“I had hoped we could all come here and reason together.” - Don Corleone
One of my favorite scenes in The Godfather also contains some of the best leadership lessons of the Corleone’s…
Part of the Corleone Family’s incredible power and influence comes from Vito Corleone’s ability to be “reasonable.” The Don believes strongly in reason, collaboration and, when possible, cooperation. He is an eminently practical and patient man.
The Italian’s have a saying: “Patience for a moment, comfort for years.”
Nowhere is that more apparent than at the big meeting of the Five Families. The Don arranged this “sit down” between all the warring Mafia families to seek an end to the bloodshed after his eldest son Santino is gunned down at the toll booth.
“This war ends now,” the Don tells his Consigliere, Tom Hagen.
One of the things to note about this amazing scene in the movie is that it was held at a typical corporate board room. As we see the heads of the Families around that big oak conference table, you realize that it could very well be a board meeting for any big corporation, whether it’s a big banking company or traditional fortune 500 company.
This setting was intentional - part of Francis Ford Coppola’s attempt to make The Godfather movie a metaphor for capitalism in America. Coppola wanted to show that corporate greed was the same as criminal greed - perhaps even more so, because at least the Mafia had a code of loyalty and honor.
The scene was shot in the board room of the Penn Central Railroad above Grand Central Station in NYC. The exterior shots were filmed at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Very corporate indeed!
Again, Coppola’s subtext here is that the Mafia is just another business - like any powerful American corporation.
But back to the scene where the five families come together to discuss a truce. Let’s watch the scene and observe how Don Vito Corleone calmly and modestly appeals to reason…
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