The movie only has two other non-Italians, Moe Greene and Jack Woltz, both Jewish. The movie according to Clarens " would rarely touch the man in the street. There were virtually no bystanders in the Godfather, and none of those who were included retained any innocence"(Clarens, 277). The movie's "irrelevance of society in general is best demonstrated by the fact that all of the killings are of Sicilians"(Berger, 53). .
The Godfather exemplifies the old gangster style movie where the law is taken into the hands of the "gangster". In the beginning of the movie Angelo Bonasera comes to Don Corleone and asks him for justice. Bonasera put his trust into the courts, which failed to bring him justice. He goes to see the Don for justice, who "castigates Bonasera for deigning to trust civil authorities"(Berger, 53). The Don grants his wish and gives him justice that the courts would not. The Godfather brings the "eye for an eye justice"(Clarens, 278) where the court could not bring any justice at all. Michael Corleone best sums it up when he says, " Society doesn't really protect its members who do not have their own individual power"(Berger, 54).
Both Silver and Clarens agree that the Godfather creates God like figures who are bigger then life itself. Silver says the "heroes" are "like classical gods, they are in the world but not of it"(Berger, 51). The Don takes on a Hollywood producer that is racist and a sexual pervert. The producer keeps a young child star around his home for sexual purposes. This kind of immoral act makes him the bad guy and the Don, who finds that an offensive thing to do, the good guy. Clarens uses this example to explain why the Don is the favorable of the two; "the producer commits crimes against nature where the Godfather grants justice without resorting to the law, or at worst transacting business in an unorthodox way"(Clarens, 278). The godfather is made into a god when he acts in the name or his people, "the manner in which the guilty are humbled, in blood-soaked beds, seems somewhat scriptural, as if the godfather were omniscient as well as all-powerful"(Clarens, 278).
