The Godfather: A Myth for Our Time?
Tonight I did something that I should have known would have prevented me from getting some things done that needed doing. And I made a mistake I could easily have avoided.
I should have known better.
You see, I have a kind of hectic week ahead of me. My Mom and my Dad who are divorced, each having business of some sort on the West Coast, independently picked the same weekend to visit their second son. So, I’ve been busy preparing for their arrival and completing projects so that I won’t have them hanging over my head when my parents come to town.
Well, tonight (Monday), after getting some (but not all) of those piddling things done, I decided to pop in a DVD while I ate my dinner. I wanted something that would fully engage me, so I could forget the lost list of little things that needed my attention.
I picked The Godfather, figuring I would watch the first hour or so, then get back to work
And therein lay the error.
I should have known better.
Never start to watch that movie unless you’re prepared to watch all three hours. I should have known. I should have known Back when I was in Cincinnati for Thanksgiving, exhausted from a long day’s traveling, after a holiday meal during which I dozed off, I grabbed a slice of pumpkin pie as a bed-time snack and joined my channel-surfing step-brother on the sofa by the TV.
When he found the Godfather , he stopped his surfing. And I who had thought I’d go to bed after I finished my piece of pie, ended up staying up until the very end of the movie.
I simply can’t believe how good it is, how well it holds up. It’s almost as if there’s not oneextra frame, not one extra line, no, not one extra word of dialogue. And the acting. It’s not just Brando, it’s Pacino, Duvall, Cazale, Keaton, Caan, Vigoda. . .
And here, well, past my bedtime, I’ve told you nothing about the movie, why it fascinates me as I’m sure it fascinates many of you. Or even what it is about the story that makes it appeal to so many of us. Some movies are like that. You can watch them again and again. And they still hold your interest.
I guess it was like that when long before celluloid, long even before the printed word. After a long day in the fields or hunting game or taking care of more domestic matters, our ancestors gathered around campfires and listened with rapt attention to shamans, wise women or village elder telling them the same myths they had been hearing (over and over again) since they could first understand speech.
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Well, let’s see. It involves people who use some combination of cheating, government manipulation or violence to solve every problem, because they have neither the ability, the patience nor the morality to produce goods and services of actual benefit to their fellow citizens. Does that sound like where our times are headed? Nah, couldn’t be. Not with the Dear Leader guiding our collective ship into a glorious age of Unity!
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — March 3, 2009 @ 7:27 am - March 3, 2009
“Leave the gun. Take the canoli.”
I absolutely love this film! I watched it in college as a young lad and, years later, ran to the theater to see it’s 25th anniversary showing on the big screen. My brother-in-law and I still quote from it regularly. I love Part II, whre Michael is soooooo cold and ruthless.
But, let’s not mention Part III – I still have not yet fully recovered. Still, I forgave Coppola years later after sampling his Claret – a very nice, flavorful, inexpensive red.
The film is indeed a classic. I showed it to my boyfriend this year and he’s hooked.
Comment by Jack in Dallas — March 3, 2009 @ 8:26 am - March 3, 2009
Never understood the fascination of the movie, watched it once and once was enough for me. you should try gommorah, it cuts out all the gangsta romanticism.
BY the way my partner LOVES the godfather movies.
Comment by ousslander — March 3, 2009 @ 9:47 am - March 3, 2009
The Don was correct, you can steal more money with a briefcase than with a gun. ….Just read the newspapers today.
Comment by Ted B. (Charging Rhino) — March 3, 2009 @ 10:43 am - March 3, 2009
#2 – I actually liked Part III; I thought it offered good closure.
Besides, they killed off Sofia Coppola, which in my opinion was a blessing in disguise.
Regards,
Peter H.
Comment by Peter Hughes — March 3, 2009 @ 11:00 am - March 3, 2009
Dan,
I hope you learned more than just being prepared to watch the entire movie. I hope you saw that the Godfather was benign and careing yet lusted for power and controlling, ¨making an offer … can´t refuse.¨ How much is Barak Obama like the Godfather? Rahm Emanuel is his consigliere, and Nancy Pelosi, like Lucca Brazzi, is his enforcer holding the gun. Who said movies don´t reflect real life?
Comment by Roberto — March 3, 2009 @ 11:13 am - March 3, 2009
That and Machiavelli’s The Prince – every young person should watch/read as they step out into the real world.
Comment by Jeremayakovka — March 3, 2009 @ 12:50 pm - March 3, 2009
I’ve been recommending The Godfather (the book) as a basic text in realpolitics ever since September 11th.
Comment by DaveP. — March 3, 2009 @ 3:39 pm - March 3, 2009
The first time I saw the greatest movie ever made I was with my parents, in the back seat of our station wagon at a drive-in theater. And now, whenever it is on tv, my family knows just where I’ll be – in front of the set waiting to see something new! I always find something that I never saw before… What a great movie!
Comment by Joann — March 3, 2009 @ 4:52 pm - March 3, 2009
Never saw it. Come to think of it, I don’t know of any gangster movies I have seen, except Johnny Dangerously.
“My sister kicked me in the balls once. Once.”
Haven’t watched much more than an hour of Casino, haven’t watched Good Fellas or even Scarface.
I did see Reservoir Dogs, if you can count that.
Yeah. Who’s gettin’ made?
Comment by ThatGayConservative — March 4, 2009 @ 1:15 am - March 4, 2009