I Finally Watched the Godfather!

Last weekend I watched the Godfather for the first time, yes I’m a 28 year old male and I hadn’t seen the Godfather until a week ago. The good news, my brother and sister have still not seen it. The movie was not something that was in my house growing up and I would’ve chalked it up to bad parenting, but at 28 that’s no excuse and my parents have seen it. I know they have seen it because after watching it we talked about the movie at dinner. If I would’ve been thinking about it I would’ve asked them why did you not make me watch this when I was a kid. I also know the answer to that too. These are the same parents who wouldn’t let me watch the Simpsons as a kid. Anyways I don’t blame my parents. I should’ve watched this movie at least 10 years ago.

There were so many aspects of this movie that were great. Brando, Caan, Pacino, and Duvall were awesome. The transformation of Michael Corleone from this good hearted American Hero at the beginning of the movie to this dark man by the end was amazing to watch. You could see him slowly develop into the “villain” he became by the end of the movie. If this movie was made today not only would it be an hour shorter but the transformation would’ve started and ended when Michael found out about his father being gunned down in the street. But here it takes place slowly over the last two hours of the movie. Sure Michael killed his father’s attackers, but that seemed justified. When Michael finally puts into motion the killings of the other heads of the New York families and Sal it’s no longer about seeking justice, which is why when he has his brother in law killed you were not at all surprised. At the end of the movie Michael is almost a cross between his brother Sonny and his father. He’s cool and collected, but doesn’t blink when it comes to using force to get what he wants. The thing that keeps us as a viewer cheering him on is after all that happened to him we can understand why he becomes the man he is at the end of the movie. His father gets gunned down, then they try to kill his father in the hospital, his wife is blown up in his car, and his brother Sonny gets gunned down in cold blood.

Sonny was another character I liked and James Caan did a great job with this character. The downfall of Sonny was he reacted to situations without thinking and his quick temper was played up from the beginning. They needed us to believe he would run out to aid his sister from her abusive husband. Even if up until this point Sonny irritated you as a character, you couldn’t help but hate what happened to him. The whole time Sonny’s being shot up I’m thinking, “What is happening to his sister?” Does her husband kill her will anyone know he was beating her now. I didn’t even think about the fact that he was involved in taking down Sonny. The good news is that in the end Carlo gets what’s coming to him.

Enough cannot be said about Brando. That was one of the best performances I’ve seen of any character in any movie. He was absolutely amazing and I’m just going to leave it at that.

Connie Corleone she may not have been my first choice, but Talia Shire somehow ends up in two great movie series (she was Adrianna is Rocky). I honestly can’t name another movie she was in outside of the Rocky series and The Godfather series. She is credited as being in all 6 Rocky films even though she wasn’t actually in the last one, but she probably could’ve lived off the money she made from Rocky and the Godfather films her entire life. I checked her credits on IMDB and apparently she did act in other movies.

One of the best parts about watching this movie was seeing some great actors in the prime of their careers. It was crazy seeing Duvall, Caan, and Pacino so young, even Abe Vigoda looked young and he was still a little old when the movie was filmed.

I am really glad I decided to finally watch this movie and I have the other two and plan to watch them in the next few weeks as well. The one thing I realized after watching this movie though is that there are not a lot of Great movies. It is rare when production, acting, directing, and writing all come together and make a truly great film. Most movies today are missing not just one of those components, but usually two or three of them. It made me think about what movies are on a level with the Godfather as being great. The first ones that popped in my head were Rocky, The Gladiator, American Gangster, and American History X. There are a lot of movies out there that tell a great story but may not have the money to make it a great film. Then there are the movies with the big budgets but it all goes towards special effects and then they don’t put the actors in to make it a great movie. It certainly makes me appreciate when I do watch a truly great movie, the way I felt after watching the Godfather.