I don’t remember when I first learned about the film The Godfather, but it’s impossible not to know it. Still - the greatest gangster tape, one of the films that turned the world cinema and left a mark on culture comparable to Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings. The first time I tried to watch this film was in 2015. and I did not master it. I understood that there was a great and clever canvas in front of me, but I simply could not master it. For me, The Godfather was like a classical music concert: beautiful, but incomprehensible. But, after 5 years, having prepared, I decided to watch the film and now everything has changed. I really liked this film, but at the same time I do not like it because of the extremely bad message.
The 3-hour epic tells us about the Corleone crime family, operating in 1945-1953. and in the center of the story is the life of Michael Corleone, who turns from an ordinary war hero into the head of the criminal world of New York. The whole film can be described in one phrase - it is aesthetically beautiful.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY1S34973zA
Characters. All the characters in the film, from the main ones to the episodic ones, exactly, like their actors, they are great. I don’t want to say that today there are no talented actors and no one would play like that. They are, but in the actors of old Hollywood there is some inexplicable charm, some ancient charm with which they capture you and delight you.
Michael Corleone performed by young Al Pacino is really great. His brothers: Sonny, Freddo and little sister are also great. In general, this can be said about everyone: the actress Johnny Fontaine, the capo Clemense, the hubby Carlo, the other dons. All the charm itself.
But, of course, Don Corleone himself , performed by Marlon Brando, rises above all of them .I never really liked this Brando, it always seemed that in all his films he played with the same physiognomy. But I must admit that his Don Carleone is a gangster icon. His rosette suit, his slow speech, his gestures are something. Brando in the role of Corleone is like Clint Eastwood in the role of a shooter in a poncho or like Vysotsky in the role of Gleb Zheglov or Demyanenko in the role of Shurik - in general, an actor who was sent by the Universe for this particular role and no one else would have coped with it so well ...
Plot.Its peculiarity is that it is extremely unhurried. Unlike some "Scarface" or "Nice Guys" where gangsters drive around in smart cars around the city and kill everyone right and left, here the gangsters are mostly involved in intrigues. They deal with rivals through secret assassinations and conspiracies and using their political and police connections. And it seems right to show this to me, because the horror of the mafia is not only in crimes, but also in the fact that it interbreeds and intertwines with politics.
A separate plus is gorgeous dialogues. Most of all I love dialogue in films and books. There are many of them in this film. For example, when Corleone explains why he is against drugs or his conversation with the heads of other families; Clemense's conversation with the producer. Listening to their conversations is a delight.
Soundtrack.There is not much of it here, but the film gave us an immortal and one of the most famous melodies - "Speak Softy, Love". While she only plays once in the film, she is an imperial march from the gangster world. However, the title theme played at the beginning is also beautiful.
In general, the whole film is great, but I think it has one big drawback. This is the message! What the heck is the movie romanticizing banditry ?! The whole film is about the life of gangsters, only it is shown in the "pink light". The main characters of Corleone are noble gangsters, because business rules are not violated, drugs are not sold, if someone is killed, then he asked for it himself. I'm just reminding you that gangsters are not Robin Hoods. Gangsters are murderers, drug dealers, racketeers and robbers, and the worst thing is that they also get into politics with their money. And where is all this in the movie? We are told that the Corleones are only engaged in bootlegging and gambling, while the fact that this is illegal does not bother anyone at all and the heroes are not afraid of anything. Michael's choice in favor of the family is presented in the film as some kind of sacrifice, a feat. After all, he abandoned a peaceful life and chose the honor of the family. He chose the path of murder, violence, deception and cruelty instead of the life of a normal person, where is the romance? Why does the film portray this as something romantic.
Why does the fact that Corleone does not want to sell drugs to children makes him noble in the film's plot? What about other crimes? But what about the very fact that you are selling drugs? And don't get me wrong. I'm not against films about bad guys, I'm not against a film about the real mafia. But why do the creators whitewash these people and show that their way of life is noble, because they are so good, they worry about the family and nothing bad happened in the end. "Good" won. I'm not even talking about other gangster films, just read biographies of real gangsters on Wikipedia: Al Capone, John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, Bugsy Siegel, Lucky Luciano, Henry Hill, etc.All of these gangsters were either killed or ended up in jail. Hence the conclusion - no matter how sweet the life of a gangster is, everything will end either in murder or in prison. But the Godfather does not have this message. If you are a kind gangster, then you will survive, because you are kind.
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