1972: The Godfather
Beat out: Cabaret, Deliverance, The Emigrants and Sounder
Some well-known quotes: "I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse"
"Leave the gun. Take the cannoli"
I remember when I first sat down to watch The Godfather. This was before I was ever exposed to any type of "mob movies"and therefore, before my love for them emerged. I was actually so scared of what I might see that I looked up the transcript online and read it before every scene to prepare myself for any "scary" parts. (Lame, I know)
I so dreaded the scene where the studio head wakes up next to the head of his beloved horse. But alas, the scene came, and I wasn't scared...I just realized how awesome it was. In fact, my favorite scene of that whole movie is probably Sonny's death scene.
Now, I gotta be honest. The Godfather is not my favorite mob movie, BUT I do think that this movie is great. There's usually at least one thing in every good movie that stands out to me and basically makes me think it's great. In The Godfather, that thing for me is James Caan's performance as Sonny Corleone. (For those of you who don't know him, he played Walter Hobbs in ELF!!)
I know that everyone probably finds Marlon Brando to be the star of the movie. And, hey I'm not going to say that he wasn't great. He was! He won the oscar for best actor in a leading role. But Caan was my star.
Sonny was by far my favorite character. His volatile, out of control nature kept me enthralled the whole time. Even when he was doing terrible wild things, like beating up his sister Connie's abusive husband, I couldn't hate him...he was too good.
As I said above, Sonny's death scene was my favorite of the movie. I mean do I really have to say anything... (warning: not for the faint of heart)
Aside from Caan, there are of course other awesome things about this movie. For one there's the transformation of Michael Corleone (Al Pacino). He starts out as the reluctant youngest son of a mob boss, with little interest in the family business. His struggles to stay out of that life style come full circle with the last scene of the film...where he is named the new Don. In my opinion, Michael's struggle really is the story.
I also appreciate the connectivity that is present in the movie. You'll soon see how much I love when things connect within a movie, even the little things. The first scene has an undertaker asking Don Vito Corleone (Brando) to "deal with" the man who beat his daughter. He agrees, but tells him one day he may call upon him to do him a service. This service comes with Sonny's death. If you watched the above scene you saw how badly Sonny's body was destroyed. So, Vito calls the undertaker to help mend Sonny's body for the viewing. Everything matters, and I love it.
So, did The Godfather deserve to win? I think so. What do you think? Do any of you have any favorite scenes? Stay tuned for The Godfather Part II !
Fun Fact: Instead of showing up at the Academy Awards to accept his oscar, Marlon Brando sent a young native american girl to refuse the oscar on his behalf. Apparently he was very upset by the bad treatment of native americans....too bad it turned out she was just an actress. Check it out!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QUacU0I4yU
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