Posted on 09/24/2008 9:39:24 AM PDT by Borges
The “Godfather” films remain the 20th-century answer to Shakespeare’s plays of royal succession, with the twist that here Prince Hal grows up, not into Henry V, but Richard III.
Watching the first film, you are struck again by how little screen time Marlon Brando actually occupies. Most of his work is done in the 20-minute opening sequence, as the Godfather sits in his study, receiving supplicants on the day of his daughter’s wedding. This is a piece of superbly efficient expository writing, setting out an exotic milieu, describing its rules and moral configuration, and establishing the larger-than-life figure who presides over and protects it.
Like another venerated American epic, “Gone With the Wind,” the first “Godfather” film is essentially a study in vanishing feudalism: the old, aristocratic masters who made their empires out of sweat and blood are fading into the background, to be replaced by the middle-class, mercantile interests represented in “Gone With the Wind” by the blockade runner Rhett Butler and in the first “Godfather” by the drug-dealing upstart Sollozzo.
Part II takes place in a more modern world, where capitalism is king, and it is difficult to tell where gangsterism leaves off, and normal business procedures begin. The action shifts to a global scale, as the Corleones conquer Nevada and, very nearly, Cuba — and Mr. Coppola rises to the occasion with a sense of physical scale and epic conflict that no amount of computer-generated-imagery enhancement has yet been able to reproduce.
At the center of it all, of course, remains the family drama. In an increasingly rootless country American audiences envied the Corleones for their powerful sense of ethnic and family identity, the privilege of belonging to an extended, self-reliant and self-protecting group.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Yep, he shows ZERO emotion when he tells a lifelong friend that he won’t do anything to save his life.
De Palma’s Scarface wasn’t supposed to be realistic. It’s a highly stylized fever dream.
I grew up in a 'Mafia' neighborhood. Carlo Gambino, the real 'godfather', lived two blocks over (a further aside - Jerry Seinfeld lived two blocks the other way).
We took it for granted that these guys were part of America's fabric. We know now of course that they weren't, they were an ugly, stupid, often damn silly aberration.
There was nothing noble or grand or profound about them. The reality of their lives could not be further from that which these movies portray, except for the killings. Two HS friends lost their fathers because they crossed the wrong guys.
Nope, the hook-nosed little bastard and his 'family' were nothing but a bunch of violent thugs.
The best way to describe the ones I knew would be Joey Buttafucco without a conscience.
When he tells Frank Pentangeli to kill himself, it's so ruthless. The civilized veneer only makes it seem worse.
Adieu, Frankie Five Angels. He snuffs out the cigar and leaves.
Law Enforcement officials have said that The Godfather made it easier to spot gangsters as they started to emulate the gestures and body language of the characters from the film when interacting with each other. Those films have always been very popular with the Mob.
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See #63.
The real Hagen was named Sheridan. He lived next door to Gambino at the end of Club Drive in Massapequa. The movie is fiction, not history.
Puzo said it was complete fiction based on stories he heard people tell in his neighboorhood growing up.
Half the paesans I knew on LI, Brooklyn, Queens, Jersey started to ‘walk the walk’ after the first one came out. They all talked like they had heavy fathers. Ninety-nine percent were wannabees. I knew a few of the one percent though. To this day if I had a certain kind of problem I still know a guy.
ping
I’ve come to appreciate GFIII more every time I watch it, but Sophia Coppala is a bad fit.
I LOVE De Niro as the early Vito Corleone in GFII
Like another venerated American epic, “Gone With the Wind,” the first “Godfather” film is essentially a study in vanishing feudalism: the old, aristocratic masters who made their empires out of sweat and blood are fading into the background, to be replaced by the middle-class, mercantile interests represented in “Gone With the Wind” by the blockade runner Rhett Butler and in the first “Godfather” by the drug-dealing upstart Sollozzo.
Excellent summary, although it should be pointed out that the character of Vito Corleone represents a transitional figure between the "Mustaccio" (old-school Sicillian mafiosi represented by Don Fanucci) and the more Americanized second-generation Cosa Nostra (represented by Michael and Sonny). In the same way that Carlo Gambino overthrew the Mustacci, only to be succeeded by the Americanized thugs who got involved with heroin (in association with the Corsicans) and embraced the tacky McMansion-with-slipcovers-on-the-furniture lifestyle of the second and third generations, so too did the relatively smart and restrained Vito have his empire handed off to his spoiled, vain, and self-centered Americanized children.
My other favorite subtext of the Godfather saga is how the three sons all have many of their old man's fine qualities, while possessing negative traits that mitigate any symphathy we may have for them. Michael is intelligent, but also cold, selfish, and vain; Santino is tough, but also reckless and unpredictable, Fredo is warmhearted and kind, but fragile and not very intelligent, etc.
I see the saga as being one of fathers and sons, and how what we inherit from our fathers, positive or negative, can be utilized or squandered.
Michael Corleone vs. Tony Montana... Who would win ? ;-)
Tony is alot like Sonny Corleone, albeit a little brainier. Recklessness may intimidate for a short time, but he who lives by the sword...
Tony had better taste in women. I always wondered what Michael saw in the flaky and truly irritating Diane Keaton, although Simonetta Stefanelli’s Apollonia was adorable... “Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday, Saturday... !”
(And I learned the reports of the actress’s death a few years ago were false).
Tony Montana is a homicidal maniac. Michael is an intelligent homicidal maniac.
Let’s try for a more even field...
How ‘bout Santino Corleone vs. Tony Montana ?
Tony had better firepower, although Sonny would put up one hell of a fight.
D’oh !
How ‘bout Fredo Corleone vs. Gina Montana ? ;-D
I think Tony was smarter than Santino...
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