`Godfather': A Study In The Method School

Twenty-five years after its initial release, "The Godfather" is studied in film courses for its engrossing screenplay, impeccable cinematography, the smooth dynamism of its editing, the perfect synthesis of its wafting, Old World music.

But director Francis Ford Coppola's gangster opus serves as another kind of textbook, too: a virtual encyclopedia of Method acting.

From Marlon Brando's brilliant improvisation of Don Corleone's touching death scene, to the carefully controlled, laser-intense performances of Al Pacino and Robert Duvall, to the homey machismo of the Michael V. Gazzo and James Caan characters, "The Godfather" offers a master class in the Method school, from two generations of important American actors steeped in it.

What techniques and artistic philosophy unites these disparate performers? What makes them exponents of "The Method" - a short-hand label for a broad-based, open-ended, naturalistic acting style that stems from the theories of Russian director Constantin Stanislavski?

More than anything it is training. And attitude. And lineage.

They are spiritual offspring of Stanislavski, who at the Moscow Art Theatre in the early part of this century sought an alternative to the falsity and bombast of most stage acting of the era. He demanded a more authentic expression from his players, portrayals infused with a greater psychological truthfulness.

Among the eager Americans picking up on Stanislavski's

theories, and his systematic "scientific" approach, were the members of the Group Theatre, an important Broadway troupe of the 1930s.

The Group, also strongly influenced by Freudian psychology and Marxist politics, included in its ranks such notables as John Garfield, Frances Farmer and Franchot Tone.

Stanislavski-based acting tools, now commonplace in rehearsal halls and university classrooms, were introduced to America by the Group: improvisation in rehearsals, an emphasis on ensemble acting rather than flashy star turns, an exploration of "subtext" (the ulterior motivations of a character), and, most controversially, applying one's private "sense memories" to a fictional role.

The Group survived a decade, until 1940, creating some memorable productions in a tumultuous time. But its scattered members would have far greater influence teaching their own individual brands of "The Method" to a new generation's stars, including Paul Newman, James Dean and even Marilyn Monroe.

Enter "The Godfather" cast. Stella Adler, the grande dame of the Group, counted the young Brando among her avid pupils. At the Neighborhood Playhouse, Sanford Meisner taught Duvall and Caan. Lee Strasberg, the most dogmatic of all Method gurus, helped shape Pacino and Robert De Niro (who also studied with Adler) at the Actors Studio.

These seminal Method coaches argued bitterly over technique, but all shared Stanislavski's belief in "truth on stage" - a credo keenly suited to the realistic film and stage dramas of the 1950s, and later to the naturalistic filmmaking of Coppola and Martin Scorsese.

That made the set of "The Godfather," Parts One and Two, an intense gymnasium of heavyweight Method actors. Testing and inspiring one another, sharing a common language, prodding and daring, they forged what is probably the greatest concentration of outstanding performances in any American movie ever made.

If the wide-screen re-release of "The Godfather" promises another entertaining zip through the Corleone saga, it is also a low-priced seminar that aspiring young players should study carefully. For as critic Steven Vineberg puts it in his 1992 book, "Method Actors," when we "define the Method . . . we are really defining modern American acting."