Oranges famously appear whenever a character is about to die in The Godfather, but the oranges were never intentionally used as a symbol to foreshadow death. Once the orange symbolism has been pointed out, it’s impossible to unsee it on a rewatch of The Godfather. There are oranges sitting in the middle of Jack Woltz’s dinner table when he meets with Tom Hagen, right before his prized horse is decapitated. Oranges tumble off a fruit stand when Vito Corleone is gunned down in the street.

The Godfather’s use of oranges is so iconic that it’s been homaged in plenty of other movies and TV shows. Tony buys orange juice right before an ᴀssᴀssination attempt in The Sopranos. The color orange can be seen leading up to Omar’s death in The Wire. Ted Beneke trips and falls headfirst into a table carrying a bowl of oranges in Breaking Bad. The oranges of death have become a recurring motif in the crime genre — but Francis Ford Coppola never intended to make oranges a symbol of mortality.

Francis Ford Coppola Only Started Using Oranges To Symbolize Death In The Godfather Part II

“It Started Out As An Accident”

In his director’s commentary for The Godfather Part II, Coppola mentioned that the use of oranges as the harbinger of death “started out as an accident.” Coppola and his team didn’t intentionally fill the first movie with oranges; it was only after they’d finished it that they “realized we had used oranges so frequently.” Once this accidental visual motif was discovered, Coppola started using the orange imagery more “purposefully” in the sequels.

Since they started being used with more symbolic intent, the oranges of death are even more prevalent in The Godfather sequels. In The Godfather Part II, Don Fanucci buys an orange from the market. Michael’s lawyer is served orange juice. When the New York crime families have their meeting, the table is covered with oranges. In The Godfather Part III, an orange rolls across the table before the attack of the dons. Vincent tosses an orange. Don Altobello sits in front of a bowl of oranges. And finally, as Michael dies, he drops an orange.

What The Oranges Were Actually For In The Original Godfather

The Bright Oranges Were Chosen To Complement The Film’s Gloomy Aesthetic

According to Harlan Lebo’s book The Godfather Legacy, the oranges featured in The Godfather were used for an aesthetic purpose, not a symbolic one. Production designer Dean Tavoularis simply used oranges to juxtapose their bright color against the movie’s visual palette and contrast with the darker tones. The book states that the oranges were a “carefully chosen complement to otherwise somberly dressed sets.” On top of that, orange is also a symbol of Sicily, so the recurring use of oranges added to The Godfather’s cultural idenтιтy.

Source: The Godfather Legacy