The scene starts out inside the church
where Michael Corleone's son is being baptized. The traditional
church organ is being played and the mood is solemn, one can sense
the importance of the situation. Once the priest baptizing his son
begins asking for Michael to confirm his faith to god, the parallel
editing in the scene begins. As Michael is claiming his faith you
begin to see his henchmen in various spots, preparing to kill rival
gangmembers. The organ begins to get louder and more intense as the
baby starts to cry. Then the priest asks, “Do you renounce satan?”
The first kill is shown, then Michael replies, “ I do renounce
him.” At this point the camera shows all the killings that
Michaels henchmen are carrying out, while the dramatic organ from the
church and the audio from the conversation between the priest and
Michael is still playing. Every action in the scene coincides with
another. As the priest prepares the baptism, the henchmen prepare the
murders. As the baptism starts, and Michael renounces Satan, the
murders start. As people leave the church, the henchmen leave the
scenes of the crimes. The parallel editing in this scene makes it
much more dramatic, because you are witnessing two opposite ends of
the spectrum in Michael's life. The one side is the sacredness of
the baptism of his son. The other side is the coldblooded nature of
his mob life. Showing these two things at once create an ironic but
powerful scene. The way that the scene was edited with the shots
happening at the same time in the timeline of the film create a great
effect.
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