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Mario Puzo's The Godfather is one of my favorite movies of all time. It also appears on the “American Film Institute’s Greatest Movies” list. As I watched it for the millionth time recently, it occurred to me that there are a number of contradictions in the movie.

For instance, the first contradiction is the presence of oranges in some of the scenes. Intentional or not the oranges seem to foreshadow death or near death in at least two important parts of the movie. First, when Don Corleone is buying fruit on the street and is gunned down by a rival crime family, he is picking out fruits and vegetables, including oranges. Secondly, toward the end of the movie, when Don Corleone is in the garden playing with his grandson, Anthony, he is eating oranges. He even cuts a piece of the orange rind to place in his mouth in an attempt to scare Anthony. Shortly after, Don Corleone collapses and dies in front of Anthony. The contradiction here might be that oranges are alive and vibrant in color, symbolizing life.

In the case of the portion of the movie when Michael is at the church becoming the Godfather to the son of his sister Connie and son-in-law Carlo. The Baptism provides Michael an alibi at the same time the orchestrated killings of the heads of the rival mafia families takes place. This is certainly a contradiction between right and wrong, and good versus evil.

Similarly, some of the subtler contradictions were the often-proclaimed importance of family. Don Corleone proclaimed, “If a man doesn’t spend time with his family he can never be a real man”. Michael Corleone told his brother Fredo, “Don’t ever take sides with anyone against the family again, ever”. Family importance notwithstanding, Michael Corleone does not hesitate to kill his son-in-law Carlo, for his role in the killing of Michael’s older brother Sonny earlier in the story.

At the same time, when we compare Michael Corleone’s two wives in the movie, we can speculate on a potential contradiction in the relationships and motives for the marriages. Kay is an American woman whose relationship adds legitimacy and normalcy to Michael’s life and business lifestyle. Apolonia, Michael’s wife in Sicily when he was hiding out, seemed more about love and emotion than practicality. In fact, when Michael first meets Apolonia’s father, Michael confesses who he is and that he is hiding out in Sicily. Michael communicates that this information is worth a lot of money to the people looking for him. This vulnerability, in my mind, shows the difference in the relationship between the two wives. After Apolonia is killed and Michael returns to the United States, he waits a year to contact Kay and resume life with her.

However, perhaps these examples are not contradictions at all. Perhaps they are just two sides of the same coin, a yin and yang. In Chinese philosophy, yin and yang describes how opposite or contrary forces are actually complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world, and how they give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another. We all know there is good and evil in the world. It could be argued that one could not exist without the other. It could be that in every family or relationship there could be found things that seem to contradict each other. Maybe these are not contradictions but both sides are essential.

Finally, the perceived contradictions spread throughout the movie could merely be indicative of the tumultuous lifestyle of these mafia families. The contradictions could be only coincidence, a by-product of the storyline. The answer may be in the viewers perception of the story and its events. Either way, the movie was a huge success and set the tone for mafia type movies to come.