Kill your idols: The Godfather

Watched The Godfather this weekend for the first time in 15 years.

Meh.

The modern-day takeaway is that Brando was a helluva actor and Pacino was of course in his prime...but the rest of the cast, when looked at through a contemporary prism, doesn't hold up. Sonny and Tom Hagen seem like they could never have been reared together; Diane Keaton is fucking Annie Hall, not Kay Adams...and besides, her Kay Adams character is so wooden and the relationship with Michael so forced, it falls flat.

The mob aspects -- the violence, the bosses, and the soldiers -- all pale in comparison to both Goodfellas and especially The Sopranos.

So there you have: kill this idol.

You agree?

 

Not to just start a back-and-forth argument, but IMO the examples of criticism here are all fully intended to be that way: Tom and Sonny are supposed to be very different, almost diametric opposites (it's much commented in the movie and the original Puzo novel), and Kay Adams is supposed to be a repressed, strait-laced, very conventional WASP. A very clear contrast is drawn between her and the earthy, zesty Apollonia.

After coming back from exile in Sicily, Michael pursues Kay for marriage as a coldly calculated business decision, explained in the walk down the street when he visits her at her school. Michael looks at her as little more than a broodmare: "We have to get married, and we have to have children." He doesn't ask if she WANTS to.

He thinks having a WASP wife will allow his children to grow up in "polite" society and become the movers-and-shakers Vito had planned for the family all along.

 

I've always thought that Godfather I and II have to be watched together to fully appreciate their greatness. It would be interesting if they ever remade it (and I pray they don't) if it would be far more violent.

My only quibble with the Godfather movies is that it seems tame by today's violence standards.

It's like watching the original Psycho today and thinking, "This was what scared everybody? You've got to be kidding me."

 

Different eras in movie-making require differences in critical approach.
I think it's a great movie.

 

I probably watch I and II every other year or so and I think it definitely holds up.

 

Outting alert: TigerVols is Peter Griffin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRsemHatx-o

 

Oh so you're going to rag on The Godfather, huh?

 

It's the only way this can end. That or outside a tollbooth.

 

I watched it yesterday for the first time. I'd always meant to but never carved out the three hours to do it. When I saw it was on Cinemax during the free weekend I DVR'd it and watched it last night.

I'm guessing that having seen Goodfellas and numerous other mafia movies in the past 20 years has desensitized me to the point that the Godfather was very tame. I'm guessing that would have been pushing the envelope violence and gore when it was released.

The story was basically good, the acting was (mostly) good, the script and transitions weren't very crisp. I'm guessing this was a hard novel to fit into a mainstream motion picture.

Haven't seen II yet, but will definitely make the effort.

 

your nuts. both gf I and II hold up extraordinarily well.

 

Never seen any of them. Just one of those things I missed and never cared about catching up with.

 

I don't think it would grab you as much as it would in 1972. But it does have its moments. There are just some scenes that stick in your memory bank. (Also the first nude scene I ever witnessed.)