An Analysis of the Analysis of The Godfather in "The White Lotus"

The White Lotus is an anthology series produced by HBO, written, directed, and produced by Mike White of Mr Schneebly in School of Rock fame. As a series, it devotes itself across the two currently produced seasons to the inner lives of the rich and powerful, using the opportunity of a holiday destination and a chain of hotels (the titular White Lotus) to examine why these people who ostensibly possess everything capitalist society works towards, are so miserable. Season 2's Di Grasso family, made up of exceptionally horny grandfather Bert, his equally horny but better at hiding it son Dom, and Dom's son Albie, who is also horny, but in a nicer, more digestible form. The three men are in Sicily attempting to find long lost relatives from when Bert's mother left the old country to put up roots in the land of opportunity. As a side quest however, they spend episode 3 going on a sightseeing tour of Godfather filming locations. Nice-guy Albie invites Portia, a personal assistant to another visiting millionaire. Portia, glad for the opportunity to get away from her boss, comes along despite never having seen the film. After the tour, the four sit down for a meal and Portia confesses having never actually watched any of the Godfather's. Bert takes this opportunity to describe the scene they are currently on, a re-enactment of the death of Apollonia, complete with car and female mannequin. Portia, somewhat understandably, finds the whole thing a little tasteless. Bert deflects, by saying "Hey, best movie ever, who cares". Albie comes in hot at this point stating that The Godfather is a glorification of patriarchal violence, saying the reason Bert is so in love with the Godfather is because he's "nostalgic for the solid days of the patriarchy". He then goes on to say this:

Bert and Dom go on to basically agree with his take, but disagree that this is bad, with Bert saying it's a normal male fantasy. When Albie challenges this by saying that this is because culture socialises men into accepting this fantasy, Dom rebuts by saying this fantasy is "hard-wired". Eventually this devolves into squabbling about gender as a construct and brainwashing from those highfalutin universities, but the point is clear: these three men disagree on whether or not the Godfather is bad for men, but all agree that it is fundamentally a power fantasy based around masculinity and the patriarchy. Multi-hyphenate Mike White shows the power of the writer here. By creating a scenario in which everyone accepts that the Godfather is this macho power fantasy, it leads the audience to believe as such too, unless you've actually watched the Godfather and engaged with it critically. This is subtext at work. Bert and Dom have watched it, but they haven't engaged with it critically. Albie has engaged with it critically, but appears to have failed to actually watch the work. 

The Godfather is not a simple male power fantasy, it is a critique of such works. Marlon Brando's Don Vito Corleone loses his children, his power, and his own life over the course of the first film, leading his son, Al Pacino's Michael Corleone, to take his place, the very thing that Vito spent a lifetime fighting against. And what happens in Godfather II? Michael takes the family business to new heights, but in the process loses his wife and is forced to kill his own brother. The Godfather III is the most maligned of these works, yet I believe it is the one that most closely interrogates the perceived power fantasy of the first two films, as Michael is shown to have fractured his familial bonds after casting out Kay and his killing of Fredo wracks him with constant guilt, to the point that he has spent millions donating to charities in a display of Catholic penance. Eventually, he passes on leadership of the Corleone family to Vincent, illegitimate child of Sonny, who proceeds to enact a somewhat convoluted revenge plot that culminates in the death of Michael's daughter Mary, who Vincent was in love with. Yes, the cousins were fucking. No, it's not really commented on. In the end, Michael dies, old and alone in a Sicilian Villa, having lost everything in his pursuit of power, before losing that too.

