internal machinations of Michael as the moment threatens to overwhelm him. After retrieving the gun and before exiting the bathroom Michael stops to gather his thoughts. He is shot in a high angle mid shot over the toilet door framing him in a restricted space and placing two barriers between Michael and the spectators as we are forced to watch him in his moment of isolation. As the camera tracks closer the world begins to shrink for Michael and the roaring sounds of the train lead to an expectation of a release at the climax, however, Michael's control of his anxiety is rendered with the ever growing and overwhelming sound of the track passing by outside. The diegetic sound of the train's wheels grinding against the metal tracks threaten to derail at any moment before Michael regains his composure and walks back into the restaurant, synchronised with train regaining its footing as it fades into the night.
When Michael sits the camera, from over the shoulder of Sollozzo, tracks towards Micahel, tightening the frame as he psychologically prepares for the assassination. Sollozzo again speaks Italian and as he disappears from shot his voice is replaced with the slow rumble of the on-coming train confirming Michael’s decision to kill the man by first erasing him from the diegetic world and then from the narrative. The inevitable sync point between audio and visual occurs as Michael explodes out of his chair and fires deafening shots from his pistol as the train finally comes screeching closer. This time the sound does not fade away but is bluntly cut off by the final shot in to McKluskey, rendering Michael’s own morality dead and motivating his narrative journey. For a moment, silence. Then the non-diegetic score burst in to life signalling a sense of finality with a dramatic sting[ii] reminiscent of 40’s Film noir that simultaneously pulls us back in to the exterior world and punctuates the significance and finality of Michael’s act.
Throughout the sequence Coppola, Murch (sound) and Zinner (editor) manipulate the sound of the world to portray significant inner-turmoil and moral conflict of the protagonist whilst developing the narrative.