12 - Kings and clients: on loyalty between the ruler and the ruled in ancient ‘Israel’

Summary

1995

As described in Chapter 9, in the first scene of the movie The Godfather, the old Don, Vito Corleone, head of an established mafia family in New York, gives audience to whomever among his followers has a request to make. Among the supplicants appears a very shy person, asking for revenge because some youngsters have mishandled his daughter. They were arrested by the police, but in their appearance before the judge they got a very mild and, according to the girl's father, absolutely insufficient sentence. The content of the dialogue which follows is especially interesting. Don Corleone opens with a forewarning, first of all, because the applicant had gone to the police and not to the Godfather. He mentions that the applicant has been inattentive and has not shown him respect, and, further, that he has never wanted his friendship because he never wanted to owe the Godfather a service and be in his debt. As the scene continues, the Godfather refers to the fact that the applicant needed no protection, because he believed that the court would provide him with it. Only now, this being clearly not the case, the applicant asks the Godfather to give him justice, but without respect, as he still does not offer his friendship to the Godfather and is still not prepared to address Don Corleone as Godfather. When the applicant offers to pay for the service, the offer is simply refused as disrespectful.