Dialogue is basically the same as when people talk in real life, just applied to the movie. In the movie The Godfather you get a lot of dialogue in a one on one setting such as when people are addressing the Godfather, the main character, in the movie. You also get dialogue in a group setting like in the scene in which the heads of all the organized crime family are sitting at the table and trying to hash out their differences. Dialogue is a very important aspect of this movie. “In film, there are three basic reasons to use dialogue:
- to further the development of the plot,
- to enhance characterizations,
- to establish very quickly important information the audience needs to know to understand the action (e.g., names, locations, dates, motivations, backstory)” (Goodykoontz &Jacobs, 2011, p. 6.4).
Sound effects enhance a particular scene, shot, or theme throughout the movie. The sound effects that take place in The Godfather are centered on shooting and car noises. They are made from a combination of traditional and unconventional sound effects. This greatly intensifies the more suspenseful scenes of the movie. A good example of this is in the scene in which the oldest son gets gunned down by a ton of gun fire. Lastly you have music and score that plays a huge role throughout the movie. The very beginning, before you even get introduced to the characters or anything happens you have symbolic music playing that you can relate to The Godfather movie. Next you get the Italian theme music that is associated with the gangster genre. As Phoebe Poon says in The Corleone Chronicles (2006),
“As the sequence draws to a close, the Don himself emerges from his dark office to dance with his daughter to the strains of Nino Rota’s “Godfather Waltz,” a musical and visual motif that resonates throughout the rest of the trilogy” (p. 191).
Furthermore, you also get the scores throughout the movie that is playing to make scenes more dramatic and suspenseful like when his father is recovering and left at the hospital alone.
The use of sound drastically added to certain scenes and the mood of the film. It set the tone for what was happening throughout. You have the happy sounds and music in the beginning of the movie that symbolizes the greatness of the wedding taking place. Then you get the dramatic music and sound that builds up the suspense that you know a killing is about to take place. Lastly you get the sad music and sounds after someone has been killed or something bad has happened. Specific sounds like gunfire and the music playing at the beginning are notorious for being associated with the gangster film genre. There is also a certain feel that is portrayed throughout the movie with the music and sound that is specific to this genre also. The combination of dialogue, music, and sound effects I feel had the wide range of desired effects on the viewer.
You just know by the music, dialogue, and sound effects just how dramatic or sad the scene was going to be. You also had happy scenes combined with dramatic ones that had a combination of feelings. For example in the baptism scene you have the tradition and happiness of the baptism taking place, meanwhile there are numerous murders being carried out at the same time. Please refer to link at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfbYp9oaIT8 to get the full effect of what I am talking about.
I think the movie would lose some of its luster if you removed one of the elements. I think The Godfather used all three elements to its advantage very well. The combination of sound effects, music, and dialogue played very well together in creating the intense, dramatic scenes that are frequent throughout the entire movie.
Reference
Goodykoontz, B. & Jacobs, C. P. (2011). Film: From Watching to Seeing. San Diego, CA: Bridgpoint Education Inc. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/books/AUENG225.11.2/sections/sec6.4
Movieclips. (2012, July 17). The Godfather movie clip-Baptism murders (1972) HD [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfbYp9oaIT8.
Poon, P. (2006). The Corleone Chronicles. Journal of Popular Film and Television, 187-195. Retrieved from the Ebscohost database.
kylebournerblog 
You cite a number of great examples from the film. I’m a big fan of Nino Rota’s work, as he is the composer for a number of Italian films I love. What do you see as differences in a film composition as opposed to the use of a soundtrack? How do you think The Godfather would be if it had used Tarantino’s approach to music in filming?
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Film composition is the music (which can include songs of the soundtrack), sound effects, and dialogue, and whatever else they want to use to enhance the scene and get the desired effect. Soundtrack is just the use of the songs. Now the use of songs can be very effective in certain scenes but don’t have the punch that the composition does. I am a fan of Rota’s work and a really huge fan of Tarantino. I think that the film would have been different because Quentin Tarantino uses music and composition as the main aspects of his films. I think The Godfather would have had more composition and music aspects. They have two different styles of using music. It would have had a different feel to the movie. It would be interesting to see how it would have turned out.
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