Bernardo Bertolucci, the Italian filmmaker, was best known for his 1970 masterpiece, The Conformist, which was a great source of inspiration for Francis Coppola during the filming of The Godfather in 1972. The Conformist focuses on the life of Marcello Clerici, a hitman working for the Organization for Vigilance and Repression of Antifascism during the reign of Benito Mussolini. The Godfather, considered one of the greatest films of all time, focuses on mob drama and focuses on the powerful Italian-American crime family of Don Vito Corleone. The cinematographic representation of the characters of Clerici and Don Corleone was built on an identity image based on the values ​​most demanded at the time: incorruptibility, honesty, the fight against crime and, finally, the law and order. These were the social contradictions that plagued the world at the time of each film. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay To better understand each character, one must understand the basis of each film. The Conformist follows Marcello Clerici, a young Italian who, in order to rise in the fascist party, has the mission of getting closer to an anti-fascist activist, an old friend and teacher of the protagonist. On Mussolini's orders, Clerici must gain the professor's trust and help him orchestrate his assassination. The work is divided between Marcello's journey to complete his mission and flashbacks that show his life and his interaction with the teacher before the plan was executed. The Godfather, which comes shortly after the Vietnam War, amid a sense of disillusionment among Americans with the government, ultimately bridges the gap and establishes The Godfather as a charismatic figure. It is with this look that viewers come into contact with Coppola's mobster. Even if it does not hide the violent side of the character, the work shows his paternalistic role. In The Conformist, Bertolucci analyzes how trauma remains alive in the human psyche to the point of creating cold and cruel citizens. For example, in one of the scenes where we accompany Clerici on his way to his teacher, the montage alternates between his journey and images from his childhood, showing the abuse he suffered as a child. There are also moments that develop his relationship with his estranged father. Bertolucci uses his cinematic skills as an analysis of the human condition and the way the editing inserts its flashbacks, sharply breaking up shots in which Marcello emerges pensively, making the scenes a journey into the protagonist's memories, which help the audience understand the coldness and even cruelty that Clerici gradually demonstrates. Similarly, in The Godfather, Vito's saga began in a sea of ​​violence. The helpless boy witnesses his mother's cold-blooded murder while trying to avenge her husband's death. Such brutal violence would surely mark The Godfather's modus operandi. This, coupled with other life circumstances, becomes the driving force behind one's choices. It is as if all his life he had tried to repair the loss and the emptiness, using the discourse of justice to explain his criminal actions. To become Don Corleone, he understands that it takes a certain amount of emotional influence and the exchange of favors between people. This feeling of debt was more effective than fear, threat and violence. Additionally, his obsessive quest to keep all of his children close is Corleone's primary trademark. Unbeknownst to him, he is trying to be everyone's current father. It is possible to imagine an unconscious attempt not to leave anyone helpless as he felt throughout hischildhood, which also interestingly embodies the imagery of his missing mother. The journey of Don Vito Corleone can be seen in the idea of ​​a very fragmented man who is afraid of losing his importance in relation to others. The love of surrounding followers ensures that he is the sun god into which all his pups gravitate. The Godfather uses a cultural language that allows the film to reach virtually all levels of the population, tackling topics such as family values, honor, friendship and the failure of the state, with a history of the phenomena of the time. These points are explored and point to historical situations as a fundamental factor in the analysis of mafia films, as they interfere with the social and ideological functions of the genre. Thus, the messages are strategically distinct but symbolically intelligible. The American ethical crisis of the 1970s is the motto that permeates The Godfather's narrative, just as the rise of fascism and lack of individuality permeate The Conformist. The film's narrative shows the displacement of the discontent of a part of the population, which transferred the lack of confidence in the current economic and political structure to organized crime and thus reinvents the mafia myth, while the masterpiece of Bertolucci manages to evoke the pathos of the work, especially at the historically inevitable ending. As Bertolucci was once a member of the Communist Party, all of his works find strong criticism of fascism, even if this criticism is always one-sided. It must be understood that the popularity of certain productions can provide insight into the social environment in which they are born and circulate. In this way, it is possible to understand what is happening in contemporary cultures and societies. The Conformist and The Godfather, more than 40 years after conquering the center stage, still establish themselves as objects of reference and intertextuality, one of the most characteristic practices of the cultural industry. Films depicting the structure of organized crime, particularly that of Italian origin, began to appear in the early 20th century. Since the genre's inception, the narrative and ideological paradigm of mafia films has highlighted evolving organizational themes and gang storylines and made the genre a blockbuster. However, it was The Godfather who established himself as one of the main representatives of the category by imposing an ideological function on the mafia myth. It is argued that The Godfather reinvents this myth and represents the permutation of a genre convention by exposing populist antagonisms, such as white-collar crime or hostility toward mainstream service corporations in the United States at the time of the release of the film. The mafia narrative, in the case of Coppola's work, constitutes a strategic departure from all the anger generated by the American system and the unethical norms that have led to the deterioration of life in the United States in the 1970s. In a similar tone, Bertolucci, with The Conformist, criticizes Italian fascism and bourgeois society before the Second World War. Bertolucci chooses to present this critique through the protagonist, who lives perfectly at peace with his role in Italian fascism, not so much out of conviction, but because it is what he has only known. Fascism appears as a system that lives on the lack of personality of many, without the strength to oppose it, preferring the path of least resistance, that is to say the blind execution of orders simply because it is easier. Bertolucci works to an alienating effect, which was due more to a distinctive combination of Freudian psychology and Marxist ideology of the late 1960s. The film is a kind of essay on fascism, from..