Geoffrey Quist
Alex Bordino
Non-Linear Editing
Spring 2015

The Importance of Montage in the Baptism Scene of The Godfather

The Godfather, a film that is critically acclaimed throughout the whole world as one of the best films of all time. Throughout the film, there are a tremendous amount of scenes that are so impacting and influential towards the audience. One scene, in particular, goes down as one of the most impacting scenes of all time. This scene is the baptism scene. In the baptism scene, Michael Corleone is attending the baptism of his god son. While this is happening, he ordered his henchman to murder the members of the rival mobs. Throughout the scene, Coppola provides a montage that displays the contradiction of light and darkness by constantly switching from a new born baby being baptized to men killing each other. Providing this switch emphasizes the killings and chaos more than ever. Also, Coppola considers sound when constructing this scene by having the baby cry when the killings start occurring. The montage of scenes emphasize the darkness of the film more than any death prior to it. Coppola's genius work and creativity influenced other directors to create scenes that emphasize light and darkness as well. To conclude, the baptism scene was one of the most impacting scenes of The Godfather and it will continue to create this impact for future film makers.