Oh my Godfather

This movie has had a lot of build up for me. People have been praising this movie around me since before I even knew what a godfather was. Not only that, but pop culture has been referencing scenes to it all over the place. There were lots of scenes I went into the movie just waiting for them to happen: some of them were big and others seemed quite subtle in the overarching storyline. There’s a general downside to this glorification; the movie’s got to live up to it. In The Godfather’s case, it did.

The key theme that is the backbone to the film is revenge. That’s a no brainer. Just about every murder or attempted murder can tie directly to a feud that thrives on revenge. However, if the movie was just a vengeful murderous rampage, I don’t think it would have gotten the reviews it did, including this one. The revenge goes deep in the plot. The central focus on the Corleone family gives a specific family tree to devote our attention to, and want to know more details about. In watching, each likeable character has a major flaw that attributes itself to revenge, and these faults tie in to the family dysfunctions that can occur, as well as the twentieth century style tactful murder. Once the revenge gets the best of the family, and the happy events such as the wedding are pushed into the background, revenge torments every member of the family, and even the families that are brought together under Vito Corleone. We watch as the revenge grabs the life of every character we tried to hold dear, and begin to see a fateful reality behind a much under exaggerated theme in film.

It was nice finally getting to see this classic movie, and it is nice understanding the film and the hype around it. If I could, I would wait and write this review after I have seen the movie multiple times, because, in the three hours it takes to watch it, there is a lot to take it, and I want to see more of that which makes it so profound. It had surprisingly good cinematography, and was up to par for my standard of movies of this new decade. I’d definitely recommend sitting down and giving this film a watch with a score of 4 heads on 5 horses.