In the opening scene of Francis Ford Coppola’s iconic crime movie The Godfather, a character named Bonasera whispers a few unintelligible words into the ear of Don Vito Corleone. Curiously, Bonasara doesn’t make another appearance in the movie after that, and his exact words are never confirmed, but the context of the situation sheds light on their meaning.
The message is preceded by Bonsera saying, “Do what I beg you to do.“ Corleone seems willing to consider Bonasera’s wishes, until he leans in close to the Godfather and whispers something inaudible into his ear. Corleone then refuses to do whatever he heard, which seems to be too much to ask for, even if it is the day of his daughter’s wedding. The extent to which Corleone then makes Bonasera grovel is another demonstration of his power. Eventually, when Bonsera bows, kisses his hand and calls him “Godfather”, Don Corleone agrees to fulfill his mysterious request.
Bonasera Asks Don Corleone To Kill The Men Who ᴀssaulted His Daughter
He Went To The Police But A Judge Treated Them Leniently
Even in Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo’s script for The Godfather, as well as in Puzo’s original novel, the exact words that Bonasera whispers in Corleone’s ear are never specified. The storytellers leave it to the audience’s imagination to determine exactly what was said, making the request all the more sinister and transgressive. Even so, Corleone spells it out directly when he says, “You ask me to do murder.” Specifically, Bonasera has asked the Godfather to murder the two young men who “beat” his daughter, breaking her nose and jaw, as he outlines in the first speech of the movie.
He has come to Corleone because he pressed charges against the men with the police, but a judge gave them a three-year suspended sentence rather than the decades in prison that Bonasera had expected them to receive. “Then I said to my wife,” he recounts, “for justice, we must go to Don Corleone.” With this line, the scene frames the entire basis for the Corleone mafia family and their power in society. Bonasera might not be an important character in relation to The Godfather’s overall plot, but his purpose is to provide an explanation for why there is a Godfather in the first place.
Why The Godfather Refused The Kill The Men Who Attacked Bonasera’s Daughter
Corleone Wants The Favor Paid On His Own Terms
As Corleone points out, killing these men wouldn’t be justice in Old Testament terms, because it’s not an eye for an eye. Bonasera’s daughter is still alive. Nevertheless, this isn’t the fundamental reason why the Godfather initially refuses to kill her ᴀssailants. Unfortunately for Bonasera, though, the Godfather doesn’t believe he has just cause to want his daughter’s attackers ᴅᴇᴀᴅ.
More than any sense of moral justice, Corleone is reluctant to help Bonasera because he feels the man has treated him “disrespectfully”. In the Don mind’s, Bonasera hasn’t acted as a genuine friend would, having ignored the Corleone family for years prior to the events of The Godfather, despite Vito’s wife being godmother to his daughter. What’s more, he’s offered him money in exchange for the crime, as if it were simply a transaction.
There is still a transaction taking place, only without money involved. Corleone wants Bonasera in his personal debt in exchange for the murder he’s being asked to commit.
Yet by friendship, Don Corleone doesn’t really mean socializing or asking for favors without offering money. He ultimately means deference and subservience to his role as the head of a criminal organization. There is still a transaction taking place, only without money involved. Corleone wants Bonasera in his personal debt in exchange for the murder he’s being asked to commit. The man will have his favor hanging over him indefinitely, and will have to reciprocate in whatever way he determines, or risk his own life. This is the equation we see played out time and again throughout The Godfather, in which “friendship” really signifies power and control.
