Great Films: #2 - The Godfather

The Men of The Corleone Family

What can I say about The Godfather that hasn’t been said before?

As far as movies, films, art, story, screenplay, directing, casting, photography, editing, soundtrack and every other filmmaking element that goes into making a movie, The Godfather is about as close to perfection as it gets.

This is the Mona Lisa, the Sistine Chapel, The Sergeant Pepper’s, The Twilight Zone (the original Serling hosted ones), the Tiger Woods, the Roger Federer, the hamachi nigiri and just about every other superlative ever all rolled into one.

I believe in America. America has made my fortune. And I raised my daughter in the American fashion. I gave her freedom, but I taught her never to dishonor her family. She found a boyfriend, not an Italian. She went to the movies with him. She stayed out late. I didn’t protest.

Two months ago, he took her for a drive, with another boyfriend. They made her drink whiskey. And then they tried to take advantage of her. She resisted. She kept her honor. So they beat her, like an animal!

When I went to the hospital, her nose was broken. Her jaw was shattered, held together by a wire. She couldn’t even weep because of the pain. But I wept. Why did I weep? She was the light of my life. Beautiful girl. Now she will never be beautiful again.

(chokes up; coughs)
Sorry.

I went to the police like a good American. These two boys were brought to trial. The judge sentenced them to three years in prison, and suspended their sentence. Suspended sentence! They went free that very day! I stood in the courtroom like a fool! And those two bastards, they smiled at me.

Then I said to my wife, ‘for justice, we must go to Don Corleone.’

The Most Memorable Opening Line Since: “In the beginning…”

The themes are not only timeless, but as you age, the film begins to mean something different than it did before. More accurately, it continues to develop and add more layers of everything about life as you revisit it again and again. It grows with you.

That is one of the most distinguishing characteristics of anything that transcends the upper echelon of any great group or list and becomes something wholly unique. Something that isn’t just a fad or a “right time, right place” sort of thing but rather something that grows as you do. Think about it. There’s really not much out there that you can make such a claim about. 99.9% of just about anything and everything is mediocre at best.

“Be my friend? Godfather?”

The Godfather not only stands the test of time, culture, gender, age and all other demographics, it continues to steer itself further away from anything that remotely tries to share it’s status and legend.

From the opening note of the score to the very first spoken line, The Godfather commands your attention.

Star Wars is great. Nashville is great. Amadeus is great. 2001 is great. Citizen Kane is great. Battleship Potemkin is great. The Birth of a Nation is great pretty long and whatever. They’re all great films and movies.

“Don’t ask me about my business, Kay.”

The Godfather is something more. The Godfather is the peak of the mountain. The Godfather is the creme de la creme. The Godfather is quite simply… The Godfather.

The Original 1972 Trailer for The Godfather

As far as I’m concerned, there’s only one film that could possibly be better than The Godfather.

Come back soon to find out.

cap

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