The Godfather

[Johnny B. Goode]

Just watched this yesterday for the very first time, and I must say I was not impressed except with the cast. It was a great cast, and they gave pretty good performances for the most part. The movie itself, however, left me wondering how anyone could say it's even close to being a great movie. Just a lot of killing. There's no real plot to it. No sympathetic characters. Nobody to root for. Nobody you even "love to hate", as they say. No character development, other than Michael Corleone's descent into evil. Just a bunch of scumbags doing their thing. I don't get it.

 

[Pericles the Lion]

Somehow I'm just not surprised.

 

[Johnny B. Goode]

Maybe you have some insight to share? Or are you just here to bust my chops again?

 

[Pericles the Lion]

Oscar for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, plus 7 other Oscar nominations. Selected for preservation by the Library of Congress. Ranked 2nd greatest film by American Film Institute. But what do they know?

 

[jaymoney23456]

Goodfellas was way better for a similar kind of movie imo. In any case, winning academy awards isn't always indicative of a movie that people actually like. Sometimes just means that industry insiders thought it was good by professional industry standards. Been some flops especially lately for things like best picture, though some years much of what is even nominated is not that good imo.

 

[Graviton]

Yeah, some bad movies have won Oscars ("Crash" comes to mind immediately), but being selected by the Library of Congress indicates it was at the very least culturally significant. Michael's descent into evil was the main point of the film. But not everybody is going to like everything.

 

[Johnny B. Goode]

Oscar for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, plus 7 other Oscar nominations. Selected for preservation by the Library of Congress. Ranked 2nd greatest film by American Film Institute. But what do they know?

The Godfather benefited from the time it was made and released (1972). If you look at the other nominees that year (1973), it was slim pickings. Some decent movies, but nothing tremendous. And as far as the AFI list, Tootsie is 3 spots ahead of Shawshank Redemption on that list, so....
And finally, to put the Library of Congress* thing in perspective, Super Fly is another 1972 film selected for preservation.

*The National Film Registry has selected dozens of films since 1989 for preservation and now selects 25 per year. Films selected date as far back as the 1890s. Relative quality of the movie may play a part, but not as big as you would think. Look through the list yourself and you'll see what I mean.

 

[Pericles the Lion]

The Godfather benefited from the time it was made and released (1972). If you look at the other nominees that year (1973), it was slim pickings. Some decent movies, but nothing tremendous. And as far as the AFI list, Tootsie is 3 spots ahead of Shawshank Redemption on that list, so....
And finally, to put the Library of Congress* thing in perspective, Super Fly is another 1972 film selected for preservation.

*The National Film Registry has selected dozens of films since 1989 for preservation and now selects 25 per year. Films selected date as far back as the 1890s. Relative quality of the movie may play a part, but not as big as you would think. Look through the list yourself and you'll see what I mean.

Ok. According to Ranker, adjusted for inflation, The Godfather is ranked #23 in international box office receipts for all movies, ever. You weren't impressed but a lot of other people are/were.

 

[Graviton]

The Godfather benefited from the time it was made and released (1972). If you look at the other nominees that year (1973), it was slim pickings. Some decent movies, but nothing tremendous. And as far as the AFI list, Tootsie is 3 spots ahead of Shawshank Redemption on that list, so....

Nothing wrong with Tootsie nor Super Fly, but Shawshank Redemption? Talk about overrated...

 

[jaymoney23456]

Nothing wrong with Tootsie nor Super Fly, but Shawshank Redemption? Talk about overrated...

Shawshank Redemption was awesome! Nothing overrated there!

 

[Darkest.Knight]

geez people have different preferences, what a surprise, lol.

 

[The Lady Redneck]

Everyone enjoys all sorts of Movies. I watched the Godfather and thought it was an ok movie to watch on TV, but would not have paid movie theatre prices to go and watch. TOLR and The Hobbit I had already read the books before they came out. So had my son and grandkids were reading them. We made it a family night out to go see each of them on their release and thought they were well worth the price.
I also like Sci-Fi horror stuff. Like Predator and Alien movies. But Event Horizon has the edge as far as I am concerned even though it was dumbed down before it was released.

 

[Johnny B. Goode]

Ok. According to Ranker, adjusted for inflation, The Godfather is ranked #23 in international box office receipts for all movies, ever. You weren't impressed but a lot of other people are/were.

Never heard of Ranker before today. I couldn't find that list on their site, not that I'm doubting the numbers. A more official website has it listed at #25, so that's at least close. Of course, I've bought tickets for several movies over the years that I was not impressed with, and I'm sure you have, too. I was really glad I didn't pay to watch The Godfather, although I am glad I finally did see it. Whether I was impressed or not, it was interesting to see what the 50+ years of buzz was about.

 

[Johnny B. Goode]

It's interesting that no one has explained why they think The Godfather was a great movie. I'm talking about the film itself, not the box office numbers or awards or anything like that. Does anyone have an insight into why they think it's a great movie? What about the movie appealed to you? Which characters, if any, did you care about and why? What moral, if any, do you think the story had?

 

[Johnny B. Goode]

Is that crickets I hear?

 

[jaymoney23456]

Never heard of Ranker before today. I couldn't find that list on their site, not that I'm doubting the numbers. A more official website has it listed at #25, so that's at least close. Of course, I've bought tickets for several movies over the years that I was not impressed with, and I'm sure you have, too. I was really glad I didn't pay to watch The Godfather, although I am glad I finally did see it. Whether I was impressed or not, it was interesting to see what the 50+ years of buzz was about.

I saw #25 on box office mojo for all time adjusted for inflation as of 2020 (last year there is numbers for). Of course movie attendance was significantly higher in that era in general.

 

[Johnny B. Goode]

The fact that nobody can tell me why they think the movie is great, other than awards and box office numbers, is not surprising to me. This is why I never get caught up in the hype about "the big thing" of the day, and never believe "the experts" unless I've seen for myself. Now I've seen for myself. And it will go into the category of a movie that I'm glad I saw and satisfied my curiosity about it, but I'll never watch again.

Now Casablanca, a movie usually ranked just above or just below The Godfather on "great movie" lists, is one I can and have watched multiple times. It has everything that The Godfather does not. It richly deserves to be at or near the top of such lists.

 

[Flavius Belisarius]

Godfather provides a fictional; story of the rise of underground organized crime that grew out of the Italian Immigrant Experience of the last century.
It's a movie.

 

[Johnny B. Goode]

Godfather provides a fictional; story of the rise of underground organized crime that grew out of the Italian Immigrant Experience of the last century.
It's a movie.

From what I've read, the second one (the prequel/sequel) addresses the rise of organized crime, but in the first one it is already well established. Mostly it seems to be a movie about the transition of family power from Don Vito to Don Michael. I guess if you bundle the two movies together, the rise of organized crime (or at least the rise of the Corleone crime family) works, but on its own the first movie doesn't communicate that.

 

[Big-Bendz]

The Godfather was a great movie. And #2 also great. It is an Icon of what the Family was all about. It gives many moral (or anti-moral) lessons. There are the issues of living and death, issues of family and blood, revenge, respect, and racism. It was an awesome movie.