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| Brando visiting Broderick in his college dorm room |
In a touching dorm-room scene in The Freshman, Clark Kellogg (Matthew Broderick) faithfully recites from memory the following lines after Don Sabatini (Marlon Brando) asks Clark to tell him one of his deceased father's poems:
"A Doorway on Boylston Street"
There's a certain doorway on Boylston Street
that I passed by on foot, suited and shod,
one of many each Tuesday,
toward lunch with a certain woman,
regarded each Tuesday by the perfect turning gaze of a white Persian,
regarding me, love-bound and sped by desire,
and returning to the certainty of his fur.
Don Sabatini immediately understands that the "turning gaze of a white Persian" refers to a cat, but what is the symbolic meaning of this cat?
The Cat as Don Sabatini
The cat in the poem is regal, self-assured, and a careful observer of human social interactions—just like Don Sabatini. In fact, exactly when Clark recites the line about the "perfect turning gaze of a white Persian," the camera zooms in on Don Sabatini, showing his eyes focusing intensely on Clark and his head turning to the side. We see that the cat and Don Sabatini are one and the same.
As if that were not enough, there's even more cat symbolism at play here...
The Cat in The Godfather
It's hard to think of Brando without thinking of this famous image of him holding a cat in the first scene of The Godfather:
Even while he's besieged with requests on his daughter's wedding day, Don Corleone is so masterful that he keeps this cat purring, like his clients. As many fans know, director Francis Ford Coppola found this stray cat wandering around the studio while shooting this scene and then put it in Marlon Brando's hands, knowing how much he loved both animals and theatrical improvising. This well-known fact— Brando delivered one of the greatest scenes in film history while effortlessly petting an untrained, stray cat—has only added to Don Corleone's luster and association with cats.
The cat in Clark's father's poem plays off this famous image, but the difference is that the Don's regal, masterful nature is symbolized in The Godfather by the way he toyed with a cat, as opposed to Don Sabatini's identification with the cat himself in The Freshman. That's because the cat in The Freshman has more control and independence than the cat in The Godfather. The cat in the poem doesn't need these infatuated humans: he just returns to the "certainty of his fur." Similarly, Don Sabatini tells Clark in this scene that it's OK if wants to stop working for him. Sabatini doesn't need Clark: he can simply return to the metaphorical equivalent of his own fur, i.e., his usual business operations. In fact, the one line from the poem that Sabatini repeats and savors is "the certainty of his fur." So, unlike the cat in The Godfather, the cat in The Freshman emphasizes the Don's independence, yet in both cases cats are directly associated with power and the Don.
The Cat in The Godfather
It's hard to think of Brando without thinking of this famous image of him holding a cat in the first scene of The Godfather:
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| (This image of Don Corleone and the cat appears on posters and movie boxes of The Godfather) |
The cat in Clark's father's poem plays off this famous image, but the difference is that the Don's regal, masterful nature is symbolized in The Godfather by the way he toyed with a cat, as opposed to Don Sabatini's identification with the cat himself in The Freshman. That's because the cat in The Freshman has more control and independence than the cat in The Godfather. The cat in the poem doesn't need these infatuated humans: he just returns to the "certainty of his fur." Similarly, Don Sabatini tells Clark in this scene that it's OK if wants to stop working for him. Sabatini doesn't need Clark: he can simply return to the metaphorical equivalent of his own fur, i.e., his usual business operations. In fact, the one line from the poem that Sabatini repeats and savors is "the certainty of his fur." So, unlike the cat in The Godfather, the cat in The Freshman emphasizes the Don's independence, yet in both cases cats are directly associated with power and the Don.
Clark as the Komodo Dragon
There's another crucial example of animal-power symbolism here: the komodo dragon. Just as the Don plays with the cat in the opening scene of The Godfather, he manipulates the komodo dragon—and Clark—throughout The Freshman. Clark himself notes this correspondence. He says that Don Sabatini's risky escape plan "involved using me and the lizard as bait" at the Gourmet Club. Then, just before the lizard is supposed to be killed by the chef, Clark adds, "The lizard looked even more nervous than I was. We were in the same boat." Like the komodo dragon here and the cat in The Godfather, Clark is played with by the Don in the course of a business that mixes love, family, profit, and deception.
