So before I begin, let me explain what this post is. As most media students will know, we are all required to post a minimum of four posts a week. One post also has to be dedicated to the following topics:
- Lectorial and readings
- Workshop/seminar
- Initiation post (linking of ideas to media we have encountered)
But what about the fourth post?
Well that’s were my ‘A movie opinion’ idea comes from. Bit of a side note – I used to never watch movies. Which is odd, seeing how I’m in a media course, while also in a cinema studies class for my contextual stream. So I thought an idea like this would be perfect for me! So each week, I’m going to post my opinion on movies I have recently watched. I’ll talk about what I liked, what I didn’t like and so on and so forth. And if you want to share your own opinion about the movie, or would like to recommend something for an up-and-coming movie buff, then go ahead and shoot me a comment! And one more thing. THERE WILL BE SPOILERS. This is more of a discussion than a review of the movie. So if you haven’t watched it yet, skip this post! You get the idea? Awesome! Now the first movie I’m going to talk about is ‘The Godfather’, directed by Francis Ford Coppola.
*** SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT ON ***
“Vito Corleone” – The Godfather
‘The Godfather’ had some of the most interesting and memorable characters, great character development, and it also had a plethora of memorable scenes that I won’t soon forget. In terms of characters, Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) was easily the most interesting character. Unlike his children, Vito was extremely level-headed and was always smart and strategic when making decisions in regards to the family business. Robert Duvall’s portayal of Tom Hagen was extremely well done. I can’t explain why; but Tom Hagen always had a strong presence surrounding his character. I always became instantly happy when Tom Hagen appeared on screen.
Before – Michael Corleone: War Veteran
After – Michael Corleon: The Godfather
Now the character development. Oh… the character development. The transformation of Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) is easily one of the most astounding transformations I’ve seen so far (coming from the guy who has barely watched any movies). At the beginning, he was referred to as the ‘citizen’ of the family. While all the other characters were performing illegal activity, Michael fought in World War 2, and was considered a war hero by many. By the end of the film, he not only joins the family business, but becomes the head of the family itself – the new godfather. What I found astounding about this character development is that you can actually see the moment he throws away his life of law-abiding citizenship, in return for an endless life of crime when he decides to shoot Sollozzo and McCluskey in the diner. Al Pacino’s delivery of this particular scene really overwhelmed me.
And finally the scenes. The wedding scene in the beginning managed to convey a number of things to the viewer. First, it introduced nearly all the influential characters in the movie, while also showing a little bit of personality from each one. Secondly, it showed some of the strengths and weaknesses of some; if not all, of the characters in the scene. For example, it’s very obvious that Sonny had an anger issue from the way he destroys a photographer’s camera (this inevitably leads to his death, might I add). It’s also evident that Fredo is a reckless person when he is seen being unable to control himself due to being drunk. I could go on, but we’d be here a while. Another memorable scene (other than the Michael vs Sollozo/McCluskey scene) is the baptism scene, when Michael swears an oath against Satan, while his orchestrated attack on some the most influential men in the organized crime syndicate occurs at the same time. The juxtaposition of the baptism and the numerous assassinations was – in my opinion, pulled off perfectly. This is also another scene showing off Michael’s character development. This scene will be one that I will remember for years to come.
Now I have to talk about a few things I didn’t like. But in a movie like this, these are all just minor inconveniences. First of all, the movie is slow-paced, which doesn’t help when its run time is three hours long. Some of the dialogue was also a bit hard to understand. This could either result from the movies age, or perhaps it was due to the headphones I was wearing at the time. But I guess can be hard to speak when you have cotton-balls stuck in the corners of your mouth (referring to Marlon Brando). Lastly was the Italian spoken in some of the scenes. They weren’t subtitled in the original film! I understand it was a creative decision by Coppola. Fair enough, it did set the ambience and made me feel like I was watching authentic, Italian characters being portrayed. But I can’t help but feel like I missed some important dialogue. For example, I had no idea Michael’s first wife was named Apollonia until doing some post-movie research. But I guess it wasn’t very important since they made the decision not to subtitle it.
Overall, ‘The Godfather’ was an incredible movie, with incredible performances, and memorable characters and scenes. And it’s definitely on my list of all-time favourites!