It's arguable that the Godfather trilogy places too much emphasis on female lives as the root of male tragedy. That is, aside from Kay, none of the women in Michael Corleone's life are particularly fleshed out, serving as vessels for impending tragedy and being killed in service of it. This would have been a strong critique Albie could have made, but then his critique of the Godfather isn't really intended to be accurate, it's intended to be a condemnation of his father and grandfather's womanising ways. See, Dom has cheated on his wife. A lot. The episode prior has him cavorting with an Italian prostitute, Lucia, who Albie ends up hooking up with and trying to save through a large wad of cash. At one point in the show, Dom confronts Bert about his own cheating, saying that it led him to be the way that he is. What none of the Di Grasso men seem to acknowledge is the Godfather is not only a critique of the male power fantasy, but an examination of intergenerational trauma, an important theme not only in that trilogy but in their own lives. This is codified by one of their final scenes in the show, checking out a woman in an airport (seen at 0:32 in this video). Together, after Albie convinces Dom to pay 50,000 euros to Lucia, so she can leave her pimp before she ghosts him, after Bert is rejected by his relatives, after the Godfather discourse, these three men can finally find solace in a P.Y.T. walking past. 

Hell yeah, dudes rock.

Back to the point of this analysis. Bert, Dom, and Albie, in different ways, represent aspects of toxic masculinity. Bert, in his old age, hits on every woman he sees and is surprised when the all-female Sicilian branch of the Di Grasso family refuses to accept him, while tacitly ignoring the material reality of his inability to communicate with them and the thematic resonance of a serial cheater being hurt by a group of women. Dom blames his father for his own ways, while failing to make any substantial changes to his own behaviour, starting off his trip with cheating, then essentially accepting his son's bribe of a good word to his estranged wife in exchange for the 50000 euros for Lucia. Albie may be the best of the lot in treating women, but it's a low bar and despite his nice guy act, he never really treats the women around him as people, stating at one point that he's attracted to "wounded birds". His saviour complex may have helped Lucia, but it was at the cost of his own mother's wellbeing, as Dom is not "reformed" and will likely cheat again. The Godfather discourse in The White Lotus serves to show how people can see the same thing and interpret it in wildly different ways, with none of them necessarily being accurate to the spirit of the original work. The glorification of the Godfather as a badass power fantasy may miss the point of what Coppola was trying to say, but it is not inaccurate to say that people do interpret these movies that way. Mafia members have stated an affinity towards The Godfather, among others such as Goodfellas and The Sopranos. All these works critique the lifestyle heavily, but to those within it acts as a badge of identification, art imitating life. Just as the elder Di Grassos find solace in the Godfather's cool acts of masculinity, while glossing over the part where Vito sobs over his son's body and how his decision to live this life directly led to this. Albie's critique therefore, is not meant to actively engage with the work honestly, but to interrogate the brand of masculinity his father and grandfather subscribe to, all the while ignoring his own negative behaviours and the fact that the work he is critiquing does not accurately reflect the viewpoint held by Dom and Bert. The airport scene serves to codify that at the end of the day, these three men are bound by a patriarchal mindset that refuses to acknowledge women as more than eye candy. 

Bert may acknowledge this, Dom may be reticent, but it is Albie who would tacitly deny this assertion I am making. Through the Godfather discourse, through Albie's take on the work, White acknowledges that Gen Z/Millennials are more receptive towards critiquing patriarchal behaviours than previous generations, however he fails to provide a roadmap through which modern men can positively rectify their behaviours instead preferring to acknowledge that this new brand of masculinity carries it's own faults. As with the Di Grasso family, intergenerational trauma wrought by a patriarchal system across society cannot be easily rectified over a single week, but must require prolonged self-examination from individuals who find themselves a beneficiary of that system. Albie's failure to properly examine the Godfather, and critique it in a manner beyond shallow, is reflective of his inability to self-critique and reflect on his own behaviours, how they propagate a patriarchal culture that he himself decries. Bert and Dom's acceptance of the Godfather as power fantasy is a substantive demonstration of their own unwillingness to change, misreading the work in the same way they misread the damage they caused their loved ones through their affairs. The Di Grassos are wrong in different ways about the Godfather, and it is this subtext where White works his magic. By ignoring what the Godfather actually has to say about masculinity and power, it forces the audience to take a side, or question just what the hell is going on here. 

The Discourse in a nutshell.