I watched it recently for the first time, and I really don’t get why it’s so loved. IMDB rates it as the second-best movie of all time, but it seems far worse than that to me. I like most old movies and see their hype, but The Godfather didn’t do it for me. What am I missing?
Don’t get it either. It is such a flawed product.
A. Crime movies are supposed to have everyone die at the end. The godfather dies a successful old man playing with his grandchild.
B. Holy shit is it long
C. It feels like it demands to be appreciated. Every scene we are being told that we have to appreciate every scene.
This could be a case of the Sienfeld is not funny trope
A movie or other work of media is quite revolutionary when it is released, it gets copied so much that many of its features become common in later projects. Then someone goes back to the original and thinks, Why was everyone so impressed with this?
Citizen Cane is another example.
Or:
It could be that you personally don’t like the movie. Taste is not universal and not everyone likes everything.
If you don’t get it, you don’t get it, and that’s fine.
From someone who’s went through film school:
It’s a great movie. I wouldn’t call it second ever, but it’s up there. The cinematography is some of the best put to film, the writing is excellent, and the acting is phenomenal. I love the music as well, personally. Mafia stories are/were big hits for film in general, dating back even to the black and white era.
In simple terms: basically everything about it is made better than your average film, and if there’s something you specifically like about films (music, cinematography, etc.) It’s usually an easy example to point to for a quality example of said thing
But yeah, there are too many movies in existence to put any real stock on “x best movie of all time” things
Please read John Truby’s book “The Anatomy of Genres”, and have your mind BLOWN by all the psychology in the different 14 Genres of story, dominating our cultures throughout the world, now…
It will make fiction in book AND movie form sooo much richer for you, and it will make other-people much-more-understandable, as well…
I’m autistic, am NOT likely to ever watch another movie in my life ( waaay too overwhelming ), but now I understand story so much better…
Truby’s got a special place in his heart for both Godfather I & II.
With reason, his explanations show.
There are an amazing number of awesome stories identified in that book, as examples demonstrating this, or that, aspect of story…
Please read it from beginning to end, so the explanations ( which build on each-other ) weave into the whole, properly ( instead of just hitting 2 chapters & not getting why it doesn’t make as much sense as I’m suggesting it does ).
The only significant error in the book worth noting, is the misunderstanding of Comedy:
Improbably-violated-expectations is the PROPER definition of it, and there is no requirement for any “drop”, which seems an American subset of humour.
Salut, Namaste, & Kaizen, eh?
( :
Oh don’t worry. Everyone who says they like the godfather is meme’ing Barbie.
/s
