The HBS hosts discuss The Godfather Trilogy.

The Godfather and The God Father: Part II often make it to lists of the best films. It can be argued The Godfather is America’s response to Shakespearean drama. The complexity of character, deft use of language, and the themes of the film  interrogate fundamental historical, social and human concerns of American life.

In this episode, we discuss the following works, ideas, authors, and themes:

• The Fresh Air Episode with Marilyn and Alan Bergman and their song Nice and Easy Does It.
• Stevie Wonder’s “Happy Birthday“
• The study of whiteness and the immigrant experience (ex. Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White)
• William Faulkner’s Nobel Prize speech.
• G.W.F. Hegel, The Philosophy of Right