Dean's World

The Godfather & Other Mafia Movies

Dean

I've been re-watching the Godfather series of movies this weekend. They really are quite timeless, especially the first two. I find it interesting how practically every gangster movie or TV series since the first Godfather film shows its influence.

I'm also often struck by how obvious it is that, at least as portrayed in these movies, the Mafia operates pretty much exactly like the noble classes did during the medieval and especially feudal eras in Europe. Indeed, they seem a much more realistic portrayal of the way things were during those historic eras than much of what you see in so much popular fiction about barons and knights and dukes and princes and whatnot.

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jaymaster (mail):

Kind of embarrassed to say it, but I’ve never seen ANY of them.

I actually DVR’ed the original last week, and was hoping to see it this weekend, but didn’t get around to it yet.

I didn’t record any of the follow ups though. Are they worth it?

7.29.2007 7:03pm

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Dave Schuler (mail) (www):

Spoken like a true republican! Aristocracy is organized crime.

7.29.2007 7:13pm

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Dean Esmay:

Jay: The Godfather II is very, very good. Some argue that it's a little better than the first, some that it's not quite as good, but virtually all are in agreement that it's a great movie and a rare example of a truly great sequel.

Almost no one considers Godfather III in the same league as the first two, although most seem to agree that it's not so much a bad movie as simply failing to reach the bar set by the first two.

Dave: Yup. If you mean "republican" in the lower-case sense.

7.29.2007 7:23pm

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jaymaster (mail):

Thanks Dean.

I missed part 2 by a half hour tonight. Looks like it’s on Bravo next Saturday, so I’ll get it then. Part 3 is on tomorrow, so I guess I’ll go ahead and grab it too.

These 4 hour movies are space hogs. Looks like I need to do some deleting…

7.29.2007 8:44pm

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Dave Schuler (mail) (www):

Of course.

7.29.2007 11:30pm

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Chris Lansdown (mail) (www):

Did the mafia really protect the working class from attacks by other armed groups? Did it really administer justice, such as catching and punishing thieves who were plaguing the people under its care?

(I've never seen the Godfather movies; these are real questions.)

7.30.2007 9:47am

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Kristian H. (mail) (www):

I missed part 2 by a half hour tonight. Looks like it’s on Bravo next Saturday, so I’ll get it then.

Are these in the original Klingon? (I mean, uncut? Even though the language and gore was tame by todays standard, you really want to see the widescreen uncut version.)

I think a great case can be made that GF and GF2 are two of the handful of greatest Amercian Films. Honestly, I was stunned the first time I watched GF2 and saw a non-typecast Robert Deniro. Wow, he was great. Same with Pacino in GF.

7.30.2007 10:09am

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jaymaster (mail):

I'm pretty sure they'll be "semi-censored" on Bravo and AMC.

Maybe I'll have to break down and rent the f**kers....

7.30.2007 11:20am

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