Why is there a cat in the beginning of the film The Godfather? I believe that there is significance in the presence of the cat that single time. Furthermore, the Cat does not show up again after that one frame with Don Vito in the first few minutes of the movie. Attention is highly drawn to the cat because Don Vito is also fidgeting and playing around with the cat at the same time.
"They also kept cats around as a means of spiritual protection. In Puritan religion cats symbolized dark and demonic forces and were associated with the devil. Cats are often compared to femininity and womanhood. They are associated with intuition as well.Cats are also known to have the ability to transmute human discomfort or malevolent spiritual energies into a more benign force. " Cats can symbolize a lot of things, but it is evident that they represent the events to follow throughout the movie.
It could represent the following moments of spiritual protection, which could symbolize Don Vito's power and maybe his survival after the "five shots" (Coppola).
The Five Shots
I thought that the specific choice of the five shots was innherently interesting. Each shot could possibly represent one of the five families:
- Corleone Family (residing in Little Italy)
- Barzini Family (residing in Midtown)
- Tattaglia Family (residing in Brooklyn)
- Stracci Family (residing in New Jersey)
- Cuneo Family (residing in Hell's Kitchen)
"According to the Bible, it is the symbol of the Man-God by the five wounds of the Christ on cross (for this reason, it is also considered as the number of the grace)." (http://www.ridingthebeast.com/numbers/nu5.php)
Interestingly enough, Don Vito got shot five times=sort of like Jesus, and their religion is Catholic so that might be a wierd religious tie.
Geneva
Nice work: keep your eyes open for "five wounds" in the future. You are almost certainly correct (and very clever) here, considering Vito's almost miraculous resurrection.
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