Godfather: Revenge or Justice

By Steve

Wed, 07 Nov 2012
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1 comments
 

The Godfather begins with a close-up of an Italian-American making a confession. It is not a confession about himself but about his daughter. He tells the story of how his daughter went out with "good" American boys and of how they dishonored (raped) her. He wants the Godfather to kill those boys who committed the crime.

The Godfather, represented by Marlon Brando, responds that THAT would be revenge, not justice. The Godfather decides that beating up the boys so bad that THEY would not commit such a crime again would be justice. He has Luca Brasi take care of the matter.

It is hard to see how justice is different from revenge. Right now, there are more blacks in prison than there were slaves in the 1800's. There are also many Hispanics in prison. I don't know if this can really be classified as Justice. Blacks and Hispanics challenge Western ideas of masculinity and confound academics who preach a secular humanism which they believe is fair to all races. Also, Reagan's War on Drugs largely targeted Blacks and Hispanics, sometimes resulting in arrests and jail-time for crimes that no white or Asian person would go to jail for.

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Submitted by Sooz006 on
I'd like to think that you're wrong. That the colour of a man's skin or his ethnicity has nothing to do with his record of arrest. In my world, if somebody is suspected of doing wrong they are arrested, they go to trial, they are found guilty or innocent dependent on the evidence put forward and justice is done regardless of revenge or ethnicity. This piece made me think and that's always a good thing.