1. Being an Italian, I was surprised that I have never seen The Godfather until this class. What made me instantly connect with this film was the importance that it placed on family and the sacredness of having meals with people. The dark tone is constant throughout with famous quotes like, “I made him an offer her can’t refuse”, which makes the family even more dark by knowing that they have no problem taking care of someone for the family. The importance of family is the groundwork of The Godfather and also for its sophisticated way of dealing with crime that it completely revised a genre that many films will follow.
2. This website goes as far as to show just some of the things that The Godfather has done to push the envelope of the gangster genre. For instance, I had no idea that the scene where the man wakes up with a horse head in his bed was an actual horses head. Granted that is was an old horse that was already set to be killed, that would freak me out to know that I would have to do a scene with a horse’s head in the bed. It was also interesting to know that George Lucas had a small part in the production of The Godfather where he had to get the shots of the newspapers after Don Coleone was shot. http://www.destinationhollywood.com/movies/godfather/funfeatures_content.shtml
3. All this site is aimed to do is to gain a little insight into some of the things that you may not have known. As far as getting a real horse head rather than making a prop was pretty shocking for a film made in the 70’s and shows that they really wanted to make this film stand out. Also being a three-hour movie must have been a little hard to sit through, but the films pace is just really well done and those three hours will go by much quicker. The film is a true testament to show what kind of production an audience will be able to sit through and when done as well as this film, they are willing to make that commitment.
4. To me, The Godfather must have been the longest movie I’ve ever seen, but it’s also one of the best. It starts out kind of slow with feeling like you are actually at Don Coleone’s daughter Connie’s wedding and having to sit through all of the things that go along with that. They try to make you as much apart of this family as the actors all try to portray it to be, and I think that it makes the three hours much more enjoyable. The movie doesn’t really kick off until Michael decides to kill the officer and head of one of the families.
Before that happens, Michael is portrayed as one of the family members that they don’t want to get involved with the family business because they need him to keep his war hero image. In the scene where him and Enzo have to stand watch outside the hospital for people who are trying to come and finish off his father, he shows that he has no fear while Enzo is terrified at what almost happened. This is where you can tell that Michael is going to become bigger than his father and be able to take the business after he dies. While the movie first focuses on Don Coleone, they shift the focus over to Michael and how they will make the audience know that he will be the next Godfather.
Overall, I enjoyed the film for what it is and try not to compare it to other films that are more modern. There have been more crime movies that have come out like Goodfellas that have much more action than they do of very dark tones. I seem to enjoy that much more than deep character development, but to be fair, I haven’t seen the two sequels that have come from The Godfather. I can’t recommend this movie enough to those who are in the slightest interest of seeing this film as it is well worth it.
