Posted By: Don_Alfonso
The importance of hair in the films - 05/31/21 07:51 AM
I know this seems a silly topic, but bear with me:
Any time Michael, Vito, and Vincent are "in business", their hair is slicked straight back. It's a signifier of their status.
For example, compare how Michael wears his hair at the beginning of the first film, parted, and then compare it to the end - slicked back.
Compare how Vito wears his hair at the start, compared to the end - from slicked back, to longish and unkempt. One signifies his power and regal status as Don, the other is a rustic gardener who has retired.
Michael in GF II is seen with his hair not slicked straight back only twice: During the assassination attempt and after, when he comforts Kay, and when he entrusts Tom with the protection of his wife, his children and the Family as a whole. In these scenes, Michael is not the Don. The other scene is in the flashback to 1941, when Michael is a civilian utterly disconnected to his Family's business.
Vincent, likewise, goes from wearing a more loose style in the beginning of the film, to adopting Michael's GF II slicked back style when he becomes Don.
Another hair signifier:
When Vito is an aspiring gangster (but otherwise, really, a nobody) he is cleanshaven.
After he murders Fannucci and has pretty much taken over the neighborhood and established himself as the local Don, he has grown a mustache (much like Fanucci himself, and Don Ciccio). It is a symbol that he has become THE MAN.
In GF II, when Fredo has aspirations of having something "on his own" we see he has grown a similar yet pathethic version of Vito's mustache in a likely conscious attempt to emulate his father.
To me, this signifies that the characters' hair was meant to signify certain things about the characters.
Any time Michael, Vito, and Vincent are "in business", their hair is slicked straight back. It's a signifier of their status.
For example, compare how Michael wears his hair at the beginning of the first film, parted, and then compare it to the end - slicked back.
Compare how Vito wears his hair at the start, compared to the end - from slicked back, to longish and unkempt. One signifies his power and regal status as Don, the other is a rustic gardener who has retired.
Michael in GF II is seen with his hair not slicked straight back only twice: During the assassination attempt and after, when he comforts Kay, and when he entrusts Tom with the protection of his wife, his children and the Family as a whole. In these scenes, Michael is not the Don. The other scene is in the flashback to 1941, when Michael is a civilian utterly disconnected to his Family's business.
Vincent, likewise, goes from wearing a more loose style in the beginning of the film, to adopting Michael's GF II slicked back style when he becomes Don.
Another hair signifier:
When Vito is an aspiring gangster (but otherwise, really, a nobody) he is cleanshaven.
After he murders Fannucci and has pretty much taken over the neighborhood and established himself as the local Don, he has grown a mustache (much like Fanucci himself, and Don Ciccio). It is a symbol that he has become THE MAN.
In GF II, when Fredo has aspirations of having something "on his own" we see he has grown a similar yet pathethic version of Vito's mustache in a likely conscious attempt to emulate his father.
To me, this signifies that the characters' hair was meant to signify certain things about the characters.