``The Godfather'' love theme. What are Francis Ford Coppola's thoughts, exploring its roots?

What role did the "love theme" play in "The Godfather"?

So why is ``The Godfather Love Theme'' so closely associated with the image of Sicily? ``The Godfather'' has another main theme that symbolizes the entire work. The aforementioned ``The Godfather Waltz'' is called a waltz because it is in triple time. If you watch the movie while keeping these two songs in mind, you will see that ``Love Theme'' and ``The Godfather Waltz'' have distinct purposes.

In reality, The Godfather is the story of an American-based mafia family. Sicily is the home of the family's leader, Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando), but as depicted in The Godfather Part II , Vito left Sicily as a boy to immigrate to the United States. There is. All of Vito's children, including Michael (Al Pacino), the other main character, and his older brother Sonny (James Caan) were born and raised in the United States.

Vito also did not rise up the ranks in the underworld with the backing of Sicily, the mafia's original home. Even though he originally had Sicilian culture and values, he started his own family from scratch after immigrating to the United States.

However, an attack on Vito occurs due to a conflict between the mafia, and Michael commits murder in retaliation. He travels to Sicily and spends a long time in hiding, relying on connections between the mafia. It is only after this development that the melody of the ``Love Theme'' is played in the movie. With the magnificent scenery of Sicily in the background. In other words, this song is deeply connected to Sicily, the "roots of the Corleone family."

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The same melody also appears as a variation titled ``Apolonia.'' Speaking of Apollonia, it is the name of a young local girl that Michael marries in Sicily, and her marriage becomes an opportunity for Michael, who cannot return to his home country of America, to immerse himself in the Sicilian culture (unfortunately). However, Apollonia is killed in a bomb instead of Michael.)

In other words, the melody of "Love Theme" is a symbol of "Sicily, the spiritual homeland" that is the source of the nostalgic charm of "The Godfather." ``Theme of Love'' went beyond the boundaries of movie music and became a huge hit, with lyrics added and sung by many singers, making it a popular song. Coppola introduced the Sicilian version of "Love Theme" in The Godfather Part III as an "old Sicilian folk song." There is a scene in which Michael's son, who aspires to be an opera singer, sings in front of Michael and his friends.

Then, aged Michael listens to the song and reminisces about his memories with Apollonia. In other words, Coppola consistently connected the ``theme of love'' with the nostalgic allure of his ``spiritual homeland, Sicily.''