If you had any doubt that Clark would take the risk of being shot during this ploy, you just need to consider the symbolism of one more animal: Curious George.
Curious George and the Man with the Yellow Hat
In this dorm scene, Sabatini also says his daughter Tina used to love hearing Curious George books at bedtime, and Clark says he thinks his father used to read him those stories, too.
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| Broderick following Brando through Little Italy |
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| Don Sabatini outlining the large Yellow Hat |
Just as Clark recalls his "real father" reading him Curious George stories as a young kid, Don Sabatini now sits at the foot of his bed talking about Curious George. This poignant interchange clinches the father-son union that the film has been driving toward all along.
The Fleeber Factor
All these interpretations make sense to me, but whenever I get this deeply immersed in analysis of a Hollywood movie, I have to ask myself whether I'm turning into Professor Fleeber, who is so enthralled with mafia movies that he goes so far as to ask his students to compare Karl Marx's Das Kapital, Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, and the Lake Tahoe scene from The Godfather, II. I take Professor Fleeber as a hilarious cautionary tale, a reminder not to get too carried away with my interpretations.
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| Professor Fleeber, unable to resist mouthing the dialogue to himself while his students watch The Godfather, II. |
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| Broderick and Brando walking the komodo dragon together, just before the final credits roll. |
My Related Posts:
1) Mona Lisa Mystery in "The Freshman." 2) Defense of Professor Fleeber, including comparison with Shakespeare.
All posts about The Freshman and The Godfather
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2 comments:
This page is so interesting and made me think. I looked it up because I remembered the poem, since also write poetry. I hadn't thought about interpreting it but since we are doing that, maybe I have a slightly adjusted interpretation. I agree about the contrast between Sabatini's being so sure of what he is doing, but the contrast is about the man in the poem's rushing toward a love he is obviously smitten by, and we all know how uncertain that is. I think the cat does represent Sabatini, and the man is Clark being rushed toward an uncertain fate (in the film) as well as a possible rendevous with Sabatini's daughter. The lost father, is indeed replaced by Sabatini as a father figure, especially is Clark ends up with his daughter.
And there is also, the contrast of his step father who Clark remarks should have been more of a father to him and trusting he may have trusted a real son. Thanks for making us think of the poem having a connection to the film,(other than the points in the scene).
Thanks for this very interesting response. What you’ve said really adds a lot by looking at the poem from Clark’s perspective, and I really like the way you emphasize Clark’s sense of uncertainty and being overwhelmed as he falls in love with both Sabatini and his daughter, Tina. That says a lot about both the poem and the film. Indeed, at this point in the film, Clark is at a crossroads: he’s told Sabatini and Tina he’s leaving them, yet he can’t quite commit to that decision (he considers running away or turning in Sabatini, but he can’t do either). He could have still gone either way when Sabatini arrives in his room, and Sabatini even tells him while in the room that it’s OK if he wants to leave the business, but, by the end of this scene, after the closeness it evokes, you can tell Sabatini has pulled Clark back to his side, even closer than before. You’re making me think about how important uncertainty is in the scene. As you have nicely spelled out, the poem alludes to the uncertainty of this new love (“love-bound and sped by desire”). And then Sabatini is there as the antidote, reassuring certainty. That is, after Clark finishes reciting the poem, Sabatini sort of mumbles/echoes the line about “the certainty of his fur.” (As you can tell, I really like this scene, but I have to say I really love that little touch: the way Sabatini lingers on and repeats the exact phrasing of the poem. As a poet, you know better than anyone that it all comes down to that—the exact wording.) So that further echo from Sabatini would also support your interesting interpretation. Thanks for the comment and further thoughts. Btw, this movie and poem must have really touched a nerve because this post has always gotten a lot of views, though, interestingly, not a lot of comments—so thanks for yours.
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