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What the Most Famous Speech in 'The Godfather' Can Teach You

The Godfather is on the list of the greatest movies ever made and can teach us.

Classic movie speeches can teach you a lot about public speaking. Here are four lessons from the famous opening speech of 'The Godfather.'

What’s the greatest movie ever made?

According to The Hollywood Reporter, [1] Ranker [2], Entertainment Weekly, and Time Out [3]it’s Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 classic The Godfather. In virtually every other list you’ll find, the film is ranked in the Top 10. 

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So can a famous movie teach you anything about public speaking? Absolutely—especially if you pay attention to the best speech in it.

If you want to know how to start a speech or presentation, grab your audience.

How to Start a Speech: Grab Your Audience

Director Coppola knew what he was about from the second The Godfather begins. His sure hand is everywhere in the movie, and nowhere more so than the famous opening scene and its memorable speech. 

When it comes to single quotes from The Godfather, it’s the featured characters we think of: Don Corleone's “I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse;” Tessio's “It's a Sicilian message. It means Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes;" and Clemenza's “Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.” But it falls to the unassuming minor character of the undertaker, Amerigo Bonasera, to deliver the movie's most powerful speech.

The film opens in darkness (the technique grabs our attention even before we see anything). Then we hear, in a simple statement, a character's manifesto, delivered in a rich Sicilian accent:

“I believe in America.”

At once out of the darkness an extreme close-up of Bonasera, played by Sicilian actor Salvatore Corsitto, emerges. The camera then slowly pans backward, as this man from the old country explains how his daughter was raped at the hands of two young American hoodlams who were then freed by the judge. 

Speaking slowly and simply, relating his story with helplessness and suppressed rage, Bonasera grabs us by the throat as he quietly lays out his case for revenge. It’s a riveting speech that carries important lessons for any public speaker. 

Aim for Conciseness in Speeches and Presentations

Like the humble undertaker, you need to keep it tight regardless of the length of your talk. Skillful preparation will allow you to keep an audience riveted for 40 minutes or more, while a rambling performance will lose the same audience in five. Here's more on how to be a clear, concise, and compelling speaker.

A client recently told me that he has a tendency to "follow animal tracks” when he gives a speech. That means that when a thought suddenly appears in his mind, he can’t resist vocalizing it. I use a different metaphor, cautioning clients not to be attracted by "fireflies," chasing them hither and yon. The point is: stay disciplined enough to remain focused on the point you’re trying to make and the ultimate purpose of your speech.

Concise speeches carry an impact loose speeches just can't match. Bonasera’s speech—which sets the tone of the three-hour movie—is all of two minutes and eighteen seconds long. Yet it encompasses the concepts of dignity and justice; characterizes the immigrant experience; and opens up the violent-world-with-a-code-of-honor we’re about to experience in The Godfather. To know more about building your own case, here are four classic formats for organizing a presentation.

How to Use Storytelling for Powerful Public Speaking

The Godfather is a monumental book and movie, overflowing with incidents, characters, and complex personal and societal relationships. Yet it all starts simply and purely with that speech of Bonasera’s.

“Why did I weep? She was the light of my life.”

“Simply tell your story” is advice that works equally well for the talks you give. Interestingly, if the information you will be conveying is rooted in human needs and interactions, you will find simplicity easier to achieve. That means that the data you deliver must be given a human face, and works bests when folded into a narrative. That's because every listener will attend more to the story you’re telling than a succession of charts and statistics.

And don’t embellish, thinking that you need to do so to be an exciting storyteller. Nothing is more thrilling than the truth, viewed without obstructions.

Emotions in public speaking is one of the most powerful tools of persuasion.

Show Your Emotions to Reach Hearts and Minds

Finally, The Godfather's opening speech reminds us of the importance of emotions in public speaking. In the film's universe, men don’t cry. In fact, later in the film, Marlon Brando as Corleone slaps singer Johnny Fontane for crying as he describes his declining career. “What’s the matter with you? You can act like a man!” Yet Amerigo Bonasera weeps when he describes how his daughter was beaten “like an animal” as she fought to keep her honor. “Now she will never be beautiful again,” he laments.

Still, no dishonor attaches to the character. The depth of the emotions Bonasera feels dictates his response, and the men present in the room seem to understand that. What’s important here is that we filmgoers need to understand Bonasera’s misery—and it wouldn’t be apparent without the feelings the actor skillfully displays.

“I said to my wife: For justice, we must go to Don Corleone.”

The same lesson plays out for you in your speeches and presentations: you need to incorporate emotion, and to find the right balance between what you feel and what you show. In my world of acting, performers pay a lot of attention to that balance, showing enough emotion without burning up all their fuel in a blaze that's too hot for an audience. Remember, part of your job as speaker is to elicit in listeners the same emotions that you're feeling and expressing. That won’t happen if there’s nothing for the audience to see or hear.

So: start strong, be concise, tell your story, and use emotion: Four lessons for public speakers from the famous opening speech of The Godfather.

[1] http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/gallery/best-movies-all-time-hollywoods-714192/1-the-godfather 

[2] http://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/the-best-movies-of-all-time?var=3&utm_expid=16418821-248.QJGkSDkwQvq0W_x5HvdYsQ.2&utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com 

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_considered_the_best

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Tags: The Genard Method,Dr. Gary Genard,speeches from the movies,classic movie speeches,Francis Ford Coppola,Marlon Brando,movie speeches,The Godfather,famous movie speeches,motivational movie speeches

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