10 Genius Editing Decisions That Made Movie Scenes Great
1. Juxtaposing The Baptism With Murder Confirms Michael's Character Arc - The Godfather
And finally, we have the unforgettable climax of Francis Ford Coppola's mob masterwork The Godfather, which sees Oscar-nominated editing team William Reynolds and Peter Zinner intercutting the baptism of Michael Corleone's (Al Pacino) goddaughter with hitmen assassinating Michael's enemies on his order.
Reynolds and Zinner's pin-sharp editing shows Michael professing to renounce Satan all while his rivals are violently wiped out, in turn cementing the film's central theme of Michael's internal struggle between good and evil.
More literally, this is the moment at which Michael becomes both a godfather to a child and The Godfather Don Corleone, and by visually intermingling these two aspects of Michael's life, it confirms how inextricably they're also linked in reality.
Even today it remains a starkly powerful example of motivated editing craft, of how the juxtaposition of imagery can infer a multitude of ideas and thematics without needing to speak them aloud.