SOURCE: "An Analysis of the Structure of The Godfather, Part One," in Studies in the Literary Imagination, Vol. XVI. No. 1, Summer, 1983, pp. 75-90.

In the following essay, Simon provides a close analysis of the narrative structure of Coppola's The Godfather, Part One.

This essay attempts to perform several critical tasks. It is primarily an analysis of the narrative structure of The Godfather, Part One, directed in 1972 by Francis Ford Coppola. In these terms, my aim is to explain how meaning is created in that film through an understanding of its narrative structuring and the significance of its cultural codes.

At the same time the essay is involved with the application to film of critical methods derived from several important contemporary texts in narrative theory and aesthetics. In these terms, the following constitutes a test of the efficacy and validity in applying such analyses and methods to the study...