By Chris Snellgrove
| Revealed
Usually, The Godfather is the final film you’d affiliate with Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In spite of everything, the previous is the best mafia movie ever made, and the latter is a present about plucky youngsters preventing demons. Because it seems, although, one excellent episode of Buffy managed to honor The Godfather in a strong manner.
Within the episode “Ardour,” there’s a pretty innocuous scene the place a newly evil Angel harasses Joyce Summers, inflicting her to drop some oranges. Shortly after, Angel murders the Sunnydale Excessive laptop science trainer in a brutal assault. These might not appear to be associated occasions, however the entire thing is secretly an homage to The Godfather’s “orange motif,” which went on to encourage a long time of groundbreaking cinema!
The Not-So-Annoying Orange
What the heck is the orange motif, you ask? In case you return and rewatch The Godfatheryou’ll discover there are oranges in so many essential scenes. At first look, they don’t appear to have a lot particular significance, and also you is perhaps forgiven for considering that director Francis Ford Coppola simply has a factor for oranges.
Nonetheless, what’s necessary is when the oranges seem: particularly, they seem shortly earlier than a personality is killed. For instance, Vito Corleone is killed, it’s whereas he’s peeling oranges. When the titular Godfather is shot, he’s shopping for oranges, which dramatically scatter on the bottom. When the 5 Households meet, you possibly can see oranges close to the Mafia leaders that might quickly be killed.
As a result of The Godfather was so influential, “the orange motif” (as this phenomenon was ultimately known as after it was used within the subsequent Godfather movies) began popping up in different films, together with Level Break, American Magnificenceand Requiem for a Dream. Fittingly sufficient, the orange motif additionally popped up in The Sopranosthe place we see Tony Soprano purchase some orange juice shortly earlier than somebody tries to whack him. Earlier than that, although, Joss Whedon hid an orange motif reference in an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Orange You Glad To See Him?
In “Ardour,” Angel (who has just lately misplaced his soul and grow to be evil) harasses Joyce Summers outdoors of her own residence, inflicting her to drop some oranges. Whereas Joyce herself doesn’t die, these dropped oranges and the presence of the present’s scariest vampire foreshadow a significant dying proper across the nook. Quickly afterward, Angel kills Jenny Calendar, a beloved character whose dying sends a chilling message to viewers: none of your favorites are assured to make it out of Season 2 alive.
On reflection, it’s probably not all that surprising that Buffy the Vampire Slayer hid such a strong reference to The Godfather in plain sight. In spite of everything, the present is full of references to numerous different films and exhibits, largely courtesy of quip-heavy characters like Buffy and Xander. Given how a lot of a movie buff showrunner Joss Whedon and the remainder of his group have been, it’s not that stunning they wished to homage one of many biggest films of all time.
However is the orange motif from The Godfather the best cinematic trope of all time? It’s actually probably the most prolific. As for me, I don’t actually like this Godfather reference as a lot as some Buffy followers turned cinephiles. Why? As a result of, within the immortal phrases of Peter Griffin, it insists upon itself!