For a long time, I've heard tons and tons of references to this movie. Now I know why.
First, I thought the beginning was very clever; by opening with a wedding, they expressed very early on the importance of family and established who was who (although I had to ask a lot of questions to figure out who died when and who just got shot? Oh the don? Is he dead now?), especially Michael, as the outsider of the family but young and bright-eyed; a normal human being, a war hero even. I also adored the baptism scene at the end and the symbolism of the baby being baptised and cleansed of original sin, and Michael killing off all his enemies and starting fresh as the new don. That was amazingly well done and intense and satisfying, especially when the sister's awful husband was killed off. That was satisfying.
First, I thought the beginning was very clever; by opening with a wedding, they expressed very early on the importance of family and established who was who (although I had to ask a lot of questions to figure out who died when and who just got shot? Oh the don? Is he dead now?), especially Michael, as the outsider of the family but young and bright-eyed; a normal human being, a war hero even. I also adored the baptism scene at the end and the symbolism of the baby being baptised and cleansed of original sin, and Michael killing off all his enemies and starting fresh as the new don. That was amazingly well done and intense and satisfying, especially when the sister's awful husband was killed off. That was satisfying.
I cannot, however, forgive the part with the horse. That will scar me forever. Harm to animals in stories just kills me. As a general rule, excessive (or overly realistic) gore in film is pretty much a big turn off for me, and this movie had a lot of blood. At first, I didn't like The Godfather because of this, but as it went on, I was okay with it because the rest of the movie was so good. I love in the end how Michael ended up exactly how Vito didn't want him to be; head of the family, a liar, and all that (even lying to his wife, dang). It was so thorough and I was lucky to get to watch it with people who knew the movie really well and could explain who all the people were, so I understood exactly what was going on the whole time.
This is a genre movie, but surprisingly, it is amazingly well done. The way they placed oranges around Vito a lot was a cool way to make his character special (he had oranges at the wedding, one was there when he died, and he was buying oranges when he was shot). I also loved the change of seasons and how, although it took place over several years, it started and ended in the same season as they changed slowly over the course of the movie. It was very cyclical, and that's always fun. I was pleasantly surprised by how thorough and satisfying this film was, and I plan on watching the sequel soon! Oh also, the cat at the beginning was my favourite character. No question.
Warnings for The Godfather: lots and lots of gore, some pretty bad domestic violence, a little sexual content; basically, it's rated R for a reason.
Warnings for The Godfather: lots and lots of gore, some pretty bad domestic violence, a little sexual content; basically, it's rated R for a reason.